This was posted on several Facebook groups this morning:
WHEN RAVEN WAS KILLED
Athabascan Story
Raven had played so
many tricks on mankind for so long that one day a great chief decided to
kill him. The chief invited Raven to visit him and when the black bird
wasn't watching, he quickly threw him into a large skin bag which he
tied tightly shut so that the troublesome bird would not escape.
Then, with the large bag over his shoulder, the man began to climb a
very high and steep mountain which was close by the village. It was very
dark inside of the skin bag so Raven could not see anything. He asked
the man what he was doing, but the chief ignored him.
As the chief climbed higher and higher, Raven spoke out again.
"Where are you taking me?" he asked.
The chief just kept on climbing.
"I can tell that you are climbing a mountain," insisted Raven. "Why are you carrying me there? What are you going to do to me?"
The man ignored him still and continued to climb.
Raven warned the chief that he would be sorry if he killed him, saying that bad things would befall his people.
When the chief was on top of the mountain he threw the bag with the
Raven over the side. As it fell, it struck the side of the steep cliff
and ripped open. Raven was torn to pieces by the jagged rocks as he
crashed to the ground far below. The chief had killed Raven!
When the chief returned to his village, he showed the people the pieces
of Raven so that they knew what he had done. All of the men called him a
great chief for killing the mischievous trickster. For several days the
villagers were happy and they celebrated.
Finally, though,
some people started to notice that all of the water was gone. They went
to the river, but it was dry. They went to a lake, but it was empty.
There was no water to be found! Then the people began to get thirsty.
They knew that they could not live long without water.
The
people asked why the water had vanished and a shaman told them that it
was gone because the chief had killed the Raven. Now the villagers were
not happy that Raven was dead and they wanted him back before everyone
died.
The shaman told the chief that he had to put Raven back
together. The chief took all of the pieces of the dead bird and put them
together again. When he was finished Raven came back to life! He jumped
up and started to fly away, but he first asked the chief why he had
brought him back to life.
"All of the water has gone," the chief replied, "and only you can return it."
Raven flew up higher and then spoke to the man, "Look around you, there is water everywhere."
The chief turned and saw that the lake was full and that the river ran
deep and fast again. As Raven disappeared in the distance, the chief
promised never to try to kill Raven again.
Because of his powers and role in their heritage, Natives do not kill ravens.
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