Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Reading Notes - Alaska: The Land of the Dead, Reading B Extra Credit


·       A young woman died and then went to sleep after she died
·       Someone then woke her up and told her that she should not sleep because she is dead
o   She realized that she was in a grave box and that her grandfather was the one that woke her up
·       They both traveled back to the village, but the girl did not recognize it anymore
·       Once in the village, someone told her to go into a house
o   She enters the house and is promptly beat by a woman with a piece of wood
·       The woman ran back to her grandfather, and then he informs her that they are in the village of dog shades and what she experienced is what living dogs feels
·       In another village, they see a man that has grass growing through his joints
o   He can move, but he cannot get up
o   That was his punishment for pulling up and chewing grass stems
·       The grandfather disappears so the girl follows a trail to another village
·       There is a river blocking her path, which consisted of the tears of the people on earth that cry for the dead
o   The girl started to cry when she realized she couldn’t cross, which is when a bundle of straw floated down the river and gave her a chance to cross
·       The girl reaches the village, and she is lead to a house where her grandmother meets her and offers her water
o   The grandmother offers the girl a lot of things that are offered in the festival of the dead in Yukon
·       The girl’s grandfather was her guide because he was the last person she thought of before dying


Biya River. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Bibliography: This story can be found here. Story source: Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).

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