This necklace tells of Raven stealing the Sun, Moon and Stars to release them into the sky, and represents the brief moment of his transformation:

His feathers were white.
Not a flat white;
not the white of chalk or milk...
But a white that contained all colors.
A pearlescent white of shimmering beauty.

Without light in the world,
no one bore witness to his glamour.

The price he paid stealing
through the smokehole
with the Sun, Moon & Stars
was a permanent coating of soot.

Try as he might, the black would not
wash off, though he rubbed and
rubbed his body in the sand.
This burnished the black,
pressing it deep into his feathers, his skin.

The inner glow of iridescence sparked through;
glints of his past in the shine of the sun.

(This is an over-simplification of a wonderful story, worth reading more about. For more details on Pacific Northwest Native Legends, look into Maurius Barbeau's "Totem Poles, Vol. I & II" or Bill Reid's "Raven Steals the Light.")