Ircaqurluk: The Yupik Teacher:
Ircaqurluk
The Yupik Teacher
Long ago there was a village on the south side
of the Yukon River. During this time, Yupiks didn't know how to
hunt or fish. They had to gather whatever plants or animals they
could. In this village there was a young man who lived with his
mother. His name was "Ircaqurluk". Ircaqurluk means bad
heart.
One spring day, Ircaqurluk went across the
Yukon towards the mountains looking for something he might find to
eat. When he saw marten tracks over two hills, Ircaqurluk followed
the marten up a third hill. He also noticed that beside the marten
tracks were human footprints. Although he was a little afraid,
Ircaqurluk followed the tracks up the hill. When he got to the top
of the hill he saw that the marten went inside a very small qasgiq
through the opening on top of the house. Ircaqurluk peeked in and
saw tiny people dancing. When the dwarfs were done dancing, they
started working on fishnets, fishtraps, spears and other hunting
and fishing equipment.
Ircaqurluk watched how they made these things
for a very long time. When he got tired of watching the little
people, he looked up and noticed that the river ice was drifting
away. He was at the top of the hill,but when he saw a huge chunk
of ice he ran to the beach and jumped on the ice. When he landed
on the ice, he ran and jumped and landed on the other side of the
river. Ircaqurluk must have been some sort of shaman to be able to
jump that far. He walked down the river and came to his village.
When he reached the village, he stopped outside his mother's house
and told her he was alright and instructed her to make a grass mat
and bring it to the qasgiq, because he wanted to talk to the other
men.
When Ircaqurluk's mother was done with the
grass mat, she brought it to Ircaqurluk who was waiting outside
the qasgiq. When everyone was inside the qasgiq Ircaqurluk went in
and set the grass mat in the center and sat down on it. When he
sat on the mat, he became a willow, then an alder, then a
cottonwood, then a birch, then after changing to a spruce tree he
changed back to himself.
He then taught the people how to make
fishtraps, nets, traps, spears,bows and arrows and other things he
had seen the dwarfs making. Then he taught Yupiks how to hunt and
fish with these things. Since then,the Yupik people have been
hunting and fishing.
Story by: Nick Issac
Interviewed by: Carmen
Pitka
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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.