5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.
These spirits and deities were worshipped by the many Native peoples of North America, from the Lakota to the Navajo and Iroquois. Their beliefs bind humans to the Great Spirit, to totem animals, and to balance with the land. Passed down orally, they survive in the Indigenous nations that endured colonization.
The Sun Dance gathered the Plains nations in fasting and sacrifice around the sacred tree. The Hopi dance with the kachinas, masked spirits of the rains, and the sacred pipe seals prayers and treaties — ceremonies still alive in today's nations.
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At a glance
Raven (designated Yéil among the Tlingit, Txamsem among the Tsimshian, Xhuuya within the Haida nation, and Dotson' Sa across northern Athabaskan peoples) is the paramount cosmological archetype, civilizing culture hero, and sacred trickster across indigenous nations of the Pacific Northwest Coast and Subarctic of North America. Far from functioning as a mere animal fable or whimsical folkloric caricature, Raven personifies the primordial transforming agency that catalyzed cosmic order out of primeval darkness, shaped the temperate rainforest shoreline of the Pacific, and established the vital ecological and cultural conditions for human existence. As extensively recorded in the anthropological monographs of John R. Swanton and Franz Boas, Raven operates through strategic trickery, shape-shifting transformations, and audacious cunning. In the most celebrated mythological cycle of the Americas—'The Raven Steals the Light'—the world was originally engulfed in absolute darkness because a wealthy, miserly chieftain guarded the stars, moon, and sun concealed inside carved bentwood cedar boxes. Yéil transformed himself into a hemlock needle in the freshwater spring used by the chieftain's daughter, was ingested, and was reborn as a doted-upon grandchild; weeping strategically, he persuaded the elder to release the stars and the moon, finally seizing the sun box in his beak and soaring through the roof smoke hole into the sky to illuminate the earth. In Haida traditions masterfully celebrated by artist Bill Reid, Xhuuya is also the discoverer and protector of humanity, coaxing the first frightened human beings out of a giant clamshell on the beaches of Rose Spit and guiding them to settle the islands. Within the living matrilineal sociopolitical system of the coastal nations, Raven constitutes one of the two foundational exogamous moieties (the Raven moiety, balanced against the Eagle or Wolf), defining heraldic crest entitlements, potlatch ceremonial duties, and ancestral lineage leadership.
9 min read · Reviewed on September 29, 2026 · How we research
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Sacred symbols
The black raven, the box of light, the freed sun and the totem pole
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Family
Parents
The Daughter of the Celestial Nass River Chieftain (human mother through whom Yéil is reborn) and the Primordial Creator Nas-caki-yel
Raven
Genealogy according to John R. Swanton, Tlingit Myths and Texts (1909, pp. 3–15, 80–85); Franz Boas, Tsimshian Mythology (1916, pp. 58–105); Bill Reid & Robert Bringhurst, The Raven Steals the Light (1984); Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Way of the Masks (1982)
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Sources and further reading
Primary sources
Swanton, John R., Tlingit Myths and Texts (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 39). translation: Smithsonian Institution / U.S. GPO, Washington, 1909. read
Boas, Franz, Tsimshian Mythology (31st Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology). translation: Smithsonian Institution / U.S. GPO, Washington, 1916. read
Studies
Reid, Bill & Bringhurst, Robert, The Raven Steals the Light. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1984. open
Lévi-Strauss, C., The Way of the Masks (trad. Sylvia Modelski). Univ. of Washington Press (Seattle/London), 1982. open
Name and epithets
The Tlingit theonym is Yéil (historically rendered in phonetic transcriptions as Yehl), designating both the common raven (Corvus corax) and the primordial cosmic entity who reordered the universe.
In the ancient sources
Tlingit Myths and Texts, 1909 CE. Authoritative primary ethnographic collection by John R. Swanton transcribing complete oral narratives of Yéil from elders in Sitka and Wrangell. Tsimshian Mythology, 1916 CE.
The myths
The Release of Daylight and the Shattered Cedar Chests. As recorded by John R. Swanton across Southeast Alaska, in the beginning of time the earth was enveloped in dense darkness and perpetual fog.
Worship and archaeology
Ceremonial engagement with Raven across the Pacific Northwest did not take the form of prayers to an external god, but was enacted through matrilineal kinship obligations, heraldic crest rights, and the reciprocal distr…
How the god was depicted
Raven iconography represents the pinnacle of classical Northwest Coast formal art (the formline style). On monumental red cedar totem poles, Raven is distinguished from predatory birds (such as eagles, whose beaks curve…
What scholars debate
. Within anthropological theory, Claude Lévi-Strauss established Raven as the classic exemplar of mythical mediation in 'The Structural Study of Myth' (1955) and 'The Way of the Masks' (1979/1982).
After antiquity
Raven has achieved international recognition as the preeminent visual and literary icon of Pacific Northwest indigenous heritage.
Did you know?
Ethno-ornithologists have correlated the mythology of the Raven with observed bird behavior: ravens in the northern forests regularly lead hunting packs of wolves and human hunters to big game carcasses in deep snow, wa…
Codex relic
Box of Daylight. The box in which the miserly elder kept the sun, the moon and the stars, until Raven stole it for the world.
The rest of this scroll is sealed
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