Wolf Spots:
Wolf Spots
Once a long time ago there was a man and
his wife. The couple always stayed all year at fall camp. They
didn't move around much like the other Yupiks. One day the man
made a trap. He dug a big hole in the ground, put soft branches
over it and put some bait in the middle. The man would catch a lot
of things with it, including wolves.
One morning when the man checked his trap he
found three wolf pups. The man took the pups home and decided to
keep them as pets. A month went by, and the pups grew to be young
wolves. One of the wolves had spots, and he was also a better
hunter than the other two. The man always liked the spotted wolf,
and Its hunting skills pleased him.
One night while the man was getting ready for
bed he heard a pack of wolves howling off in the distance. But he
payed no attention to the wolves and went to bed. This also
happened the next night and the night after that. One night while
they were howling right outside his house two wolves entered. They
stood by the door rubbing their noses. Then, as though they were
hoods, they pulled their wolf faces off and became humans. They
claimed to be man and wife, and the three young wolves the trapper
had caught they said were their children. The parents then did the
same to their children, and one of the young wolves became a girl
child, and the other two were boys. The wolf with the spots was a
boy, and his parents said they really loved him because he would
be their hunter. But they said, if the trapper really wanted the
spotted boy-wolf, he could take off his spots and use them on his
parka. After agreeing to this, the wolf people put their hoods
back on, rubbed their noses, and turned back into wolves. Then
they left, never to return again. After that the trapper became a
great hunter.
![](http://ankn.uaf.edu/NPE/CulturalAtlases/Yupiaq/Marshall/Mustang/images/mustang83.jpg)
|
Told
by:
Kathy Peteroff
By:
Benjamin Peteroff
|
|