Inuvialuit

(map)

The Inuvialuit lands were once much different--mountainous and barren with little game. But the pingo (ice hill) called Ibyuk, which today stands near Tuktoyaktuk, existed back then, and a hunter lived on top of it with his wife, son, and an orphan girl.

One day while the hunter was checking his traps, he found a large sealskin bag filled with water. As he checked it over the days, it grew larger and larger, and the hunter's uneasiness grew with it. When he warned his neighbors, they laughed at him. Atop the pingo, the hunter and his family began building a large raft out of driftwood logs which they dragged up. On the raft they built a cabin. The neighbors laughed at these efforts.

The sealskin bag, which had been growing continuously, finally burst, and water poured out from it and continued pouring for months. The neighbors who had mocked the hunter were drowned as the water covered the lowlands, and before long the flood covered even Ibyuk, leaving the man and his family floating on the raft.

Months passed, and the water did not go down. One day the boy, who was the spirit of Raven, asked to use the kayak to hunt and check for dry land. He set off to explore the expanse of water.

After many days of paddling, he found a small island bobbing up and down in the water. As he approached it, it disappeared under the water. The boy threw his harpoon and caught its tip. The boy, who was the spirit of Raven, pulled it above the waves and kept it from sinking. It was the pingo Ibyuk. The boy and his family returned there.

Gradually the waters receded, revealing a changed land. Now it was filled with game of all kinds and rivers full of fish. The boy married the orphan girl, and they had many children. These people, the Inuvialuit, grew and prospered.

Ishmaeel Alunik, Eddie D. Kolausok and David Morrison, Across Time and Tundra: The Inuvialuit of the Western Arctic (Vancouver: Raincoast Books, 2003), 11-12.