Indigenous Peoples Day October 14, a story by Johnny Moses

The Hunter and the Caribou

This story is from way up north in Alaska. If you are listening to this story, can you say “Ka Klel”. “Ka Klel” means “we are listening”.

Looonnggg ago, there lived this hunter and his family. And sometimes the winters were very hard. It was very difficult sometimes to get food. And the hunter’s wife, she said to him, “Go down into the cellar, the food cellar”. Their food cellar is in the ground. “Go down there, and gather some food, so we can fix something for our children to eat”.

So he put his fur coat on, his mukluks, his fur-mitts, and he went outside and he uncovered the food cellar, the boards, the driftwood, and he walked down the driftwood ladder. And as he was walking down the driftwood ladder, he lit the seal-oil lamp. And he waited for the light to fill the room. And as the light filled the room, he went over to the barrels where the food was stored. There was nothing in there. There was no caribou. So he went to the baskets, to see if there was any dry vegetables. There was no vegetables. And he looked upon the fish racks, to see if there was any fish hanging, and all that was hanging was a piece of dried fish skin. And he said “Oh no, someone must have got into the food cellar, an animal of some kind must have ate the food. What am I going to do?”

So he grabbed the dry fish skin and he walked up the drift wood ladder, and as he was walking up, he had put the seal oil lamp out, and he had covered the hole with the boards and the drift wood. He walked into the house. He took his fur coat off, his mitts, his mukluks and he handed the piece of dried fish skin to his wife. And he said that is all that was in the food cellar. And she said, “We will boil this. We’ll make fish broth and feed our children this.” She handed her husband the bow and arrow, and she said “Go and look for some food for our family”.

And so he put his fur coat back on, his mitts, and his mukluks and he journeyed. There he saw a rabbit hopping along. He took his bow and arrow and he aimed, and he shot the arrow, but he missed. “Oh no, what am I going to feed my family?” He continued on walking for a long way, and there he saw ice, lots of ice. He made an ice hole and put his line down. He thought maybe he could get a seal or fish or something. He waited hour upon hour, upon hour. Nothing. Oh he was just ready to give up. And he continued walking for a long ways and then he could feel a vibration in the ground. He put his ear toward the ground. He could hear something. And he knew there must be a herd of caribou.

And so he made a snow ice wall. And he was hiding behind that snow ice wall and then over the hill, he saw hundreds of caribou. There they were going over this hill, and he started talking to the caribou. He was praying. “Caribou, come this way, come this way, I need to feed my family”. And then the caribou turned around and went over the hill. “Oh no”. And then the caribou came over the hill again. “Oh come this way, come this way caribou, I need to feed my family”. And the caribou came over the hill, and then they turned around, and went back over the other side, and then he noticed that some black thing was chasing them. It was a black wolf.

“Oh no, what am I going to feed my family.” He was just ready to give up. He stood up and closed his eyes, and his head was facing to the ground. Oh, he was just giving up. And he heard this strange voice. And the voice said “Meeelee” “Meeleee”. And he looked around and wondered where the voice was coming from. And the voice said “Help me”. He looked around. He looked behind him. “Help me”. He still didn’t see anything. Where is this voice coming from? And the voice said “I’m down here”. He looked down on the ground. It was a tiny little caribou, maybe 1 inch tall. “A tiny caribou?

Oh, I must be going crazy”. He blinked his eyes. He closed his eyes, opened them for a while again. Closed his eyes and opened them. “Ohhhhhhhh, Don’t Do That!!!”. The caribou was standing right in front of him, face to face. “How did you do that?” And the caribou said “Please help me. Hide me. Would you please hide me?” And the hunter said “Alright I’ll hide you”. “Oh I must be going crazy, a talking caribou?”. He closed his eyes and he opened them, and the caribou disappeared. “Where are you, where are you?” “I’m over here, I’m on your shoulder”. He looked on his shoulder, there the caribou was hiding in his hood. He lifted the hood. There it was, standing on his shoulder. And he covered the caribou again with his hood. And he waited behind the snow ice wall.

And there this black wolf came walking toward him, and he was licking his paws. Slurrp, slurrrp. “If you tell me where the caribou is hiding, I’ll grant you any wish that you want”. And the caribou said, “Don’t believe him, he’s lying”. And he looked to see, “A talking wolf? Oh I must be going out of my mind”. But the wolf disappeared. And he looked again, and there was the wolf again. “Slurrp, slurp, If you tell me where the caribou is hiding, I will grant you any wish that you want”. And the caribou said “Don’t believe him, he is lying”. And so the hunter grabbed his bow and arrow and he aimed it toward the wolf and he said “If you don’t get out of here, you will be dead.” And the wolf ran off with his tail between his legs.

The hunter stood up. He thought to himself “I must be going crazy.” He closed his eyes. “Talking caribou, talking wolf, this is just too much”. And he opened his eyes. “Ohhh, ahhh, Don’t Do That!!” The caribou was standing right in front of him again, face to face. And the caribou said “Thank you, thank you for helping me and hiding me. I will grant you any wish that you want”. The hunter said “I’m just trying to feed my family. They have nothing to eat.” And the caribou said “Look behind you in the ground”. And he turned around and looked behind him, and there in the ground there was a huge hole, filled with caribou meat, seal, fish, vegetables of all kinds. He was so overwhelmed. “Oh my, so much food. How am I going to carry this home”. And he turned around to thank the caribou, but the caribou disappeared. And then he turned back again, to look at the food in the ground, but there was nothing but ice and snow. “Oh, I must have been seeing things, I must be going out of my mind”. He was really disappointed. “What am I going to feed my family”.

As he journeyed home, he was so sad. And there he saw a rabbit hopping along. He took his bow and arrow and aimed it toward the rabbit. He got it this time. He carried the rabbit on his back. When he got home, he took his fur coat, his mukluks, his fur mitts off and handed the rabbit to his wife. This is all I got to feed the family. She said “Go down into the food cellar to see. Maybe there are some scraps of some kind we can put with this rabbit, scraps of food”.

So he back on his fur coat, his fur mitts and his mukluks. He went out to the food cellar, uncovered the drift wood, the boards. He climbed down the drift wood ladder. He lit the seal oil lamp and waited for the light to fill the room. And there, he looked at the barrels. They were overflowing with caribou meat. “Oh my, so much caribou”. He looked at the baskets. It was overflowing with vegetables. “So many vegetables”. He looked at the fish racks. They were filled with all kinds of fish. The food cellar was filled with all kinds of food. There was so much food. “Oh my, oh my”. The hunter knelt down on his knees. “Thank you, thank you Caribou, thank you”.

And that is all.

From Native American Bedtime Stories for Adults
By Johnny Moses
Storyteller, Northwest Pacific Coast