Raven Story
This is an ancient story about how Raven brought the Sun, Moon, Stars, fresh water and fire to the world.
Long ago, near the beginning of the world, Gray Eagle was the guardian of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, fresh water, and fire. Gray Eagle hated people so much that he kept these things hidden. People lived in darkness, without fire and fresh water.
Raven fell in love with Gray Eagle’s daughter. In the beginning, Raven was a snow-white bird, and as such, he pleased Gray Eagle’s daughter. She invited him to her father’s longhouse.
When Raven saw the Sun, Moon, Stars and fresh water hanging on the sides of Eagle’s lodge, he knew what he had to do. He stole all of them, along with a brand of fire, and flew out of the longhouse through the smoke hole.
As soon as Raven got outside, he hung the Sun up in the sky. When the Sun set, he fastened the Moon up in the sky and hung the stars around in different places. By this new light, he kept on flying.
When he had reached the right place, he dropped all the water he had stolen. He dropped all the water to the ground and it became the source of all the fresh-water streams and lakes in the world.
Then Raven flew on, holding the brand of fire in his bill. The smoke from the fire blew back over his white feathers and made them black. When his bill began to burn, he had to drop the firebrand. It struck rocks and hid itself within them. That is why, if you strike two stones together, sparks of fire will drop out.
Raven’s feathers never became white again after they were blackened by the smoke from the firebrand. That is why Raven is now a black bird.