In Tlingit tradition, the daughter of Chief Fog-Over-the-Salmon who marries Raven and creates a run of sockeye salmon, then withdraws it and herself into the water after he mistreats her, explaining why salmon return to Tlingit rivers each year.
In this widely told Tlingit story, Raven marries Fog Woman, daughter of a chief called Fog-Over-the-Salmon. She conjures a great abundance of sockeye salmon for Raven and his household, drying more than they can eat. When Raven strikes her in anger or disrespect, depending on the telling, she leaves through the water, and every dried salmon Raven had stored follows her back into the river. Tlingit tellers use the story to explain why salmon return to the region's rivers each year, and it is publicly commemorated in the Chief Johnson totem pole in Ketchikan, Alaska, which depicts Raven, Fog Woman, and salmon.
A story still told
This is a living story rather than a closed text: it continues to be told by Tlingit families and represented in public Tlingit art, including totem poles raised well into the 20th century. This site presents it as such, not as a historical record with a fixed date of origin.
Source Notes
These records lack edition and translator details. Their wording has not been verified as a direct quotation.
A Tlingit telling of Fog Woman's marriage to Raven and the origin of the seasonal salmon run.
Worship & Cult
How Fog Woman was venerated in ancient times
Worship Practices
The story is memorialized publicly in Tlingit totem-pole art, including the Chief Johnson pole in Ketchikan, Alaska; this site does not describe any restricted ceremony connected to Fog Woman.
