Origin of the Chilkat Blanket: My favorite part of this story was at the end, when the Raven goes into the sea and discovers Gonaqadet in an underwater cave, wearing the chilkat blanket. I think I might want to recreate a scene like this for my storybook to explain the lost city if Kitezh...maybe Reepicheep travels underwater and discovers something in a cave, or is with the people when their village is attacked, and so he sends an artifact with someone to be stored away in a cave, which then sinks underwater.
Origin of the Winds: Reading these Alaskan myths, I've noticed many of the stories in involve reindeer. At first, I thought this was kind of odd, since there are a lot more animals in the world than just reindeer, and I'm used to hearing stories of wolves and lions...then I remembered that in Alaska, reindeer are a lot more prevalent, and that the people who wrote these stories may have never seen a lion before in their lives. And so, they told their stories of the origins of nature from their own perspective. In the creation of wind story, a doll cuts holes in the east, west, north, and south skies, and out of the holes come reindeer, or different kinds of weather. I just think it's interesting that most of these people probably thought the world resembled Alaska, or whatever area they traveled from. But in reality, if anything like this story had actually happened, an elephant might come out of one hole, a penguin from another, and a cheetah from one. The world is so much more diverse than they might have ever imagined, but they explained things from what information they had.
The Land of the Dead: This story was kind of creepy...about a girl who's dead and whose grandfather comes to show her the land of the dead. The dead are referred to as "shades," and one man (or a dead cow?) lives his afterlife lying down in the grass, unable to free himself from the weeds because he pulled up grass while he was alive. I wish there was a little more detail or explanation in these myths to explain what exactly was happening, or describe more of the meaning behind the tales.
(Land of the Dead, illustration from Judson's book)
The Ghost Land: I really liked this story about a man whose wife is dead, and so he walks all day along the trail of the dead, ending at a lake where she and other dead people live. This part reminded me of the inferi from Harry Potter, and the whole story had a creepy, mysterious vibe. I like the idea of retelling the story and elaborating on some of the details and the ending.
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