Tlingit and Haida Traditioncreationabout 2 min
Raven and the First Men
Walking alone on the beach at Rose Spit, Haida Gwaii, Raven finds a giant clamshell full of small frightened beings and coaxes them out to become the first Haida.
An editorial retelling
The story
A Haida telling, and a sculptor's retelling
This story appears in John R. Swanton's Haida Texts and Myths (1905) as a short supplementary text that Franz Boas obtained from Charles Edenshaw, chief of the Stᴀ′stas at Masset. Edenshaw was also a celebrated carver, and his earlier miniature of the scene is what the Haida artist Bill Reid drew on when he carved the monumental sculpture The Raven and the First Men from laminated yellow cedar between 1978 and 1980; it is held at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Reid's version is itself a public, widely seen retelling of Haida tradition, not a departure from it, and this narrative draws on both his and Swanton's versions.
The clamshell
Raven, walking the beach alone at Rose Spit on Haida Gwaii after a great flood has receded, notices an enormous clamshell lying in the sand, and from it come small sounds. Looking closer, he finds it full of tiny beings, the first humans, crowded together and afraid to come out into his strange new world.
Coaxing them out
Using his voice, by turns coaxing, teasing, and persuading, exactly as Raven persuades and tricks his way through every other story told of him, he convinces the beings to leave the shell's safety. Some hesitate at the edge; others emerge readily, curious about the wide world of sea, sky, and forest Raven describes to them. Once out, they become the first Haida people, beginning their life on Haida Gwaii.
The Sculpture
Reid's work, about two metres tall, shows Raven perched on a half-open clamshell with the small figures squeezing out beneath him, some eager and some afraid. It was unveiled in 1980 in its own rotunda at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, where it remains, and it appears on the reverse of the Canadian twenty-dollar note issued from 2004. Reid and the poet Robert Bringhurst later retold the story in The Raven Steals the Light (1984). Haida tellers tell of the first people in more than one way, and this is one of those tellings, not the only account of Haida origins.
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Highlights
Raven finds a clamshell full of small frightened beings on the beach at Rose Spit and coaxes them out into the world, where they become the first Haida.
Why it matters
A Haida account of human origins on Haida Gwaii, brought to wide public attention through Bill Reid's sculpture at the Museum of Anthropology, and told by Haida people as living tradition.
Quick answers
- What is the story of Raven and the First Men about?
- Walking alone on the beach at Rose Spit, Haida Gwaii, Raven finds a giant clamshell full of small frightened beings and coaxes them out to become the first Haida.
- What themes does Raven and the First Men explore?
- The atlas lists these themes for Raven and the First Men: curiosity overcoming fear and Raven as a maker of the world through persuasion rather than force.
Sources and further reading
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Works cited
Haida Texts and Myths, Skidegate Dialect
John R. Swanton · Supplementary text obtained by Franz Boas from Charles Edenshaw (Masset), printed after the House-point families' story (note 657)
The Raven and the First Men (sculpture)
Bill Reid, drawing on Charles Edenshaw's earlier carving
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