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Yup'ik Raven This collection of student work is from Frank Keim's classes. He wants to share these works for others to use as an example of culturally-based curriculum and documentation. These documents have been OCR-scanned and are available for educational use only.


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The Whale That Changed Into a Wolf

There are a lot of stories about the sea that the elders have told us, like the beluga whale that changed into a wolf and the beaver that changed into a killer whale. Whenever they wanted to change into an animal they would go to the shore.

Long ago if the whales were swimming around and they were really starving because they weren't able to find any food, they would come up on land and change into wolves. As wolves they walked around the land and ate everything that was in sight, that is until they came up to this one woman who had rubbed some ointment on her that would keep the dangerous animals away from her. The wolves could not touch her at all, so they went on until they found food somewhere else.

Until this day it is believed that they still change from land animals to sea animals, and sea animals to land animals. This is why Beluga whales sometimes have hair on them. It is said they are about to change into wolves.

Amllertut quliirarqat imarpirmeng, teggnet quliiruallqat wangkutnung. Imar-piurtartung cimiirarqlluteng kairgameng, paluktak-llu allrumeng. Cimiryukamengllu ssnamun taggtut.

Aka tamaani cetuat kuimallarteng, kiak-apairluteng-llu, neqkamiiteng-llu nall-kitcirartnateng. Tua-llu ssnamun maiyur-lluteng cimirluteng-llu tanrilriit ner-luki, tua-llu arnamun tekilluteng cameng-rruq mingurluni, tauna mingurqaq ungung-ssineng agtuggcigganaku, tamaakut kegger- nerlet ayaluteng neqkameng evaryartug-luteng.

Maiyirpak cali tamaakut ungungssit tuaten cimirrlartut kaiggakameng. Ung-ungssit cimiiraqluteng imarpiutarmeng, imarpiutat-llu ungungssitmeng. Cetuat-ruk nuyangkertut cimiryukameng kegglernermung.

Story by
Irene Kaganak
Interviewed by
LouAnn Aguchak

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