Raven

Raven, also called Yehl, is the trickster character most often found in the Northwestern part of North America. Raven is generally portrayed as lazy, a thief, and a mischief maker. Erdoes and Ortiz say in their introduction to //American Indian Trickster Tales// that, "Among the Raven stories are found some of the most abstract and bizarrely plotted of all Native American legends. They seem to unfold in a realm of fantasy, total divorced from the so-called real world." In one Quileute tale, it is said that Raven started off as a man, but he grew feathers and flew far away to get away from an old woman who had cursed him because he stole her clams.



An excerpt from //American Indian Trickster Tales// //"**A Lousy Fisherman"**//**- Haida** "Yehl gives himself airs. He imitates the manners of those who are better and nobler than himself. He wants to be like them, but never succeeds. Yehl was hopping along the river. He saw many salmon swimming upstream to their spawning grounds. He tried to grab them with his claws, but could not catch a single one. He tried to dive down upon them and spear them with his beak, but could not do it. He is a very bad fisherman. He is a bad provider. His wife is always hungry, but not as hungry as yell, who is always ravenous, who can never get enough. Yehl said to himself: 'Why tire myself out catching these nimble, leaping salmon? It is hard work. Let someone else do it.' He hopped and flew to the river's mouth, where Eagle has his home. It took him quite a while to et there. He saw Eagle perched on top of a tall pine tree. He pretended not to see him. He pretended to be juts accidentally passing by. He sang loudly, 'Kaw, kaw, kaw,' in his rasping, croaking voice. Yehl was not a very good singer. He might not be a fine singer, but he was a loud one. He wanted Eagle to notice him. He knew that Eagle was a very generous person who would never let a wanderer pass by him without inviting the stranger to share a meal. It went as Yehl had planned it. Eagle heard Yehl's kawing and croaking. He looked down and saw the raven hopping along below him. 'Good day, friend,' Eagle called down from his perch. 'Come to the house the have something to eat.' 'If you insist,' said Yehl. They both went into the house. Eagle's wife was serving smoked salmon. It was delicious. Yehl wolfed down the food. He gorged himself. He stuffed himself so that his belly's weight made him unable to fly. He could not even hop. He had to take a long rest, digesting all this food, before he could finally take his leave. Yehl had eaten so much that he barely left a mouthful for his hosts, who were too polite to comment upon it. Saying good-bye, Yehl wanted to show Eagle what a big fellow he was. 'I, too, am a great fisherman,' he told Eagle. 'I, too, am generous. I invited you and your good wife to dine with me tomorrow. I shall also invite many friends. It will be a feast to be remembered for years.' The next evening the guests arrived, including Eagle and his wife. Yehl's wife already had a fire going, but the Raven had not caught a single salmon. All day he had tried to get one, without success. 'These fish are too fast,' he said to himself, 'they leap, and jump, and wiggle. How can one catch fish like these? I need a big, fat, and very slow one.' Then Yehl saw a whirlpool forming in the river, and below it a huge, dark fish who seemed not to move at all. 'That's the one for me!' cried Yehl. He dove down with all his might to spear this big salmon with his beak. But as he crashed into that huge, dark fish, it turned out to be a rock! It broke Yehl's beak and knocked him senseless. He floated down the river and would have drowned had Eagle not seen his mishap. Eagle swooped down, grabbed Yehl by the scruff of his neck, and carried him to safety. Back at his house, when Yehl came to, his beak hurt badly and he croaked with pain. His wife tied up his broken beak. The guests departed hungry, without having eaten even the tiniest bit of fish. Eagle remarked: 'I don't think Yehl is as great a fisherman as he claims to be.' Yehl's sense of self-esteem suffered for a while--but not for long."
 * < (Erdoes, Richard, and Alfonso Ortiz.p. 258-259) ||