For Week 10 (only a few more weeks to go!), I'm doing Alaskan Legends for my unit of choice.
The first story I really enjoyed was The Origin of the Tides. There have been lots of stories that explain why nature works the way it does, but this was the first one I've seen that explained the tides, which I thought was super interesting! Basically, Qa (Raven) found a rock in the middle of the earth, built a house under it, and put a hole and door through it that controlled the levels of the ocean. When it was open, the low tide would come in. When it was closed, high tides were in. I thought this was a clever way to explain why the tides work the way they do since they didn't know about the moon controlling it at the time!
One thing I found curious as well was the fact that Raven is what I gathered to be their God character. In the beginning of the unit, he is described as a bird that can change into a man whenever he wants. It also turns out that Raven was responsible for creating everything, from the ground man walks on to the animals that live in the world. Kind of an interesting animal for them to choose as God!
I also liked Bringing of Light by Raven. For a while, only the light of stars lit up the northern land. The shamans tried to bring it back, but Raven (disguised as a young boy) mocks them and says he can bring it back easily. Raven found the reason there was no light in his village, and stole the ball of light from a man who lived alone in a hut. As he flew away, he broke off pieces of the light, mixing dark and light throughout. Again, this is a really interesting way to explain the ways their world worked. We now know why Alaska has long stretches of darkness and daytime, but that must have been really odd for them back then!
The first story I really enjoyed was The Origin of the Tides. There have been lots of stories that explain why nature works the way it does, but this was the first one I've seen that explained the tides, which I thought was super interesting! Basically, Qa (Raven) found a rock in the middle of the earth, built a house under it, and put a hole and door through it that controlled the levels of the ocean. When it was open, the low tide would come in. When it was closed, high tides were in. I thought this was a clever way to explain why the tides work the way they do since they didn't know about the moon controlling it at the time!
One thing I found curious as well was the fact that Raven is what I gathered to be their God character. In the beginning of the unit, he is described as a bird that can change into a man whenever he wants. It also turns out that Raven was responsible for creating everything, from the ground man walks on to the animals that live in the world. Kind of an interesting animal for them to choose as God!
I also liked Bringing of Light by Raven. For a while, only the light of stars lit up the northern land. The shamans tried to bring it back, but Raven (disguised as a young boy) mocks them and says he can bring it back easily. Raven found the reason there was no light in his village, and stole the ball of light from a man who lived alone in a hut. As he flew away, he broke off pieces of the light, mixing dark and light throughout. Again, this is a really interesting way to explain the ways their world worked. We now know why Alaska has long stretches of darkness and daytime, but that must have been really odd for them back then!
The Midnight Sun in Alaska, where it doesn't set for nearly two and a half months.
Credit: University of Alaska Fairbanks
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