The Tao of Raven: An Alaska Native Memoir

by Ernestine Hayes

In her first book, Blonde Indian, Ernestine Hayes powerfully recounted the story of returning to Juneau and to her Tlingit home after many years of wandering. The Tao of Raven takes up the next and, in some ways, less explored question: once the exile returns, then what?

Using the story of Raven and the Box of Daylight (and relating it to Sun Tzu�s equally timeless Art of War) to deepen her narration and reflection, Hayes expresses an ongoing frustration and anger at the obstacles and prejudices still facing Alaska Natives in their own land, but also recounts her own story of attending and completing college in her fifties and becoming a professor and a writer. Hayes lyrically weaves together strands of memoir, contemplation, and fiction to articulate an Indigenous worldview in which all things are connected, in which intergenerational trauma creates many hardships but transformation is still possible. Now a grandmother and thinking very much of the generations who will come after her, Hayes speaks for herself but also has powerful things to say about the resilience and complications of her Native community.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Indigenous, Native American, Biography, Biography Memoir, Cultural

174 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 12, 2016

Reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tao of Raven is the second memoir I've read by Ernestine Hayes because of Erin and Dani's Book Club in Instagram (the first was Blonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir)- this comes after her return home to Tlingit lands she can no longer access due to the Alaskan government's grabby hands. I visited Juneau in 2018 and wish I'd read this first, as I would have has a different perspective of myself as a tourist and also a deeper understanding of the raven imagery, which is seen everywhere, both in the art but also actual ravens.

The author's perspective as a grandmother thinking back on her own grandmother and what she taught her during a period of massive change is unforgettable. It is inside beautifully poetic writing about the natural world and its connections to the people originally living there.

ETA: So grateful for the Erin and Dani's Book Club, because the discussion today went a lot deeper than my quick read of this memoir. (4/10/21)

[L.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a tough book to read. It's difficult being white and seeing whites from a different perspective. Considering I've taught multiple native populations in Alaska, I was continually reflecting what I might have done to alienate my students. Am I as little to blame as Miss Caroline in To Kill a Mockingbird? Or does my race and privilege make me just as guilty? The book was well written, interweaving multiple perspectives.

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tao of Raven is a remarkable book. I’ve always been fascinated by indigenous peoples and I’ve always felt guilty about what “whites” have done to them worldwide. Being from a long line of uneducated, desperate sorts trying to eek out a living as farmers, I have trouble thinking my direct ancestors were oppressors, but they participated in a colonialist system. Earnestine Hayes, a native Alaskan, won’t let us off that easy. While a philosophical, spiritual memoir, this book presents a clear view of the poverty, alcoholism, and degradation that indigenous people have faced due to European capitalism and greed (often the same thing).

Using the legend of how Raven brought light to the world, Hayes offers a spiritual biography, sometimes fictionalized, to get at the truth. Colonialists destroy native lifestyles, making them impossible. Those who know no other way are soon outcasts in their own land. Not only do colonizers destroy livelihoods, they forbid the religions that help people to cope. All must be Christianity. Only Christianity. Some of us as we mature come to realize those childhood religious tales hid genocidal agendas.

Hayes, remarkably, retains hope. Belief in Raven. She became an academic, according to European standards, and lifted herself from poverty. Having done this, even as a white man, I know it’s not easy. This memoir is a revelation of the great and terrible cost that oppressors bring. As I note in my blog post Sects and Violence in the Ancient World, even as I was reading this book Trump was opening the Arctic Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. Like Hayes, I pray for Raven’s return.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There are moments that keep themselves in our memories: unexpected flashpoints of meaning we don't even recognize until the years, loves, worries have tempered the cloudy chatter of everyday concerns and have left only the brightest flashes: permanent, unchanging images that will most conspicuously blaze at that final, brilliant moment when our lives are said to pass before our diming eyes." - Ernestine Hayes, The Tao of Raven⁣
⁣
The Tao of Raven is a brilliant follow up to Hayes’ earlier memoir, Blonde Indian. It follows the same style of blending memories and stories, and leans also into profound reflections. I’d recommend reading Blonde Indian first to get a broader sense of Hayes’ life, and follow up with The Tao of Raven to plunge greater depths. I was struck by Hayes’ description of the role of religion in colonization, the harm done in coercively replacing of Indigenous language and spirituality with English and Christianity. ⁣
⁣
“I trace my family’s trauma at least to my great-grandmother Anna Willard, whose most significant trauma, as for so many in those days of the first colonial onslaught, was the loss of an Indigenous belief system in her conversion to Christianity. My understanding is that too many of that generation and the next fell victim to the first wave of what was to be the never-ending assault, the push to subdue, to convert, to oppress, to educate, to condemn. The first killing weapon was always the Good News.”⁣

I also appreciated her indictment of the propensity for non-Indigenous scholars to be elevated in academic institutions as experts in Indigenous culture, an awful lasting impact of colonization and white supremacy wherein those with the most knowledge are treated as having the least authority. Reading Hayes’ stories about being a grandmother made me realize that older voices are the exception not the rule in the memoirs I pick up (Hayes wrote this book in her early seventies) and I’m sure I do myself a disservice by not reading as much nonfiction by folks with the greatest wealth of life experience.

[Erin || erins_library · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tao of Raven by Ernestine Hayes was the March selection for @ErinAndDanisBookclub and the follow-up to Ernestine’s previous memoir Blonde Indian. And it made for a really compelling discussion with everyone, especially when comparing how Ernestine’s perspective has shifted since she wrote her first book. A big part of the book was the discussion of grandparents — her own grandmother, the grandfather in the Raven Steals the Sun story, and her reflections as a grandmother herself. I felt like I was learning lessons from my own grandmother, who passed when I was 3 and never got to know, as Ernestine analyzed the Raven story and discussed aspects of her own life. The book also expanded on the Old Tom/Young Tom story we saw in her first memoir in a completely new way, particularly with the Mabel character and white saviorism. It wasn’t something I thought much of in Blonde indian, but gave me pause in Tao of Raven. For me it points to the truth that our people don’t need saviors, which can in fact be harmful, but instead the work to heal is within ourselves.

There are so few fiction books written by Tlingit or Alaska Native authors (that aren’t children or picture books), and especially ones set in the place I live. And although I wouldn’t classify Ernestine’s books as fiction, considering they are memoirs of her life, there are aspects of it that I think read as a fiction novel. And for that I found this reading experience to be really meaningful and resonated with me. And I’m so grateful to everyone in the book club who read with Dani and I, and were open to learning. Especially reading and learning about a memoir format that may break the format of memoir you’re used to reading.

[Laura Hoffman Brauman · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I can only imagine myself as a woman who lives in the blurred space at the edge of the village and the edge of the Forrest. A place where people might walk by on their way to other destinations, where I might hear their distant voices and smile at the sounds of their laughter and their gossip l Where one or two friends might occasionally stop by to share stories or tea or silent suspenseful wonder at a deer or eagle that has crept too close to the uncovered window. “
Tao of Raven is Hayes second memoir, the first being Blonde Indian. While Blonde Indian featured more on her childhood, coming of age, and life as a young woman, Tao of Raven speaks/reflects on her return to Juneau at the age of 50 when she started college and became a writer and professor. This memoir is much more about wisdom and reflection and I found many moments in her to be profound and thought provoking as she speaks to her experiences living in two worlds.

[Fafa · Rating 5 out of 5]

started in bethel, finished in fairbanks, thinking about the two trips to juneau and meeting ernestine and learning about her life. is it strange to think about snow falling on cedars from the tones of this book?

[Elise Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rhythmic and lyrical, basically poetic, insanely beautiful writing and so much spirit and so much heart. Will make you want to cry. Lots to think about. 🖤❤️

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are not enough stars for the review ✨✨✨

[Amber P]

Exactly what I needed this week while writing my dad's obit. I feel quite seen. Representation matters.

[Care · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tao of Raven was such an interesting and beautiful interpretation of a memoir. It isn't what you would pick up when reading a celebrity or politician's memoir, it has a completely different format and purpose. Elements of conventional memoir remain, and we get to know Ernestine Hayes better after Blonde Indian and portions of this.

But I loved how this book served a bigger purpose than just telling Hayes' story, it told the story of the land and the communities. This is so philosophical and introspective and tells the story of Ernestine through the generational traumas of the Tlingit people. This, she says with no uncertainty, is a result of colonization, capitalism, and Christianity.

We meet some familiar faces from Blonde Indian but this could also definitely be read before reading that one. Old Tom made a reappearance and I love how she has created a fictional character to represent innumerable real people's struggles and experiences. I think this is creative and successful at communicating her message.

The word that comes to mind when I think of this book is wisdom. Hayes is a teacher. Hayes tells us stories and dissects them into moments of wisdom and clarity. From one story, she sees many lessons and gives this advice to the reader. I was fascinated with these portions; she imparts so much of her own voice and the voices passed down for generations. Many passages were flagged for future reference to return to this beautiful, undefinable book and absorb her words and wisdom again. All folded into the beautiful story of Raven bringing the sun, moon, and stars to the world. Below I've included a portion that I loved and which I feel captures the magic essence that this memoir gives us.



"Do you see the water at the top of the creek, at the top of the mountain that holds our town in the palm of its hand and seeks the shoreline that our own front doors face? Be like that water.

Be yielding like water.

Go along the easiest way always, always willing to go around something. Offer no resistance. Go the easy way. That's the best way to get where you're going. Remember that all things begin and end in water, just as rivers begin and flow into the sea. When forces oppose, victory will be kind to the one who crafts herself like water, to the one whose power allows her to yield.

Take Raven.

When he wanted the Box of Daylight, he didn't invade a village. He didn't storm a house. He found the easy way. He used water. He made himself small so he could get close to daylight with the least effort. This is what Raven did to achieve his goal."



content warnings: alcoholism and drinking, residential schools and their many forms of abuse, cultural genocide, child/parent separation, discussion of colonial trauma.

[James Estrella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ernestine Hayes (Tlingit) has written one of the most unique memoirs in the genre. Historical and philosophical insights are conveyed through the Raven figure in ways I haven’t experienced before—she bridges life writing, creation stories, and Indigenous historiography to expand the memoir. All the while, she does what the memoir usually does with an author’s experiences, and marries her life with the broader contexts of the world, including Juneau, Alaska and Indigenous knowledge traditions. The delivery of this world is inimitable. I will definitely have to reread this one again before the year ends. The craft and ideas behind this work leave you feeling a second read is needed (and wanted). I’m also left with the sense that there’s just so much that I don’t know, and likely never will. 4 stars, but really a 5. Selfishly, I just wanted it to be a bit longer. I’ve never said that about a memoir.

[Bill W]

I like that the Tao of Raven starts with a folktale, and a beautiful one at that. Unfortunately, the book is more mumble than memoir. It reads like someone talking to himself on the subway. I am simply unable to follow it.

[Evan Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

More Native stories just making my week! This was a bit more solemn, and less full of action but Tlingit stories! Made me so happy and I got lost in Alaska in these stories

[Celeste Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never used to read memoir. I also confused them with autobiographies - hint - they're not the same thing!

Thanks mostly to this book club, I am reading more and more memoir and it's amazing.

Tao of Raven by Ernestine Hayes is the follow up to Blonde Indian. Where that book was about her path back home to Alaska, this one is more reflective on her life in Alaska after she returned home at 50.

Her writing is still poetic and yet she brings more urgency when discussing cultural trauma. The passage about cultural trauma - honestly the whole book - should be required reading for white people. She says up front:

"Intergenerational trauma does not produce dropout statistics and suicide rates. [...] It is the people who perpetuate the trauma - those who come to save, to study, to educate - who produce the failure-ridden statistics, the suicide rates, and the damning reports of all those good intentions gone wrong yet again, good intentions paving freshly landscaped, bulldozed roads to hell."

Then she continues for multiple pages to eviscerate colonizers' perspective of what intergenerational trauma even is.

She also reflects on her life, brings back Old Tom & Young Tom to personalize the cycle of trauma more, and she draws parallels between these stories and the Tlingit story of Raven and the box of daylight. Including philosophy and advice in terms of how to live your life, how to be like Raven. Patience, compassion, defining your own path, letting go, sharing your treasures with the world are some of the lessons imparted.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think that categorizing this book as a memoir is a stretch. The author relates the impact that White people and their colonization of Alaska had on the loss of the Alaskan Native culture and way of life for the Indigenous people. She told of the many hardships that her people endured when their land and way of life was taken from them. It was eye-opening. However, to truly be a memoir, I thought it should have delved more into the life of the author and her personal experience.

I found the book to be confusing to read in places as it skipped from one thing to the next without a lot of continuity.

[Kiana Kade · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I really wanted to like this, and maybe I’m just not the right demographic and not the right type of reader (not as big on philosophy), but it felt choppy. However there are some seriously amazing lines in this book as well.

[Maryellen Dalberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thought provoking book. At times sad yet inspiring; poetic.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is honestly one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I have ever read.

[Cristina Hutchinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had some beautiful lyrical language but I struggled with understanding the different stories being told.

[N · Rating 5 out of 5]

You wouldn't know Hayes was referring to The Art of War unless you were already familiar with Sunzi's work, or unless you had already read the blurb for this book. This is one example of how Hayes characterizes Raven's story:

Do you see the water at the top of the creek, at the top of the mountain that holds our town in the palm of its hand and seeks the shoreline that our own front doors face? Be like that water.

Be yielding like water.

Go along the easiest way always, always willing to go around something. Offer no resistance. Go the easy way. That's the best way to get where you're going. Remember that all things begin and end in water, just as rivers begin and flow into the sea. When forces oppose, victory will be kind to the one who crafts herself like water, to the one whose power allows her to yield.

Take Raven.

When he wanted the Box of Daylight, he didn't invade a village. He didn't storm a house. He found the easy way. He used water. He made himself small so he could get close to daylight with the least effort. This is what Raven did to achieve his goal.

This, of course, is just one treat you get with this book.

Unlike the 'prequel,' The Blonde Indian, this book wasn't so much a memoir as a book of meditations. Hayes considers all of the ways Native Alaskans have been mistreated in their own land. She speaks of her own experience as a college student in her 50's, and then as a professor. In the end, she remarks how ridiculous it is that the university that hired her had had a white person with no experience with Native peoples or even Native literature teaching a course called, "Alaska Literature: Native and Non-Native Perspectives," a course that was eventually given to Hayes after the professor suddenly quit in favor of another position.

Unlike the 'prequel,' The Blonde Indian, this book focuses more on the women in Old Tom's family: Lucille (mother of Young Tom's daughter), Patricia (daughter of Young Tom and Lucille), and Mabel (white caretaker of Patricia and wife? of Young Tom). The story begins with Young Tom still alive, vowing to get sober, going through his accidental drowning, and finally Lucille journey to earning visiting rights (not officially) with her daughter and grandchildren. Unlike the prequel, it doesn't end with a death, but with Old Tom going to this party after having sobered up.

As much as Hayes criticizes Christianity in her work, it is striking that she uses an iconic image in Christianity in order to end Old Tom's story: Old Tom, who has become something of a hero in his community, invites the partygoers to bread and fish when they realized that they didn't have much. "Let everyone just sit down, Old Tom tells them. Let them sit on the logs and on the sand and on the grass. I have frybread here from last week. I have dryfish I've been saving for just such a day as this. There's enough for everyone, he assures them."

I am sure I missed SO much because of HOW much is packed into these less-than-two-hundred pages. But the struggle is so worth it. I hope to reread it someday in order fully digest it.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked it, though less so than Blonde Indian. Interesting reading this 2017 published memoir right after reading her 2006 published one. It’s not really a sequel as much as it is a redo of the first one, informed by an additional decade of living and having returned to Juneau to become a college graduate and professor of Alaskan literature and live to see her grandchildren begin to grow up. The plot points for both her and the Tom’s (and no, we still never learn who they are to her) cover much of the same ground with some new detail, some new info about her grandparent years, and some updated reflection.

I did like having the background from Blonde Indian to know some of the references she makes in this one that have more detail in that one.

I found Blonde Indian to have poetic language and a gracefulness of flow among the autobiography, biography, Tlingit history and culture. This one seemed more forced and more hard-edged, more direct language. Nothing wrong with that - and certainly born of rightful righteous anger at the multi-layered traumas white society has wrought on generations of Tlingit people whose birthright should have been the continuation of their culture and for them to have lived lives of acceptance and abundance - just not as enjoyable of a read for me (which is fine…wasn’t written for me).

I do think this is a good book for white people to practice not being defensive when colonial white people are shown in a negative light - even the white saviory ones trying to “do good.” Hear it, sit with it, accept it as the author’s and many other Tlingit (let alone other Native Americans or descendants of people who were enslaved or immigrants of color)’s truth.

[cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vacation book #7 - a 4.75 but happily rounding up for this beautiful, reflective, and lyrical memoir of a return to place and home - along with an indigenous worldview applied to today's Alaska, generational trauma inflicted by colonizers, as well as resilience and possibility. I adored this book and the author's voice and the ways that her use of the story of the Raven and the Box of Daylight was the ribbon of narrative that wound through her memories, her telling of historical truth. This was BY FAR my favorite vacation book and it had at least one strong opponent.

This book also continued to educate me and move me in my understanding of how white supremacist worldviews have effected and continue to impact native Alaskans. A very similar, yet altogether different, set of effects from the racism of the lower 48. Ernestine Hayes schools us all...

"The genius of colonialism is that it delivers immediate benefit to the people who designed the system, as well as those who are privileged by its unbalance, and it ensures long term dividends to to their children and grand-children -- the sort of dividends that arrive unacknowledged and unchallenged... No need to give any thought to the fact that a society constructed to send the message that one group is superior guarnatees that another group will receive the message that they are inferior. After all, if they can build a country on a foundation of genocide and slavery and call it the land of the free, they can certainly tell themselves that they have worked for everything they have."

[Andy Loch · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tao of Raven: An Alaska Native Memoir. Ms. Hayes has a powerful writing style. Each sentence is packed with exceptional visual and emotional matter. Some of the ideas expressed exploded and rained down upon me such that I had to put the book down. It weighed heavy on me to read her indigenous experience. At times, I felt I had stepped into her unfiltered stream of consciousness. It flowed lucid and full of cold reality.
She shines searing-white search light on all that she sees and experiences, from her own indigenous roots to the forces that shaped her growth. The stories she weaves bind myth, speculation, fiction, and truth into a rich tough read. The introspection of Raven's Tao and the deeper message for all of us created a mindfulness of my own fragile existence.
Tao, Taoism, in reality is less remorseful, less resentful... it sees past it's own sorrow to find peace, the way, in universal beginnings and ends that are never exhausted. Raven's story holds a potential blueprint, a path forward for those who have been oppressed and yet hold on. It left me wondering what part of the Raven's tale am I in?

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am giving this book 5 stars because it touches me in very personal ways, but I understand the challenges for many in reading this memoir. Yes, the book may seem to jump around, but for me it weaves both personal narrative, spiritual, and impact of euro-colonial on indigenous people but is speaks the authors truth. It touched me as I have survived multi-generational trauma and lived for a decade in Juneau and witnessed the displacement of Tlingit people.

The quote on the back cover of the book says it better than I will be able to: “This book is about life and all of its pockets of being. It includes the spiritual, the other Worldly beings, as well as the terrible history that continues to take place in our country. It is about aging at the same time it is about childhood. It is memoir placed within the context of a large and complex history of the people and of the earth..”

I read other reviews of this book and the surprise that several reviewers had for the pain felt by the author of white people’s impact to Tlingit and Native people in general. I’m not sure if those readers only read rosy biographies, but there are many histories of euro-colonialism that are well documented that can help understand the sense of loss felt by Alaska Natives and Native Americans.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This small book was a complex reading experience for me. The construction of the narrative is a fluid mix of memoir, fable and fiction which was challenging to follow at times, but also beautifully written with a lovely storytelling cadence. The history of white power and control is painful, but it is a history I need to know, I need to understand. As with "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates, my heart wants a coming together, a way forward, to ultimately emerge from the narrative. The alternative is so bleak. The story obliquely paints a picture of how we can bring the wrongs forward into a healthier future, but very obliquely. I finished much the same as I came into the tale, feeling sad and sorry about the treatment of Native American populations -- and helpless to right it. But still, the beauty and the heart and the complexity of human experience shines through this poetic piece of literature.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely powerful read. I enjoyed that the book is part biography/memoir and also integrates indigenous worldviews and lessons to live by including lessons about things like life purpose. For example, Hayes mentions that our ardor is important and that our enthusiasm for our endeavours must never decline. She also speaks of the importance of passion in life. I also appreciated her thinking on colonization where she mentions the phenomenon of non-indigenous peoples teaching about native issues from a non lived perspective. It can become a self fulfilling prophecy when institutions say that they cannot find a qualified Indigenous candidate. I am sad to see that this is a north American issue.

Great read. My copy of this book has several underlines and sticky tabs for future reference. I am also going to read other works by this author.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ernestine Hayes paints a vivid, and at times poetic, picture of life in Alaska as an Alaska Native. The stories she weaves, some biographical, others seemingly an expression of collective experience, push the reader to see the harm that colonization continues to cause to the Alaska Native community. Although at times heart wrenching, a consistent thread throughout is the perseverance and resilience of this community. Despite the obstacles they face, her protagonists are carried forward by their inner strength and the unbreakable ties of family. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is interested in learning about the Alaska Native experience or reading a wonderfully written memoir.

[Bob Rehfeld · Rating 5 out of 5]

My sentiments are similar to LC’s initial comment, this is a tough book to read.

The Caucasian reader and the author follow a parallel path. There is no changing the history of white colonization. Today we are both remnants dealing in our own way with the consequences of a botched intrusion. We can only move forward and seek common ground. Ms Hayes graciously gives us this opportunity. None of us is immune to the challenges of a long life but as we age we can try to find solace, make amends, empathize, help our children and grandchildren and respect Raven’s land and people.

[spookwrite · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way Ernestine Hayes manages to weave in Sun Tzu’s Art of War references along with her own perspectives on Tlingit culture is a sight to be seen. I’ve never read such pure, engaging prose. Each part flowed to the next and showed such complexity. Each paragraph was thought out and crafted with rhythm, purpose, and perspective.

I was wary on how multiple perspectives and formats would effect this pretty short book, but this is a shining example of how to tie your perspectives in with a general theme. It worked.