Raven and the Rock

A girl marries a whale, and her story reminds the Siberian Yupik about humans’ relationship with the animals who sustain them. A reindeer herder spends the winter in a bear’s den, and his story shows the Chukchi how despair can become courage. For centuries, native Chukchi and Yupik elders in Chukotka, the northeasternmost part of Siberia, have spent endless winter nights recounting tales of the trickster Raven, of how people and places came to be created, of evil spirits and sorcerers, of tr…