Chugach Legends

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Eyak Legends

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Eyak Legends
Compiled by John F.C. Johnson
In the 1930's, a team of anthropoligists, led by Dr. Fredericka de Laguna, came to Cordova to study the Eyak language and culture. They documented a comprehensive collection of Eyak Legends, which were compiled by John F.C. Johnson of the Chugach Heritage Foundation in the 1990s. The preface of this fascinating account is taken from the writings of De Laguna and her counterpart, Kaj Birket-Smith:

The following tales have been written down as nearly as possible in the language of our informants. Most of the stories were told to us by Galushia, prompted by his wife, Annie, from whom he had originally learned them. A few he wrote out for us. The stories which Annie told were rendered in Eyak and were translated by her husband. She told us she had learned them from Old Chief Joe. A few stories were obtained from Johnny Stevens and Old Man Dude. He unfortunately refused to tell the stories in Eskimo, which he spoke with a good deal of fluency, although Matrona Tiedeman offered to act as an interpretor for him. Dude informed us that all myths were supposed to be sung. After giving us his version of The Raven Cycle in English, he sang the same in Eyak. Unfortunately we were not able to record either the text or the music. Galushia also told us that all stories were supposed to be recited word-perfect, but he did not remember which ones were sung. He specified that the tale �Living with the Black Bear� was not sung. We have very little information about songs. We have mentioned the songs used in potlatches, the songs of the shamans and the derision songs. Apparently every person had his own song, but when these were sung we did not learn.