The Story
In the very beginning, the world was wrapped in darkness, thick and complete as a winter night that never ends. The animals stumbled about, bumping into trees and falling into streams. People could not find food or find each other. Everything was cold and dim.
The reason was simple and selfish. A great chief lived far away, and he kept all the light in the world locked inside three carved boxes in his lodge. He did not want to share it with anyone.
Raven, the greatest of tricksters, heard about the boxes. Raven loved light — loved the way it glinted on water and made the world sparkle — and he could not bear to see everyone groping about in the dark.
So he hatched a plan.
He learned that the chief had a daughter who came every day to a stream to drink. Raven transformed himself into a tiny, perfect seed and floated on the water. The daughter drank, swallowed the seed, and in time she gave birth to a baby boy with bright, mischievous eyes.
That baby was Raven in disguise.
He grew quickly, and the chief adored him. Raven-as-child pointed at the three carved boxes and cried and cried until the chief, who could deny his grandchild nothing, opened the first box. A shimmer of starlight poured out and filled the lodge. Raven clapped his little hands.
He cried again for the second box. The chief opened it, and soft moonlight spilled out through the smoke hole and drifted across the sky. The animals outside lifted their heads in wonder.
Then Raven cried for the third box with the most enormous wail he could manage. The chief, exhausted and devoted, opened it — and brilliant, blazing sunlight burst into the room.
Raven transformed back into his true shape, seized the ball of light in his beak, and flew straight up through the smoke hole and into the sky.
He flew to the middle of the heavens and released the sun, and it blazed out over the whole world.
The darkness was gone. Rivers sparkled. Mountains turned gold. Every creature on earth lifted its face upward and felt the warmth.
Raven, his feathers singed black from the brilliant light, called out once from high above — and then was gone. But the sun remained, and remains still.