How the Red Fox got its Colors:
How the Red Fox got its
Colors
Long, long ago there was a poor fox walking
along the shore of a lake. As he was walking, he saw a molting
goose. He ran after it, and after a while he caught the goose and
fought it until it was dead. After it was dead he put it aside to
dry because there was too much blood. He was so thankful that he
caught a big, fat juicy goose. While he was waiting for it to dry
he sang a song. As he was singing he heard a voice calling out his
name. It was the goose. So he ran after it again, and when he
finally caught the goose, he decided to eat it. But then he
thought again that it would be too warm and bloody. So once again
he put it aside to cool. He started singing again, and another
time he heard the small voice from behind him. The fox turned
around to see but this time the goose was far away. Still, he
tried running after it, and even though he was getting tired, he
again caught the goose. He thought to himself that he should eat
it, but after running after it so many times and killing it he
thought he should just let it cool one more time. And he again
sang a song while he was waiting.
But then once more he heard a voice calling
his name. This time when he turned to look
, the goose
was really far away and it was heading for the big lake ahead.
When the goose reached the big lake it started to swim to the
other side where he turned to watch the fox.
He yelled, "You poor fox, you! You never
tried to eat me while you had the chance to. Look at my fat body!"
Then the goose started to show off his body. As the poor fox
watched it he started to blush from his snout to his tail. Only
the tip of his tail did not get red. Then he started to walk
around the lake until he came upon a fish camp. On the ground he
found some coal. He chewed up the coal and then he spit it out on
his hands and painted his legs and the tips of his ears. And that
is how he got his colors.
![](http://ankn.uaf.edu/NPE/CulturalAtlases/Yupiaq/Marshall/Mustang/images/mustang72.jpg)
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Told by: Nick Isaac
Interviewed by: Maureen
Fitka
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