Raven was walking along the beach, feeling lonely. The world was still new then and there was no one for him to play with as an equal; well, as nearly an equal as anyone could be to Raven. He thought people would be just the thing to have around so he continued to walk along the beach looking for materials from which to make people.

Of course the beach was stony so Raven piled up stones in the form of a human and commanded it to walk. The stones trembled and fell down. There were many sticks of driftwood on the beach. Raven tied some of them together with grass in the form of a human and ordered the figure to walk. The wood was too heavy for the grass with which it was tied, so after a few clumsy steps, the figure fell apart.

Raven continued walking along the beach, his wings folded behind his back, muttering to himself and thinking about his problem, until he saw some "chook", beach grass, blowing in the wind. Raven said to himself that the "chook" looked alive and moved exactly like he wanted people to move. So he tied some to have arms, legs and a head and commanded it to walk. It did, and this man made of beach grass became the first human.

Since then, Raven has had people to watch and to laugh at, to help and to play tricks on. All in all, it has made the world a much more interesting place for Raven... and for us.

This story is based on one told by Walter Williams to Wallace Olsen for his book The Tlingit. Williams did speculate that the reason so many "leaders" lean one way or the other, depending on which way the wind is blowing, is because they are descendants of "chook."