Fog Woman
Mythological Narrative
In Tlingit tradition, the daughter of Chief Fog-Over-the-Salmon who marries Raven and creates a run of sockeye salmon, then withdraws it and herself into the water after he mistreats her, explaining why salmon return to Tlingit rivers each year.
Scholarly Commentary & Evolution
## The story
In this widely told Tlingit story, Raven marries Fog Woman, daughter of a chief called Fog-Over-the-Salmon. She conjures a great abundance of sockeye salmon for Raven and his household, drying more than they can eat. When Raven strikes her in anger or disrespect, depending on the telling, she leaves through the water, and every dried salmon Raven had stored follows her back into the river. Tlingit tellers use the story to explain why salmon return to the region's rivers each year, and it is publicly commemorated in the Chief Johnson totem pole in Ketchikan, Alaska, which depicts Raven, Fog Woman, and salmon.
## A story still told
This is a living story rather than a closed text: it continues to be told by Tlingit families and represented in public Tlingit art, including totem poles raised well into the 20th century. This site presents it as such, not as a historical record with a fixed date of origin.
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Fog Woman.
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