The Northern LightsAn Iñupiat Story

By Eli jah Kakinya

Now I shall tell Qasuniq’s story about the northern lights up there, a story made about one of the people living here a long time ago, a story about them.

A long time ago there were people living in a big village, probably here at the head of the KilliqRiver. They used to remove the children’s teeth when a tooth became loose. A child’s teeth would become loose when the child was five years old. Then they used to remove the child’s teeth. Or when they were four years old, the children’s teeth would become loose, their milk teeth. They used to remove the teeth when they become loose.

Among the people living in that big village, there was a girl. Her teeth-she was four years old and one tooth had become loose, but her parents didn’t pay attention to that tooth, a canine tooth, so they didn’t remove it!

Although all the people watched their children and removed their teeth, the parents of that girl didn’t watch their daughter and that one tooth of hers, her canine tooth. Then it wasn’t loose any more. Then they were unable to do anything to it, for there were no white men

around, no forceps, so when it tightened, they left it there.

That woman grew up, and her canine tooth came out through her upper lip. When she got married and became able to work, she used it to twist thread on, tying sinews to her canine tooth. When she made lengths of sewing thread, she always tied them on and used her tooth to twist them on.

Those people used to hunt and trap, setting snares for caribou, and hunting in kayaks, and with corrals; they made a living in every possible way. And that woman set out with her child on her back. While she was busy putting the snares in order, having left her husband behind- that was how they lived-she went to the ptarmigan snares.

As she was taking her snares and what she had caught, as she was removing the snare from the tenth ptarmigan, suddenly a hot, feverish feeling came over her! She suddenly felt hot, just as when we get a fever. The fever came over her as she was taking the tenth ptarmigan. She made holes in their wings with a little awl of marrowbone, and she had a thing for them. Stabbing them between the wings, in the bones, she packed them under the child on her back.

When the fever suddenly came over her, she thought, “What’s happening to me?” Just as she was about to pack up her ptarmigan, the northern lights got her. The northern lights got her and rose with her! The northern lights had many people who played football. They played football with a human head that smiled whenever they kicked it! They were many and used to play football and have a good time, many of them. Then the people of the northern lights scooped her up from here; they took that woman to be one of them. When her relatives followed her tracks to the snare, having become worried about her, at one of her snares, the tenth one, her tracks ended.

Some time afterward, a very long time afterward, a man was checking his snares, one of those people, a man. Taking the ptarmigan he had caught, he pierced them in the same way in the wing and packed them, using a little awl of marrowbone. While he was doing this, a hot feeling all of a sudden came over him too! As he was getting the fever, he thought, “How strange! What’s happening to me?” and looked upward. Look! The northern lights were just about to seize him! Then he suddenly recognized that women with her pack of ten ptarmigan, with the sinew-twisting tooth! “Oh, there’s that woman, right there!” He gave a start at that, recognizing the one with the tooth like a little horn to twist on. “Too bad that both of us, I and my kinswoman

with the twisted tooth, should be taken up there in the sky! If they take me, our people will have no one to tell about us,” he thought with apprehension. Becoming anxious, he got into the dirt gathered by the wind, falling on his belly into a little hollow in the wind-gathered dirt.

When the football players had come upon him unawares, and he realized it and recognized the woman with the sinew-twisting tooth, he abruptly crouched down into that dirt. They felt regret right away: “Alas, we didn’t get that one! We let him get stuck in the dirt,” they said. That woman burst out, “Alas, you didn’t hold onto the only one I’d be happy with!” So the woman said, but he thought, “If both of us are taken, my kinswoman and I, our people won’t know what has become of us, so for me, let me not be taken. I’ll tell about that kinswoman of mine to her relatives, to her siblings and her husband, telling them that I have seen her.”

And the woman, shouting, “Alas!” was becoming inaudible. “Alas, you didn’t hold onto the only one I’d be happy with!” she shouted, but that man too wanted to be safe and to report back. He wanted to return to his relatives in order to tell the real story of the one with the sinew-twisting tooth.

When the northern lights were gone, he looked for her, after the northern light had disappeared; then he started homeward with his ptarmigan packed on his back.

Then he arrived with something to tell: “I’ve seen that kinswoman of mine. The northern lights took her, and they also have a human head, and it smiles whenever they kick it. That’s how they have fun. The northern lights took that kinswoman of mine away, they took possession of her. I was on the point of being taken too, but I really wanted to tell the story about her. To avoid being taken, I hid in the dirt gathered by the wind.”

That’s the end of the story.

Story from Nunamiut Unipkaaŋich: Nunamiut Stories, told by Elijah Kakinya and Simon Paneak, collected by Helge Ingstad, edited and translated by Knut Bergsland, illustrated by Ronald W. Senungetuk

Legend of the Aurora BorealisAn Iñupiat Story

By Emily Ivanoff Brown “Ticasuk”

Late one evening, a boy invited his younger brother to watch the kiguruyat (northern lights) play football. He led his brother farther away from their igloo and they both sat down in the shadow of a willow. “You must not whistle or talk loudly, Tusuk. If you do, they’ll come down to us very quickly and they might lift us upward,” he warned his brother.

“OK, now tell me the story,” Tusuk answered impatiently.

This is the story he told:

One wintry night, many years ago, while two boys were playing outdoors late at night, they heard hissing sounds above their heads. Suddenly they saw a flash of many colors which blinded their eyes. Kiguruyat approached them unexpectedly. The older brother felt responsible for the safety of his brother so he gave him hurried directions, “Cover your face with your hood quickly! Now, lie flat on the snow like this.”

He showed him how by pressing his hooded face against the soft snow, and the boys huddled side by side until the kiguruyat’s assault had vanished. They sat up very slowly

and crawled to a nearby willow which had been covered partially by a snowdrift. They noticed then that the kiguruyat had moved farther away in the sky. The younger brother asked, “What kind of ball are they kicking around up there? And why doesn’t it fall to the ground?”

“They are using a child’s head, the head of a once disobedient boy who had wandered off, possibly to watch the kiguruyat play football. The reason the ball doesn’t fall down to us is because the spirits have powerful magic streets they walk on. The last wanderer was so attracted by the beautiful colors that he forgot to go home.”

“And what happened to him?” asked his brother.

“The leaders of the team may have directed one of his men to grab the onlooker. The spirit came down noiselessly, bit the boy’s hood, and lifted him bodily by his teeth and brought him up to his group.”

“Poor boy, did he cry?” the younger brother asked.

“No! He did not have time to cry because the leader of the team chewed his head off with his sharp fangs. And you know as well as I do,

a boy’s neck is as frail as this twig,” he said at the same moment he broke a twig in two.

“Do you think the kiguruyat are using his head for a football?”“Yes,” answered Qweexoxok.

“We should go home now, Qweexoxok, before they snatch us away, too,” suggested his younger brother with fear.

“Let’s wait until the kiguruyat run farther away. Here, hold my hand tightly.” His brother extended his right hand and gave his final directions, “Hang on to my hand while we run for safety.”

Both watched for a chance to escape.

“Now! Run! Cover your mouth and breathe into your parka under your chin.”

Just as they reached the skin-covered umiak which was turned upside down on tripods, the kiguruyat came flying overhead. Fortunately the boys hid under the overturned boat.

They squatted down, huddled together. After the hissing sounds had subsided somewhat, the boys ran as fast as they could to their igloo entrance to escape from another attack of the kiguruyat.

“Qweexoxok, if you were not with me the kiguruyat would have taken me away. I will protect my baby brother from now on. I am glad I have a big brother to take care of me.The moral of the story is: If you can’t get a small boy to obey, his older brother or a parent may scare the disobedience out of him.

Story from Tales of Ticasuk: Eskimo legends & stories, collected and written by Emily Ivanoff Brown “Ticasuk”, 1987.

Grace Pullock – Shishmaref

I’m originally from Shishmaref, but lived here in Nome. Our kids are born and raised in Nome. Those northern lights occur when it’s real cold out at night time. The elders used to tell us not to whistle so much. Otherwise if we do those northern lights will come down, take your head off, and then use it for a football. Then that means we have to not try to make too much noise.

My brother and I were so cheap we used to really believe what elders tell us about those northern lights. We’d be right in the center of the village playing out, nighttime, and our house is way over there! “How are we going to go home alone? Those northern lights are up there. They’re gonna take our heads off!” So we used to run home real fast, put our head down and make it to the door.

This and the following stories were adapted from Cultural Connections, developed by the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks https://culturalconnections.gi.alaska.edu/

Elmer Goodwin – Kotzebue

I’m from Kotzebue, Qikiqtaġruk in Iñupiaq, that’s where I’m from. I was born and raised there. I grew up with my grandparents up in Kotzebue. They brought me up speaking all Iñupiaq and English language came later.

Growing up in older times especially when we had cold-cold weather, that’s the time when my grandpa would take me out and he’d say “iġñiġa,” which means my son, “I want you to see something here – it’s the kiuġuyat.” The first time hearing that I didn’t know what it was but then he said, “It’s the northern lights. You see the colors up there in the sky there?”

And I said “Yeah it looks like they’re chasing something, they’re moving.”

And he said “The northern lights - when I see the northern lights when I’m traveling, there’s no roads, no trails, I’m out by myself,” this is my grandfather talking, he said, “when I’m out by myself hunting caribou, chasing foxes… I like to watch which way the northern lights are going.”

He said, “I like to dog team travel at night. The dogs are comfortable, I’m comfortable and when it’s cold-cold out we have the northern

lights. You can see things that you don’t when there’s no northern lights. You can notice things better at night than you do in the daytime because in the daytime everything just goes white. You don’t really stop to think about it. In the nighttime you have to notice. You have to look at things. You hear things that you don’t normally hear during the day.”

He explained to me that northern lights helped him a lot when he was younger because his parents and grandparents had taught him the same thing that I’m teaching you.

He said, “Look at them, look at them! Tonight when we get home aanag (which means grandma) will tell you why.” I was just a small boy, but I couldn’t wait for grandma’s voice! What’s she going to tell me about the northern lights? I couldn’t wait to ask my grandmother what the northern lights do, what are they?

Grandma looked at me and she smiled. She said, “Your cousins are coming up and you guys will be out there playing. I’ll tell you then.”

I had to wait again. It was fun though. They came to spend three days with us because that’s what we do; we travel from place to place to go visit people. It was before dinner, I

remember, we were out playing. It was cold out and the northern lights were out.

I forgot what my grandpa told me grandma was going to tell me - I forgot all about that. The boys and I, we were just making all kinds of noise and screaming, just having a good time outside. Grandma came running out, she says “Hey!” She hollered “hey” in English, whoa. Something’s wrong. She spoke in Iñupiaq saying, “just don’t make too much noise and don’t whistle.”

And one of my cousins says, “Why, aanag?”

She looked at us, she says, “Because! You see those things up there?” the nice pretty green looked like people standing up there. “That one in the yellow there? If you make too much noise, if you don’t listen to what I’m telling you, it’s going to take your head and use it for a football! You see it? Look, look, look, look, they’re chasing one right now look!”

Amongst us we start talking, “We can’t make too much noise now, we won’t whistle.” So grandma went back in. One of the boys now, he didn’t believe in that stuff, “that’s just an old story,” you know?

And we kept on playing and he whistled as loud as he can and it seemed like the northern lights start getting closer and closer. After a while they laid off and he whistled again and they start coming closer. “Hey this is fun! Let’s go, let’s go! Let’s get away from the house, play out there on the ice and have all kinds of fun.” So we did.

That was to discipline us, to tell us to obey what they wanted us to do and we were in the early stage where it scared us.

https://culturalconnections.gi.alaska.edu/

Helen Allen – Kotzebue

When he died, it was the beginning of August. I think it was like August 11th and we had his funeral August 14th. In that time what brought me about the northern lights- My dad had always told us that the northern lights are a reminder that our ancestors are still here and they’re a reminder that our ancestors are still watching us.

And so the night of August 14th there’s still daylight and it doesn’t get really dark-dark you know? The darkness is just starting to come. But that night, the day of his funeral, his house is just across over here by the Chukchi college, but it finally got dark like around midnight and the northern lights were out and you never see the northern lights in august!

But that night it looked – we went outside and the northern lights themselves looked like a person standing – you could see the head, you could see the hands, you could see the legs. Both of the legs were right above my brother’s house.

And then it was really cool because we started whistling and hollering and it started dancing and it looked like someone Eskimo dancing

and that’s what made me think of my brother and it was a few months before that where my other brother disappeared in Iliamna Lake – his name was Tony- but he was an Eskimo dancer and him and his buddies were the ones who started the Northern Lights Dancers and they got the name “Northern Lights” because when you dance it kind of looks like northern lights – I mean you know the movement when you look at the northern lights in the sky.

But that’s what helped me understand when I saw the northern lights that night: that he’s still there and he’s with all our relatives in heaven and they were having a big celebration. So when I saw the legs and the body and the movement I knew that they were celebrating both of my brothers coming to meet all their relatives before us. And so that’s why I had the story.

https://culturalconnections.gi.alaska.edu/

Annie Conger – Brevig Mission

As an educator I teach my kids about the northern lights. I teach them the Iñupiaq word for it, which is kiuġuyat. And I use that lesson as a weather prediction so that the kids know that the next day it’s going to be really cold out, so make sure you dress warm the following day because the kids here go outside for recess.

I also teach the folklore about the stories that have been passed down, letting them know that the stories have been passed down from one generation to the next. John who grew up in King Island, Elmer who grew up in Kotzebue, me who grew up in Brevig – you hear the similar stories and some that sound about the same.

I remember growing up in Brevig hearing stories from my grandparents, my parents aunts and uncles and they would talk about – in the disciplining part – they would talk about not having to walk by yourself going home, that you should have someone come with you. Otherwise, if you’re walking home alone and there’s the northern lights out there, that the northern lights will get you and take your head off.

And once they do that, they’d be moving slowly, but once they got your head they would use your head as a football and when you see them really dancing then you know they’re having fun playing football and really moving around.

And also our parents would talk to us about not having to whistle at the northern lights because when you whistle at them they come down low and they’ll find you that way when you’re whistling and then get you from there.

As kids we used to get really excited and we’d really whistle – we wanted to see the northern lights come really low and then when it’s time to go home – because our houses were spread apart and our house was on a hill, my two brothers and I would run home!

There was that one time I was visiting my uncles kids, my cousins, they were on the beach, we were on the hill, I was by myself and when it was time for me to go home I saw the northern lights and my two cousins had to bring me home and they were not happy about it! But I was so thankful they took me home because I was so scared thinking about those northern lights.

https://culturalconnections.gi.alaska.edu/

Write Your Own Northern Lights Story!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________