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Native Pathways to Education
Alaska Native Cultural Resources
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Yup'ik RavenMarshall Cultural Atlas

This collection of student work is from Frank Keim's classes. He has wanted to share these works for others to use as an example of Culturally-based curriculum and documentation. These documents have been OCR-scanned. These are available for educational use only.

 

 

 

 

 

Why Ravens Live around Villages

 

When Raven made people he gave them some rules to live by. If anyone broke his rules he would punish them or give them bad luck. One important rule was never to waste food. People always did a pretty good job of following that rule until one day a careless Eskimo hunter by the name of Qun came to a big Eskimo village called Takchak. He was always greedy to catch animals and every time he went hunting he always caught too many animals or non-edible ones just for the fun of it. The animals he didn't eat he would throw in the dump or anywhere around the village.

One day Raven was flying around Takchak looking for a good nesting tree when he saw carcasses of dead animals lying around without a bite taken from them for food. Raven got upset at this. He called the village people for a meeting in the qasgiq. During the meeting he asked who the person responsible for doing such a thing as this was. An elder said it was Qun. Raven waddled over to Qun and told him to stand next to him. "Are you the one that's wasting food by leaving the dead animals to rot?" Raven asked in a mean, deep voice. "Ahhh, yes,." Qun said, in a soft voice filled with shame. "Never are you to waste food again because next time something will happen!" Raven said and then flew out the skylight.

Qun obeyed Raven because he was afraid that Raven would give him bad luck. But after a while Qun got careless again and decided to kill a ptarmigan just for the fun of it. He killed it and hid it under the trunk of a tree without knowing that Raven had been watching him all along. Suddenly Raven swooped down from the sky and landed by Qun. Then he threw some dust on Qun's body and said, "I warned you and now you have to pay for what you did." Raven flew to all the houses of the village and told them not to give Qun any food even if he was starving or he would put a curse on them too.

A week went by and Qun was starving because he hadn't caught any animals since Raven had thrown dust on him. He didn't bother to ask the villagers for food because Raven had told them not to give him any food or they would have the same punishment as Qun. The next day Qun died, regretting that he had wasted all that food.

From this day forth Ravens still hang around the villages or their dumps to watch for anyone who wastes food.

By: Chris Fitka
Why Ravens Live around Villages

A Talk with Raven

- Lois Moore

How Raven and Wolverine Tricked Each Other

- Fred Alstrom

Why Ravens Live around Villages

- Chris Fitka 

Raven's Wife

- Carmen Pitka

Raven and the Old Woman

- Kathy Duny

Raven Makes Wind

- Darcy Kameroff

Raven Hunts for Rabbits

- Victor Shorty/Lois Moore

The Raven Creature

- Tanya Peter

Mary Jane's Encounter with a Raven

- Mary Jane Shorty/Maureen Fitka

Raven's Ornery Son

- Maureen Fitka

Profiles
of
Raven's
Family
Raven's
Yupik
Stories
Student Encounters
Raven's
Yupik
Stories
Original Student Folktales
Raven's
Yupik
Stories
from our community
Other
Raven
Yupik
And
Inupiat
Tales
Raven's
Athabaskan
Tales
Raven's
Stories
from
S.E. Alaska
More
About
Raven

 

Christmastime Tales
Stories real and imaginary about Christmas, Slavik, and the New Year
Winter, 1996
Christmastime Tales II
Stories about Christmas, Slavik, and the New Year
Winter, 1998
Christmastime Tales III
Stories about Christmas, Slavik, and the New Year
Winter, 2000
Summer Time Tails 1992 Summertime Tails II 1993 Summertime Tails III
Summertime Tails IV Fall, 1995 Summertime Tails V Fall, 1996 Summertime Tails VI Fall, 1997
Summertime Tails VII Fall, 1999 Signs of the Times November 1996 Creative Stories From Creative Imaginations
Mustang Mind Manglers - Stories of the Far Out, the Frightening and the Fantastic 1993 Yupik Gourmet - A Book of Recipes  
M&M Monthly    
Happy Moose Hunting! September Edition 1997 Happy Easter! March/April 1998 Merry Christmas December Edition 1997
Happy Valentine’s Day! February Edition 1998 Happy Easter! March/April Edition 2000 Happy Thanksgiving Nov. Edition, 1997
Happy Halloween October 1997 Edition Edible and Useful Plants of Scammon Bay Edible Plants of Hooper Bay 1981
The Flowers of Scammon Bay Alaska Poems of Hooper Bay Scammon Bay (Upward Bound Students)
Family Trees and the Buzzy Lord It takes a Village - A guide for parents May 1997 People in Our Community
Buildings and Personalities of Marshall Marshall Village PROFILE Qigeckalleq Pellullermeng ‘A Glimpse of the Past’
Raven’s Stories Spring 1995 Bird Stories from Scammon Bay The Sea Around Us
Ellamyua - The Great Weather - Stories about the Weather Spring 1996 Moose Fire - Stories and Poems about Moose November, 1998 Bears Bees and Bald Eagles Winter 1992-1993
Fish Fire and Water - Stories about fish, global warming and the future November, 1997 Wolf Fire - Stories and Poems about Wolves Bear Fire - Stories and Poems about Bears Spring, 1992

 

 
 

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Last modified August 23, 2006