An orphan boy, abused by villagers, returns home to his aunt, who crafts a magical red bear from a carved image to avenge his suffering. The bear wreaks havoc on the cruel villagers and others in its path until summoned back by the aunt. She tames the bear, commanding it to harm only in self-defense, thus birthing the lineage of red bears.
Source:
The Eskimo about Bering Strait
by Edward William Nelson
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Eighteenth Annual Report
Washington, 1900
► Themes of the story
Revenge and Justice: The aunt creates the red bear to avenge her nephew’s mistreatment, seeking retribution against those who harmed him.
Supernatural Beings: The transformation of a carved image into a living, destructive red bear introduces a supernatural element central to the tale.
Cunning and Deception: The aunt’s clever use of magic to craft the bear demonstrates cunning in addressing the injustice faced by her nephew.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Inuit peoples
from Andreivsky, on the Lower Yukon
On the tundra, south of the Yukon mouth, there once lived an orphan boy with his aunt. They were quite alone, and one summer day the boy took his kaiak and traveled away to see where people lived on the Yukon, of whom he had heard. When he came to the river, he traveled up its course until he reached a large village. There he landed and the people ran down to the shore, seized him, broke his kaiak to pieces, tore his clothing from him, and beat him badly.
The boy was kept there until the end of summer, the subject of continual beating and ill treatment from the villagers. In the fall one of the men took pity on him, made him a kaiak, and started him home ward, where he arrived after a long absence.
► Continue reading…
When he reached home he saw that a large village had grown up by his aunt’s house. As soon as he landed, he went to his aunt’s house and entered, frightening her very much, for he had been starved and beaten so long that he looked almost like a skeleton.
When his aunt recognized him, she received his story with words of pity, then words of auger at the cruel villagers. When he had finished telling her of his sufferings, she told him to bring her a piece of wood, which he did; this they worked into a small image of an animal with long teeth and long, sharp claws, painting it red upon the sides and white on the throat. Then they took the image to the edge of the creek and placed it in the water, the aunt telling it to go and destroy every one it could find at the village where her boy had been. The image did not move, and the old woman took it out of the water and cried over it, letting her tears fall upon it, and then put it back in the water, saying, “Now, go and kill the bad people who beat my boy.” At this the image floated across the creek and crawled up the other bank, where it began to grow, soon reaching a large size, when it became a red bear. It turned and looked at the old woman until she called out to it to go and spare none.
The bear then went away until he came to the village on the great river. It met a man just going for water and it quickly tore him to pieces; then the bear stayed near this village until he had killed more than half of the people, and the others were preparing to leave it in order to escape destruction. He then swam across the Yukon and went over the tundra to the farther side of Kuskokwim river, killing every one he saw, for the least sign of life seemed to fill him with fury until it was destroyed. From the Kuskokwim the bear turned back, and one day it stood on the creek bank where it had become endowed with life. Seeing the people on the other bank he became filled with fury, tearing the ground with his claws and growling, and began to cross the creek. When the villagers saw this they were much frightened and ran about, saying, “Here is the old woman’s dog; we shall all be killed. Tell the old woman to stop her dog.” And they sent her to meet the bear. The bear did not try to hurt her, but was passing by to get at the other people when she caught it by the hair on its neck, saying, “Do not hurt these people who have been kind to me and have given me food when I was hungry.”
After this she led the bear into her house and, sitting down, told him that he had done her bidding well and had pleased her, but that he must not injure people any more unless they tried to hurt or abuse him. When she had finished telling him this she led him to the door and sent him away over the tundra. Since this time there have always been red bears.
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Dreamtime Whispers 