Tlingit

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This version of the Tlingit flood myth was recorded in 1835 or earlier.

Kit-ká-ositiyi-qa, the first person on earth, had several children by his sister, but he killed them to prevent mankind from multiplying. To punish the other inhabitants of earth for their misbehavior, he caused a flood. However, the people saved themselves in boats on the tops of mountains. One can still see the remains of those boats and of the ropes by which they were fastened.

Kit-ká-ositiyi-qa's sister fled from her cruel brother during the flood. She met a man along a beach who, hearing her story, gave her a small round stone to swallow and told her that she would bear a son whom nobody could kill. This boy was Raven. His mother bathed him in the sea every day and taught him to shoot birds. Once he killed a large white bird, and put on its skin, desiring to fly like a bird. He lifted himself into the air but soon tired, whereupon he cried, "I should have stayed with my mother." Immediately he found himself back in his house.

When Raven was grown, he asked for permission to find Kit-ká-ositiyi-qa and punish him. Raven found his uncle's home, sat on its roof until his uncle entered, locked him inside, and called on the waters to rise. He put on his wings and flew above the waters for a long time. Finally, his strength exhausted, he fell on a rock and lay unconscious for a time. This is the origin of all mankind's sickness.

Raven awoke to hear someone calling him, but he saw nobody. An otter on the beach said, "Sit on me, and I will take you to where you are being called." Raven accepted, and the otter carried him to a settlement. His mother and uncle were there, apparently reconciled. Raven became the tribal ancestor of the Kolushan clans.

Aurel Krause, The Tlingit Indians, trans. Erna Gunther (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1956), 177-178.

Yehl, the Raven, created man, caused the plants to grow, and set the sun, moon, and stars in their places. Yehl's wicked uncle had a young wife whom he was very fond and jealous of. He did not want any of his nephews to inherit his widow when he died, as Tlingit law dictates should happen, so he murdered each of Yehl's ten older brothers by drowning them or, according to some, by stretching them on a board and beheading them. When Yehl grew to manhood, his uncle tried to do the same to him. But Yehl's mother had conceived him by swallowing a round pebble she had found at low tide, and with another stone she had rendered him invulnerable. When the uncle tried to behead Yehl, his knife had no effect. In a rage, the uncle called for a flood, and a flood came and covered all the mountains. Yehl assumed his wings, which he could do at will, and soared into the sky. He remained hanging by his beak from the sky for ten days, while the water rose so high it lapped his wings. When the water fell, Yehl let go, dropped like an arrow onto a soft bank of seaweed, and was rescued by an otter who brought him to land.

Frazer, 1919, 316-317.

Raven returned to his birthplace and found, hanging in the house of his grandfather Nas-ca'ki-yel, the box which held the sun, moon, stars, and now his mother. Then he shot a whale and, when it beached, watched the birds which came to it. He did not like the looks of any of them. Finally, though, he shot a bird called cax and another large white bird with a copper bill. Then he went to the box containing his mother and released all the flickers which she kept under her arms. Nas-ca'ki-yel saw this and said, "All my pretty things are gone." He wanted to kill Raven then, so he told him to fell a certain tree. The tree fell on Raven but did not hurt him, because Raven was made of rock. Next, Nas-ca'ki-yel told Raven to clean a canoe, which closed on him when he did so. Raven just extended his elbows, breaking the canoe apart. Nas-ca'ki-yel sent for Raven again and put him in a kettle of boiling water. Raven changed himself into a rock and remained unharmed.

Now Nas-ca'ki-yel was very angry and said, "Let rain pour down all over the world." It became wet and stormy. People began to starve. Their canoes broke up, their houses fell in, and they suffered terribly. As the water rose in the house, Raven and his mother climbed to higher and higher timbers. Although it looked like a house, it was really part of the world. As Raven and his mother climbed the eight rows of timbers, the people climbed up the mountains. When the water filled the house, Raven's mother got into the skin of the cax, and Raven got into the skin of the bird with the copper-covered bill. The cax is a water bird and stayed on the surface of the water. Raven flew high in the sky and hung there by his bill.

After hanging there for days, Raven let go and prayed to fall upon a piece of kelp. He did so, and he found that the water had only gone halfway down the mountains.

Then Raven descended into the ocean, climbing down a long stick which a shark had been swimming around with. He went along, gathering sea urchins, and by and by he came to a place where an old woman lived. He said, "How cold I am after eating sea urchins." At first she payed no attention to him, but after he said it several times, she said, "What low tide is this Raven talking about?" When she said this over and over, Raven got angry and threatened to stick sea-urchins in her body if she would not keep quiet. And when he carried out the threat, she said, "The tide will go down if you don't stop." Raven continued, occasionally asking Eagle how low the tide was. He kept going until almost everything was dry. All kinds of sea creatures lay around where people could get them. They had enough from that tide to supply them for a long, long time. When the tide rose again, people were afraid there would be another flood, but it stopped at its usual level.

The shamans had predicted this flood. Those who had prepared for it by collecting food were saved, while the others were destroyed.

John R. Swanton, Tlingit Myths and Texts, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 39 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1909), 80, 119-121. Cf. Frederica de Laguna, Under Mount Saint Elias: The History and Culture of the Yakutat Tlingit, Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, vol. 7 part 2 (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1972), 844-849.

The Tlingits regard sitting for long periods in cold water as a way to become stronger.

A young woman lived alone with her brother. Her brother did not want others around, and she was very lonely. One day as she sat crying, she saw a small white egg-shaped pebble in a pool below her. She swallowed it thinking it would kill her. In time, she realized she was pregnant. She kept her pregnancy secret for fear her brother would try to kill the child.

After Raven was born, he grew rapidly. To keep him secret, the woman called upon the animals to raise him. Crane offered that he can stand in the water winter and summer alike, and he would raise the boy that way, so she gave the boy to Crane. Thus Raven grew into a strong an hardy youth.

When Raven returned to his mother, his uncle was angry and tried to kill him. First, the uncle caused a tree to fall upon him, but since Raven was born of a stone, the tree broke harmlessly over his head. The uncle tried other ways to kill him, but he was frustrated each time.

Finally, the uncle called the tides to come in. As the waters rose, Raven commanded the tides to stop, but his uncle's powers were stronger, and the waters kept rising. Raven shot a bird (similar to a sandpiper), put on the bird skin, and flew into the sky. There the Sun entertained him. (By one version, he married the Sun's daughter.) Then he put on the bird skin and flew down again, but the earth was still covered with water, and he had no place to land. Finally, he stuck his beak in a thick cloud and hung there until the waters receded. He prayed for a grassy spot to land on, let go of the cloud, and landed safely.

Garfield, Viola E. and Linn A. Forrest, The Wolf and the Raven: Totem Poles of Southeastern Alaska, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1948, pp. 15-16.

Raven had put a woman under the world to govern the tides. Once he wished to see the undersea world, and he caused the woman to raise the waters so that he might do so while remaining dry. He directed her to raise the ocean slowly so that people might have time to provision their canoes. As the waters rose, bears and other animals were driven to the mountaintops, and many of them swam out to the people's canoes. Some people had taken dogs into their canoes, and the dogs kept the bears off. Some people landed on the tops of mountains, building dikes around them to keep out the water. Uprooted trees, devil-fish, and other strange creatures washed past. When the waters ebbed, the survivors followed the tide down the mountain, but the trees were all gone, and the people, having no firewood, perished of cold. When Raven returned, he saw fish lying high on the land, and he commanded them to turn to stone. When he saw people coming down the mountain, he turned them to stone also. When all mankind had been destroyed, he created them anew out of leaves. That is why so many people die during the autumn.

Frazer, 1919, 317-318.

People were saved from a universal deluge in a giant ark. The ark struck a rock and split in two. The Tlingits were in one half of the ark, and all other people were in the other half. This explains why there is a diversity of languages.

Frazer, 1919, 318.

The father of all tribes, who lived in the east, was warned in dreams of a deluge. He built a raft on which he saved himself, his family, and all animals. They floated for several months. The animals, who could still talk then, murmured against him. At length they landed. The animals lost their ability to speak as punishment for their complaining.

Nelson, 1931, 183.