Haida Legend
How Chipmunk Got His Stripes
By
Hartley

One morning Chipmunk had no stripes. He went to Raven and complained that he was tired of just being brown and he wanted to be able to hide.
Raven was the most powerful animal on earth and in all eternity. He could change animals and what they looked like. For example he made an old man into a raccoon.
Fox injured Raven in a previous battle. Raven told Chipmunk that if he got rid of Fox he would get stripes. Chipmunk went to the spirits' special place and summoned the spirit of the Chief Of Foxes. The Chief Of Foxes said to Chipmunk, “ Make Fox move to Alaska.'' Then the Chief of Foxes vanished into thin air.
Chipmunk was all alone so he went home to his family to think of a plan to make Fox move to Alaska. The plan was that he would dress up like Raven and banish Fox from the Queen Charlotte Islands to Alaska. Chipmunk set off to make his plan to come to life. He gathered blackberries and leaves to make his disguise. He chewed on the leaves to make them look like feathers, then he took the berry juice and painted the leaves black. Then he took a cedar bark cape and painted it black. He took spruce gum and glued the leaves onto the cape to make it look like he was Raven then he carved and painted a mask to make his head look like Raven's head. He melted sapphires to get the paint for the feet.
Chipmunk went to where Raven always watched Fox at the beach. Chipmunk was on the cliff and spotted Fox and banished him. He went to Raven and told him he banished Fox. Raven gave him four stripes, two black stripes on his back and one white stripe on his back and one white stripe on his stomach.
And that is how Chipmunk got his stripes.