81

Then go in his boat. That boat can go anywhere. The land where her father and mother are.

"Go up and see you father and mother. and if you want. you can come back. I 11 wait. but if you
don't come back. 111 leave."

She goes to them. But she tells them, "I want you people to welcome him." So they did. and
they live happily ever after. Those people accept them. Five years later. she's back.

82
,
"The Fust Potlatch .
by Mrs. Rachel Dawson

The first potlatch started with Crow girl down in Haines. She find little worm out in the woods
and she keep it. and it grow. She nurse it too, they say. with her breast. And it grow big. And
pretty soon it was dangerous. It started to be big and danger when she's going to let it go. She
talk to it too and it understand her. She always go down there in the house (where she keep it)
and it started to smell funny.
(Moiety Crow; location Haines; Culture group Tlingit; animal worm; larger animals pose threats to humans;
relationship between mother and child, and human and animals; emphasis on smell people need to keep
clean)

So her brother said. "Gee people start to notice our house. Everytime my sister open the cellar it
start to smell awful. She don't let nobody go down there too. Smell bad."
(brother notices peculiarities; she has a secret and is not communicating with her family)

That snake. I guess he pee too. just like people. ( worm is like a snake)

"Every time she open cellar door I always notice it and she close it quick. ., When she go down
there he listen to it. And she talk, she talk to herself down there. Then he said to his five
brothers. "She must got something down there. A person can't be like that. I can't go down to
.
the cellar talk to myself for a long time. .
(flve brothers)

His older brother said. "Why can't we fool here, let her go away someplace?"

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(brothen plan to distract her; family relationships allow memben to understand each other)

"She never go away," they say. " She stay home all time."
(one's habits are more noticeable)

She watch that snake, see. One day her younger brother say. "Tomorrow you go down there, see
grandma. See if she want anything done."
(subtle suggestion)

Here grandmother was sewing gopher skin. Must be from Yukon I guess. This happen down in
Haines, Alaska, this story. Her stitches are fine too. Got to be just fine when you sew gopher
skin, so it don't pull apart. So she's doing that. helping her grandmother.
(material culture gopher skins must be sewn with fine stlches due to type or skin; Yukon First Nations sew
gopher skins; Note relationship between Yukon and Alaska First Nations; )

"Here, I can't see," she said, "I'll take it home with me," she tell her grandma. Her grandma
say, "No, I got to guide you. I want it done well. I don't want it done just any way."
(the grandmothers role is to provide wisdom and teach granddaughters how to work well; emphasis on
perfectlon or skill)

So she want to go home, she want to go home. Her grandma said, "What you got at home
anyway? You never come see me or never do anything around here for me for a long time.
What happen to you?''
( emphasis on the young girl's impatience; characteristic or adolescents; a young girl is responsible for taking
care or her elders)

84

She said, "Nothing. I just don't want to go round," she said.
While she sew that thing, the boys look down (the cellar) and they see two shiny things down
there with two eyes you know. Snake eye! So they go down there and they look at it. It move
around so they get ready.
"I'm going to let it out," he say.
That youngest brother he say, "You stand this side, you stand here." The cellar open and it
crawl up. As soon as he get there they make stick like that (forked) and they poke his neck. His
older brother kill it. That thing scream -- it make funny noise -- it scream, they say. She hear it,
that girl.
(emphasis on the relationship between younger brother and sister girls were not allowed to directly address
older brothen; younger brother gives the instruction; brothen and sisten who are born closer to each other
have a greater bonding than those brothen born fint; generation gap?)

"Oh," she said, "my son, ah hyeet." She run home and sure enough, he come out of the cellar
and he's dead. She go on top of him and she hold him, she cry.
(a common expression ah hyeet; emphasis on woman/child relationship she recognizes his scream)

Then she said, "You people, you take first button blanket you got around here. You wrap it up
good. You make a box for it, put in there and you bury it good." She said, "The reason why I
raise this thing is because when somebody go Inside" -- they call it inside here, this Yukon -­
"when somebody go Inside they never come back. They always get killed, something like that.

85
They said lot of our friends got killed. They never come back. They always get killed,
something like that. So I raise this thing. I talk to him. He know you people were his uncle. I
know because when I go down to see him he understand me." She cry. She said, "I want you
people to make potlatch for him."
{potlatch Instruction; burial practices; she emphasis relationship between Yukon/Alaska First Nations; war
between groups; 1r a person killed another, that moiety had to be responsible for retribution)
That's how first potlatch started, you see, first time. That Indian lady, Crow lady, first started.
(Crow initiates potlatch ceremony)
,
"You· invite all the Wolf people," she said. "and you make party for him . . So they did. And
that song she made, that's the ones those Indians all sing. They didn't sing it last night. They
should sing too, but they didn't.
(Moiety responsibilities; matrillneal system her son (worm] ls Crow; Songs ofmoumlng)
"I hear my son, I hear my son cry... She finish that song like that, and every time she think about
him. I guess, she sing that song. When they make party she sing it and she say, "All you Crow
people, Wolf people, you got to use that song." That's what she tell them after.
(songs are mnemonic; record or events; songs given ror others to use)

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GLOSSAR

Culture
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F'irstNation
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Metaphors
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