Raven is a major figure in the traditions of the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian and other nations of the Northwest Coast, and he is both creator and thief, often in the same story and without contradiction.
The best-documented cycle is the release of the light. In the Tlingit version, Raven, Yeil, learns that an old man at the head of the Nass River keeps the stars, the moon and the sun in boxes. Raven transforms himself into a hemlock needle, is swallowed in a drink of water by the old man's daughter, and is born as her child. As a favoured grandchild he cries until he is given the boxes to play with, one at a time, and releases the stars, then the moon, then the sun, escaping through the smokehole. Haida tellings are closely related; Bill Reid and Robert Bringhurst's The Raven Steals the Light of 1984 is the best-known Haida-side rendering.
Versions differ substantially between nations and between families entitled to tell them. In several, Raven is white before the theft and is blackened by the smoke of the smokehole. In others the light is taken from a different keeper.
Raven is not only a story character. Among both the Tlingit and the Haida, Raven and Eagle are the two moieties into which the whole society is divided, determining descent, marriage and ceremonial obligation. To say someone is Raven is a statement about their family and their standing, not about their personality.
He is also selfish, greedy and frequently disgraceful. The stories are funny, and they are not morality tales with Raven as the hero. Accounts that present him as a solemn wisdom figure have flattened him.