Our Voices: Native Stories of Alaska and the Yukon

Taatsaan’ Dzänh eh Ǫǫnign’: Raven and Muskrat Story

mary tyone Taatsaan’ Dzänh eh O ˛ o ˛nign’ Raven and Muskrat Story Raven left a spruce by the shore in order to catch some fish, and he [Raven] was bringing his wife over to that fish.1 He says to him, ‘‘Fish, your wife is sure pretty.’’ Fish jumped out from the water and struck him in his heart, and then he slipped back down into the water. He did that. ‘‘Fish, I wish your wife were as pretty as mine,’’ he [Raven] says to him. Fish jumped out once again. It struck him in his heart and then he went down as he had before. Finally, finally, Fish jumped way up and struck his heart. Then he [Raven] fell over backward, and he blacked out. There was a stick of wood on the beach that was blocking off the Fish. Then he [Raven] got back up, and he clubbed him [the Fish]. He was about to tell his wife, ‘‘Here, I killed the Fish.’’ He looked for her, but she was gone. He looked down below for her and across the way, but under the water those Fish People were carrying off his [Raven’s] wife. What should he do? He goes around the beach there, ‘‘What is this?’’ ‘‘How can I go under water?’’ he thinks. He goes to the edge of the water, to the lakeshore and the Frog also is sitting down below. He went up to the Frog. ‘‘How do you go under the water?’’ he says to him. He [Frog] took a cane and he lifted up the water for him [Raven]. The water raised up a little and, ‘‘A little higher, let me look back underneath there,’’ he says.  Upper Tanana Across and out in the middle the Fish People were staying with his wife, and he asked the Frog, ‘‘How do you go around during the winter?’’ ‘‘I go inside the ground when it gets winter on me,’’ he tells Raven. Later outside he picked some fluff on top of the fireweed for him, and after he made his [Frog’s] nest in the ground, he said, ‘‘I made you a house, so lift up the water for me.’’ Saying this, he lifted up the water for him. The spruce and the willow would become the plants that grow in water. And he [Frog] gave them to him [Raven]: ‘‘water leaf,’’ ‘‘underwater spruce,’’ ‘‘round foot limb,’’ ‘‘cut-out foot pattern,’’ and ‘‘muskrat candy.’’ He lifted up the water for him, and he went under the water again. And he went back upland where his wife is staying, and they [the Fish People] are keeping the Muskrat as a slave. Those Fish People had hid his wife away, and the Muskrat was chopping wood in order to cook. So he hexed the handle of the stone axe, and the axe handle broke in two. Due to this the Muskrat cried. So he went up to him, that Raven. ‘‘How come you are crying?’’ he [Raven] said to him. ‘‘I broke the handle of this axe [Muskrat said]. Due to this they will treat me really badly. They may try to kill me for what happened,’’ he says. ‘‘Well, I’ll fix it. I’ll repair the axe handle for you’’ [Raven said]. He [Raven] said to him, ‘‘Do you see someone else with them?’’ ‘‘Someone different is staying with them’’ [Muskrat said]. ‘‘What did they do?’’ [Raven asks]. [Muskrat said] ‘‘When I started to cook something, the soup would spill on the fire, and they would run outside there and then the water evaporated away, and they [the Fish] came back in, and a while later the one who was staying with them [Raven’s wife] came back in after them.’’ So he says to Muskrat, ‘‘I’ll bring you back. You will come back with me; they took my wife. You can look after me and I will get back my wife. After you cook you should first pour a little soup on the fire, and then after they come back in, you should pour really a lot of soup on the fire,’’ he [Raven] said to him. mary tyone: raven and muskrat story  He [Raven] is hiding beside the house, by the side of the Fish’s house. And he [Muskrat] spilled a little soup on the fire. They ran out and then they went back in...