K'etetaalkkaanee
Koyukon · demigod · Koyukon traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
K'etetaalkkaanee, 'the one who paddled among the people and animals,' is the great traveler of the Distant Time who journeyed through the country when animals were still people, setting the world to rights. In the narratives gathered from Koyukon elders he reduces oversized and dangerous animals to their present harmless size, kills or transforms man-eating beings, and establishes the order under which humans and animals now live. Sources differ on whether the traveler is a figure distinct from Raven or another telling of the same world-shaper.
Domains
- transformation
- world ordering
- travel
Powers
- reduce giant and dangerous animals to their present size
- establish the order of humans and animals
Epithets
- K'etetaalkkaanee — The One Who Paddled Among the People and AnimalsAttla, K'etetaalkkaanee (1990). (primary)
Sources
- K'etetaalkkaanee is the great traveler of the Distant Time who journeyed through the country setting the world to rights.: Attla, Catherine, K'etetaalkkaanee: The One Who Paddled Among the People and Animals (Yukon-Koyukuk School District / ANLC, 1990). (primary)
- Scholars and narrators variously identify or distinguish the traveler from Raven as a Distant Time world-shaper.: Nelson, Make Prayers to the Raven (1983), on Distant Time transformers. (secondary)