First man emerges from a pea pod that raven plants, then raven creates animals like mountain sheep and reindeer for hunting. Lastly he makes a woman for the man who came from the pod. Creation makes raven a very powerful figure but he seems mostly benevolent rather than malicious at least at the moment.
He teaches man to make houses that are strong like beaver's and to use muskrat skin as clothing. He makes bear as a warning not to over-hunt and respect ferocity in nature. He also makes important tools like nets, bows, and arrows from sealskin.
The a-mi-kuk is a really interesting monster and I'm considering abandoning the rest of the myth just to write something about this monster. I love the whole "not being able to escape thing" although I already have something similar with another myth I wrote. I'll ruminate on this.
Now, reindeer kill and eat men for being overpopulated and killing off too many animals. That's kind of weird since reindeer are herbivore but it describes "wolf-like teeth." In order to keep from being eaten, the townspeople set out a bunch of very sour berries. The deer eat them and shake their heads so hard (from the sour?) they loose their sharp teeth. Could capitalize on this in combination with the a-mi-kuk for a monster story.
Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911)
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