How Raven Taught the Chilkats
Tlingit (Wrangell)
Raven taught the Chilkats that there were Athapascan Indians. He went back into their country. So the Chilkat people to this day make their money by going there. Raven also taught the Chilkats how to make secret storehouses outside of their villages, and he taught them how to put salmon into the storehouses and keep them frozen over winter. That is how the Chilkats got their name, from toil, “storehouse,” and xat, “salmon.”
Raven also showed the Chilkats the first seeds of Indian tobacco and taught them how to plant it. After the tobacco was grown, he dried it and pounded it up with burned clam shells. The Chilkats made a great deal of money by trading tobacco with the Athapascans.
Afterward Raven went beyond Copper River to Yukatat. There he showed the people how to make canoes out of skins.