Frank Henry Kaash Katasse

The Woman Who Married the Bear is an adorable story about a woman who is out picking blueberries when she encounters a bear who has disguised himself as a man. The woman follows the bear back to his cave and they are married, but the bear warns her to never leave the cave. When she does, she realizes he is not a man, but a bear and her brothers come to save her. The bear will not hurt his brother-in-laws and in turn they respect him and his fur. The illustrations are beautiful, full or color, and bring life to the story. This story was engaging and was one of my favorite stories and I would use it as a read-aloud.
Alaskan connection: bears, Alaskan Native culture, foraging, harvesting, respect for animals
Activity: Discuss and explore wild foods, harvesting, and ways Alaskan Native culture respects animals… (más)

When two young children want to head out to gather berries, despite their grandfather's warnings not to do so, that elder tells them a traditional Tlingit tale from long ago, to illustrate the idea that rules often exist for a reason. The story follows a woman who, out gathering berries one day, disregards what her mother had always told her about leaving the night time for the bears, that they might also forage and eat. Picking until late into the evening, she only heads home as it is getting dark, and, not seeing the bear scat in her path, she slips and falls. Her anger at the bears - another violation of her mother's teaching, as she had been warned not to blame the bear in such a circumstance - leads to very unexpected consequences, when a handsome stranger steps out of the forest in front of her. Enchanted, the woman does not realize that this man is, in fact, a bear, and she follows him back to his home, where she eventually marries him. All is well for a time, until the woman's brothers track her down, and she herself, disregarding her promise not to leave her husband's lodge during the night, sees him and his family for the ursine beings that they are. Returning home to her village, after making her bear husband swear not to harm her brothers, the woman is given his fur by these same brothers, when they return from the hunt. Wearing this bear robe, the woman ever after sings of her love for her lost husband...

After recently enjoying Haida artist Janine Gibbons' work in The Woman Carried Away by Killer Whales: A Haida Story, I decided to try to track down other books that she had illustrated. The Woman Who Married the Bear: A Tlingit Story is another title, like The Woman Carried Away by Killer Whales, published by the Sealaska Heritage Institute, as part of their Baby Raven Reads program. A Native non-profit, Sealaska Heritage Institute works to highlight and promote the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of southeast coastal Alaska, and their authors and illustrators (at least, in the four books I have read thus far) come from those cultures. The author of this one, Frank Henry Kaash Katasse, is a Tlingit playwright, and his storytelling choices here are quite interesting. I don't think I have read very many folkloric retellings that contain a framing story, as this one does, but it certainly highlights the fact that such tales are often used as teaching moments. Clearly the Tlingit grandfather in the framing story doesn't want his grandchildren wandering off, perhaps because there are bears in the vicinity, and he used the story to show them the consequences of disregarding their elders. Although the tale here is sad, I enjoyed it, and I also enjoyed Gibbons' lovely artwork, which had that same stained-glass feeling to it, as her work in The Woman Carried Away by Killer Whales. The use of color and light here is wonderful, and some of the paintings - the one depicting the bear/man for the first time is my favorite - are simply breathtaking. I will definitely be tracking down more from both Gibbons and Katasse, as well as more titles from Sealaska Heritage. Recommended to young folklore enthusiasts, and to readers interested in Tlingit culture.… (más)