My sisters and I were on a "Three Sisters, Ten Days, Oregon Coast Art Crawl" late one May when we encountered both this sun halo and this high-flying Raven on the same day. We took it as a remarkable sign of family ties through time. However, I was also reminded of the story I've heard in various forms from different tribal storytellers about how Raven stole the sun:

A long time ago, Raven was pure white, like fresh snow in winter. This was so long ago that the only light came from campfires, because a greedy chief kept the stars, moon, and sun locked up in elaborately carved boxes.

Determined to free them, the shape-shifting Raven resourcefully transformed himself into the chief's baby grandson and cleverly tricked him into opening the boxes and releasing the starlight and moonlight.

Though tired of being stuck in human form, Raven maintained his disguise until he got the chief to open the box with the sun and flood the world with daylight, at which point he gleefully transformed himself back into a raven.

When the furious chief locked him in the house, Raven was forced to escape through the small smokehole at the top ― and that's why ravens are now black as smoke instead of white as snow.