Natalia Smith
(Cimiciaq)
Born: Hooper Bay, September 6,1909

Natalia Smith heard this story when she was a young kid a long time ago. It was about this little girl with her puppy. The puppy was her only friend and they liked to play with each other. This little girl also had a grandmother who had some kind of power.

One day while they were playing and having lots of fun, the puppy hurt the little girl. The girl got mad and she took a piece of wood and clobbered her puppy on the shoulder and cut it. The puppy ran outside and was afraid to go back in the house, so he decided to go to a neighbor's whose family was hungry just like the rest of the village. Anyway, the puppy said for them to give him another clobber somewhere on his body so they could have him to eat. So the man did, but he missed him. The puppy went from house to house doing the same thing all through the village. When he came to the last house he was finally killed by the man who stayed there, and he cut up the puppy and boiled it real good and ate it. Then he threw its bones out onto his dump.

The next day the little girl got worried and started to look for her dog. She checked through all the houses, but all those houses said that her puppy was next door. But the puppy wasn't in any one of these houses. When she came to the very last house and asked for her puppy no one answered her. So she went out to the dump to check there. But all she found were the dog's bones. So she ran home and told her grandma that she would like her dog back. Her grandma told her to go get the bones and puzzle them back in place. So she did, and when she was done her grandma told her to put a little drop of water on each joint. She also told her to splash the dog's bones with water. She did all her grandma said and her puppy came alive again. Then they went out to play with each other, arid they lived happily ever after.

interview by Barbara Smith