Raven and his two slaves were fishing but caught only bullhead fish. When fog came up, they began paddling back to the camp. Suddenly a young woman appeared in the canoe. She was Fog Woman, the daughter of Chief Fog on the Salmon. Raven married her.
Fog Woman was skilled at basket making and made a finely woven, watertight basket of spruce root. Raven complemented her on it. ‘Watch what it can do’, she said. She dipped her hands into the fresh water in the basket and brought out a large salmon. Fog Woman dipped her hands into the basket daily, and fished out a salmon. Soon the fish drying rack was filled with rows and rows of dried and smoked salmon and the storehouse was full.
Raven boasted about all the salmon he had and this annoyed his wife. They quarreled fiercely and eventually Raven hit Fog Woman with a dried salmon. She ran out of the house and down to the beach, followed by her husband, who reached out to grab her.
But as he did so, she turned into fog. Then all the dried and smoked salmon left the storehouse and the racks and followed her into the sea, leaving Raven holding a useless bullhead.
Nowadays it is Fog Woman’s daughter, Creek Woman, who lives at the head of every stream, and it is she who brings the salmon back up the streams from the sea every year.
Quoted from “Native Americans: the indigenous peoples of North America” by Fiona Reynoldson, 2000.
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