I

The Beginning

The Eagle-Wolf Dance was started by our ancestors many centuries ago. Every generation taught their grandsons and granddaughters about the feast. It began at Kauwerak long ago. Today, tall piles of stones mark the places where the giant eagle fell, where Toolik heard the spirit voice, and where the skins fell on him. Very few people know where these places are.

Some people dance parts of the Eagle-Wolf Dance today. Some people do it different than the way our grandfathers taught us. Etorina Oquilluk was the drummer (dance master) when the dance was done the last time. This was at Aukvaunlook (Mary’s Igloo) in February of 1914.

In those days, there were many white people living in Imuruk Basin. The first year, there were maybe three or four thousand tents and houses at Mary’s Igloo. The next year, they moved most of the white people’s town up to Shelton where the railroad came. It was near Kuzitrin Bridge. Some people stayed on at Mary’s Igloo. Everybody was looking for gold. There was a government school and electricity from diesel generators. Lots of miners with their women and children lived there, besides the teachers, missionaries, storekeepers and government people. Later the river changed and the village got flooded every year. The paddle boats had trouble coming all the way to the village. One day, they moved most of the village about seven miles down river to New Igloo to deeper water. Even this village is abandoned now. Nobody has lived there since the 1940’s. Some families still live at Mary’s Igloo like Peter Kakaruk, Larry Joe, Agatha Joe, and Paul Abloogaluk, Norbert Kakaruk and his sister, Sarah. Other people still keep their houses there and visit that place when they can. Some Eskimo people would like to move back to Aukvaunlook, but there is no school there.

Portions of the information in this chapter appeared in the EAGLE-WOLF DANCE by John A. Kakaruk and William Oquilluk, published independently for local distribution in 1964 with the editorial assistance of Charles V. Lucier.

In the winter of 1913-14 the hunting was good. Our grandfathers decided to have the Eagle-Wolf Dance. They built a special kazghi across from Mary’s Igloo. When it was ready the government people brought electricity over. There were so many people coming, they put two big fans up to bring air in for all those people. They really filled that place up. It was big kazghi, too. The place can still be seen. There is a hole in the ground with grasses growing in it and some frame laying around rotting.

It took a long time to get ready for the dance. Eskimo people came from a long way away. They came by dog team and walking on snowshoes. Sometimes it was hundreds of miles. They came from Wales, Teller, all the way up to Cape Espenberg and from the Fish River villages, Cape Nome, Council and White Mountain. These people knew about the Eagle-Wolf Dance and they would do the dance, too. The people who knew this dance first, after the Kauwerak people, were the Wales people, Fish River people, Cape Nome people, and the Sinruk people. By the time everybody finished their dances, the feasting, and having a good time at the Messenger Feast, a whole week passed by.

There are not many old people left who can remember the Eagle-Wolf Dance. They are dying away. After the Fourth Disaster, there was not much reason to have dancing. Nobody has danced the whole Eagle-Wolf Dance since that last time in February 1914 at Mary’s Igloo.

II

Toolik Goes Hunting

The biggest and most important inland village was Kauwerak on the Kuzitrin River. It was the home village of Toolik. He was a rich man. He had two caches, a clean house, two wives, three daughters, and one son. His home was built beside the kazghi.

One night Toolik came out from his house to look at the weather. The clouds were sailing away and the weather was coming clear. The moon was nearly full. Toolik watched the sky for some time. Then he went inside the house.

He asked his first wife, “Have you finished my new mukluks?” She told him they were hanging in the storm shed outside the door of the house. The second wife gave him his supper of boiled rabbit meat. The first wife worked, sewing new caribou fur socks for him.

Toolik told his wives, “In the morning early I will go to the mountains to hunt.”

That night Toolik could not sleep. His wives were sound asleep on their caribou skin beds. He laid there in the dark and wondered why he felt so wide awake.

Pretty soon Toolik got out of his bed and went to the shed covering the door into the house. He brought in his hunting things. He sat down by the oil lamp and looked at each thing carefully. He took his sinew-wrapped bow and pulled hard on it to test it. He looked over all his arrows to see they were strong and straight. He had a coil of heavy rawhide rope and a coil of light rawhide line. There was a hunting knife in an oogruk cover, tools to take care of his bow and arrows, and heavy outside clothing. The pack sack and skin bag to put game in were all ready. After he had looked at everything to be sure it was ready to take hunting, he put the things away again. He went back to his bed and fell asleep right away.

Toolik was the first one up in the morning. He had soup with rabbit meat in it for breakfast. Then his wives helped him get ready. Toolik smiled at his wives. “I am afraid to start out for the mountains. That is strange. I have never felt afraid like this before. Always I am glad to go. If anything happens to me this time, take good care of my son. If I get back, I will be home late this evening.”

Toolik went out to the entryway and put on his outside hunting parka. Then he picked up his packsack and hunting things and went outside. It was good weather. The sun was just ready to come up in the east. There were no clouds in the sky.

Toolik started walking toward the Kigluaik (Sawtooth) Mountains. The sky was getting brighter. He came to the foothills. They were easy to climb. Then he came to the rocky base of the mountain he had decided to climb. There were three shelves near the top of that mountain. There might be caribou feeding up there. Those caribou liked to be high up in the fall.

Toolik started up a steep trail. It went over a rock slide. While he climbed, the sun came up over the mountain top. Toolik came to the first shelf, but there were no caribou in sight. He stopped to rest and looked down over Imuruk Basin. Soon he started up a steep rocky place. All of a sudden, a dark shadow fell on him and a big wind rushed over him. That wind blew dust and little rocks all around him. Toolik fell down on one knee to keep from being rolled down the mountain by the wind. As he fell, he looked up. He saw a giant bird dropping down toward him. Its great big claws were open and it was ready to grab him.

Toolik took out his bow fast, put in an arrow and aimed it at the giant bird. He was thinking hard. “Where should I aim to kill it?” He decided, and let his arrow go.

The arrow hit the place Toolik aimed for. It entered the bird’s body in the hollow where its neck joined the breast. The giant bird wobbled and then it rose higher in the air. Then the bird slowly sailed down into the valley below. It laid still on the ground where it landed.

Toolik looked down at the great bird. He was wondering, “Did some spirit protect me?”

Toolik went down the rocky trail. He came to a little creek and walked toward the bird. He circled all around the bird before he came close. That bird sure looked dead, but Toolik kept an arrow ready to shoot again. When he got close he saw that bird was truly a tingmiakpake (giant eagle).

Now Toolik began to hear a drumming sound. It had started right when he shot the tingmiakpak, but he had not heard it. Now he heard it getting louder. The drumming seemed to come from high up on the mountain. Toolik looked up where the sound was coming from. He could not see anything unusual. The drumming sound was not like anything he had ever heard before.

Toolik went up to the dead tingmiakpak. He took off his pack. He took out his knife with a sharp jade blade and made a cut all down the bird’s breast. Next he cut the skin on the lower parts of the wings and on the legs. He left the wing bones, claws, and head bone all part of the skin. That skin was very heavy because it was so big. It was hard work for Toolik to lift the skin off the meat and spread it out to dry. He could not lift it over water willows to hang, it was so heavy.

It was time to go home if Toolik was to get back that evening. He sat down and rested. Then he started for Kauwerak. He was uneasy, but at the same time he was happy he killed that big bird. He could still hear the drumming sound. It did not stop.

Toolik started to walk away from the dead tingmiakpak. He heard a voice call out. “Toolik, turn around!” Toolik stopped and turned around to see what called to him like that. There was a man standing there. Toolik knew it was a spirit even though he looked like a man.

The spirit spoke to him. “You have been hearing a drumming sound. It is the heartbeat of the tingmiakpak’s mother. She was so shocked and sad when she saw you had killed her son that her heart began to pound. There is only one way to make the mother’s heart feel better. You must return the tingmiakpak’s spirit to his mother.

“Now, you must do certain things in order to return the spirit to the mother. You will see other spirit persons like me. Listen carefully to what they say. Look at everything they show you. You will be able to remember everything. We will help you to learn what you must do.

“You must go back to your village and tell the Kauwerak people what we have told you. You must teach them to do the things we show you how to do. Now, come, I will show you something.”

The spirit man began to build a kalukauk (wood and water drum). He built a tall box of beachwood going in one direction. Then he built another one tight around it with the wood going in the other direction. He bound the wood together with heavy sinew. He sealed the wood tight together with glue made of almost-dried salmon eggs. He put a flat piece of ivory on one side. He put rawhide ropes on the drum to hang it up in the air and a handle on the side. He put two tall wands of baleen on the top with little balls of feathers on the ends. Then he poured fresh water in a hole in the top of the drum. He hit the drum with an ivory club against the ivory strip on the side. He tested it and added water until the drum sounded just like the mother bird’s heartbeat.

“This is the first thing to remember,” the spirit man said. Then he disappeared with the drum.

Toolik started out again. He went a little ways. He heard another voice. “Look! Look!”

There were two spirit men standing. Each man held a tall pole. Near the top of each pole a cross-fox fur was hanging. There was a big ball of wolverine fur on top of the poles. Under the cross-fox there were red bands all around the poles with marks on them. Under these were two eagle feathers. The men had on white parkas and pants. They were made from skin left out to freeze until it bleached out white. They had wolverine fur around their heads. They had big wolverine ruffs on their hoods. Their hoods were down. They had wolverine fur around the bottom of the parkas and mittens on their hands. They had a belt of skin tied around their waist and dress mukluks on their feet. The two spirit men talked like one man. They spoke to Toolik. “You are a human. You cannot return the tingmiakpak’s spirit to his mother yourself. You must watch us and tell the Kauwerak men to do just as we do. When you do everything we spirits are teaching you, we can take the bird’s spirit to his mother.

“Send two men dressed like we are to all the villages near and far around Kauwerak. We will help you human men so you can do the job. Your men will be messengers. They should invite the other villages to take part in a great dance. At the same time they must ask four, strong hunters at each village to bring things to give. The marks on the red alder-bark dyed bands on these messenger staffs will remind them what each village should send. Each messenger will tell what two of the Kauwerak hunters in the dance need from the leading men of each village. They will do this in the kazghi of each place. Then the leading men of the other villages who will dance at Kauwerak will tell the messengers what they want from those men of Kauwerak. The messengers will remember what the dancers are asking so they can tell it when they return. All these men will exchange things at the Feast. When they do that they will be helping to return the tingmiakpak’s spirit to his mother.”

Then the two spirit men disappeared.

Toolik started up again. He was feeling strange and a little scared from all that was happening to him. He took a few steps. He heard another voice. “Toolik! Toolik! Look here!”

This time when he turned around, Toolik saw a circle of spirit dancers. Men and women were one next to the other all around the circle. The men were all dressed alike. Each wore a hood made of wolverine headskins. On top of their white parkas they had skins hung across their chests and backs. Weasel tails hung down from the side of their sleeves next to their bodies. They had on pants of summer caribou skin with two strips of winter-bleached caribou skin running from their hips to inside their legs above the knees. The white strips had edges of lingcod skin with long shoulder hairs of caribou sewn on like a fringe. They had on fancy mukluks. All the men had mittens, too.

All the women were dressed the same. They had on fancy fawn-skin dress parkas and they all wore mittens with a strip from a wolverine tail sewn on the back.

The spirit men danced a lively dance and the weasel skins and tails looked like they were floating around their bodies. The women danced and the wolverine strips all moved the same way at the same time. The drummer told the dancers what to do by the beat of his drum. All of the sudden, the dancers were gone.

Toolik began walking again. Once more a voice called. This time there were four spirit men standing on the air. They were all dressed alike. They wore eagle feathers standing up in a band all around their heads. They wore long sealskin mittens with little pieces of ivory sewn on. When they moved, the ivory made a rattling noise. Nobody had ever seen anything like that before. The men danced a strong dance. They danced to songs Toolik had never heard before. The spirits said, “We will help you to remember the songs.” Then they were gone.

“Look, Toolik!” called another voice. Toolik blinked his eyes. He was in a big kazghi. Spirit people were practicing songs. Toolik listened for a long time. They were all new songs to him. Then a spirit man said, “Do not worry, Toolik. You will remember the songs so you can teach the people at Kauwerak. We will help you.” Then the spirit people vanished.

Next thing he knew, Toolik was sitting in the kazghi. Four spirit men were sitting on the edge of a wide sitting-shelf along the wall. Four spirit women stood on the bench behind the men. Each woman held a staff with an eagle’s wing feather on the top. Next to the feather was a thin strip of baleen with a ball of eagle down at the tip. There was a wall from the edge of the sitting shelf edge down to the floor. There were four round holes in the wall. The men sitting down had their legs around each hole. On the floor in front of the bench were four men. They were all dressed alike in white parkas and pants wearing eagle feather head bands and mittens with ivory rattlers. Somehow, Toolik knew the holes in the bench wall were sitit (wolf dens).

The drummer was sitting on a little stool. He held the kalukaak by the handle with one hand, and there was an ivory drum beater in the other hand. A single eagle feather was tied to the drum beater by a sinew string. The drummer had two eagle feathers hanging from the middle of his parka on his chest. He also had one feather hanging from the top part of each arm. Four weasel skins hung down on each side of his chest and one was hanging from the top of each arm. He wore a headband made of strips of wolverine fur.

The spirit people began to sing. Then the drummer motioned to them and began to use the kalukauk. They were singing the same songs Toolik heard them practicing before. The men began to dance the different songs. Some were lively dances and some were resting songs.

Pretty soon there was a short song. Then the men began to look back at the wolf dens. They were still dancing. They looked toward the drummer sometimes because he was telling them what to do with his drumming and his motions. The four women who stood on the bench followed the drummer with movements that were different from the ones of the men. The drummer went faster, then he went slower, and the dancers did the same, always. As the dancing went on, the men turned this way and that way watching the wolf dens. They seemed to be thinking about entering those sitit. As the dance ended, all four men dancers leaped backward through the dens. They were gone from sight!

The four men and four women dancers on the sitting-shelf kept singing. Toolik noticed that the shelf was covered with sealskins and caribou fur blankets. Now, some of these covered the holes in the wall of the bench. He saw that those men dancers sitting down were sitit watchers. Pretty soon they pulled the skins off from the holes. There were four wolves looking out from those dens! They sure looked dangerous. Their mouths were wide open and their teeth showed. Their ears were standing straight up.

Toolik looked real close. Then he saw those wolves were the four dancers that jumped backwards into the holes. They were wearing wolf heads on their own heads. The drummer shook his drum beater at those wolf dancers. They drew back in their dens like they were scared of him. Pretty soon they began to come out again. Finally, the whole wolf head was outside the den. Then the dancers crawled out of the sitit. They stood up and began their dance. There were some more songs for them to dance to.

One of the spirit men told Toolik, “The wolves want you to return the tingmiakpak’s spirit to his mother so she will not have a sad heart. They always eat the parts of the animals that the tingmiakpak do not use. They do not like to see that mother suffer because they are grateful for the food she and her son shared with them.”

The songs and dancing stopped. The spirits took everything out of the kazghi. Then they came back and brought dry fish, dry meat, seal oil, berries, ahghutuk, and leaves in seal oil. Everyone had a great feast and enjoyed themselves.

The spirit man talked to Toolik about what he had seen. “You must do everything just like you saw us doing it. It will take a long time to get ready for the dance. You must start one year before it is time to have the Feast. Practice all the songs and dances until you know them perfect and can remember everything. We will give you the things you need for the clothes to wear at the dance. It is far to your village and the skins are heavy for so many people. You will have to carry only a light load. We will put just the ears of the animals used for the clothes into a caribou heart sack. Everything is ready. One thing, do not stop to drink water when you come to a stream. If you drink water on the trail, you will have a heavy load to carry.

The spirit man gave Toolik a caribou heart sack. It was full of animal ears, but it was not heavy. Then the spirits and the kazghi disappeared. Toolik looked around. He was standing on the flat tundra. He looked up at the sun. It seemed like no time had passed since the spirit voices started calling to him.

Toolik took the caribou heart sack and started for his village. As he walked he got very thirsty. All the time he was thinking about the strange and wonderful things he had seen. “I saw the spirit people with my own eyes. I know those people will help me like they said. I have much to tell the people at home. It will take a long time to show them all the things the spirit people did.”

Pretty soon Toolik came to a clear little creek. His throat was dry. He forgot what the spirit man told him. He laid down at the edge of the water and drank some.

There was a terrible roaring noise in the air and things were falling down all around him. Toolik looked around. There were all kinds of animal skins laying on the grass. There were piles of them. Now he would have to pack all those heavy skins to Kauwerak on his back. It was hard work, but late that evening Toolik came to the village and went to his house. He was tired and hungry. His wives fixed him a big meal. He sure was glad to eat and get some rest.

The next day Toolik called a friend. He told him what had happened. “We must go back to get that tingmiakpak skin I left to dry on the waterwillows.”

They rolled up the skin and Toolik put it on his back. It was so heavy the other man had to help Toolik haul himself up on his feet so he could walk. Then they carried the rest of the skins that the spirit people dropped on Toolik when he stopped to drink on the way back to Kauwerak.

Toolik put up a tall pole near one of the caches by his house. When the weather was good, he hung the giant bird skin from the pole. When the weather was wet, he kept the skin in the kazghi. He took good care of that skin because he was proud that he was the one that killed it, but he also wanted the tingmiakpak’s mother to see that he respected her son’s skin. He knew that she was watching and that the spirit people could see what he did. He knew that the giant bird’s mother was waiting for him to return her son’s spirit.

III

Preparations

Pretty soon it began to be fall time. The people of Kauwerak started to get ready for the dance to return the tingmiakpak’s spirit to his mother. They caught lots of fish. Some they dried. Some they put in the sealskin containers with seal oil and put them in the caches. They hunted caribou and dried the meat or put it up in pokes with oil. They saved all the fat to make ahghutuk (Eskimo ice cream). They put away lots of marrow from the caribou bones. Other hunters went with Toolik and got four big bald eagles, meticavick, to use for making the headdresses and other things the spirit men told them to have ready for the dancing.

All through the fall, the winter time, and the next spring season the Kauweramiut stored up things for the ceremony. The caches were full of all kinds of food. The women had been sewing the skins Toolik told them the spirit people had shown him to do. In the kazghi, the man had made the kalukauk, the staffs for the messengers, and built the special bench for the dancers with the sitit for the Wolf Dancers.

Pretty soon, it was fall time again. It was one full year since Toolik killed the tingmiakpak with the arrow he shot in its throat. Toolik knew that the giant bird’s mother must be getting ready for her son’s spirit to come back. The ground was hard and the lakes and rivers were almost frozen up. One evening Toolik called the people to come to the kazghi. After everyone came, he told them it was time to do what the spirit men wanted them to do to send the giant bird’s spirit back to his mother. “Four of you older men who have the biggest families in Kauwerak and help other people out when they need it, are the men the spirit people said should be the dancers. You should decide what people using other lands around Kauwerak should bring to the dance. We must choose two other men to be messengers to go to the other kazghis. These two men, the kivgaauhk, will invite the other people to come to the dance. They will tell four men from each village what to bring to help return the tingmiakpak’s spirit to his mother. They will tell the kivgaauhk what they need from Kauwerak to help them to come to the dance.

“The two kivgaauhk must be ready to sleep out in the cold. They must not let anybody see them after they leave one kazghi until they get to the next kazghi at another place. We have made all the things you kivgaauhk will need on your journey. The womenfolk have made warm parkas and mukluks like the spirit men showed me. The staffs are ready with the things for each village to bring marked on them where the wood is red colored. It is time for the kivgaauhk to go.”

Two men agreed to start on the long trip. Early the next morning, they started off with their staffs. The first place they would go to was Sinrapaaga, by Sinruk River. That evening Toolik talked with the men in the kazghi. “Soon the time will come to have the dance. The dancers will tell about the tingmiakpak and how the ahmauought (wolves) are glad the tingmiakpaks shared their food with them. We will call this a special Poaula (Dance). I will put up a tall wood pole. Some of the skins the spirit people gave us go on that pole. There will be a big red fox skin on top. That will show it is time for the Eagle-Wolf Dance to begin. Before that happens, I will teach you people the songs and dances that the spirit people taught me.”

Every day and every evening the people came to the kazghi. Toolik showed them the dances the spirit men showed him. He sang the songs, and the people learned them quick. Sure enough, the spirit people helped Toolik so he could remember everything he had seen and heard after he killed the giant bird.

One evening Toolik told everybody to come to the kazghi. He said, “We are going to have a big feed. Everybody is invited.” When the people came Toolik told them, “We are almost ready for the dancing to send the giant bird’s spirit back to his mother. After we eat, you take anything that is left over back to your homes. Just help yourselves. But, before you leave, you should hear about what we are going to do when the people come from the other places. We have to practice the songs and the dancing so we will be ready when the others come.

“We have built the kalukauk and sealed it up with soowaite (dried salmon eggs) so it will sound right when the water is put inside. The longest wing feathers from the meticavick are on the dancing staffs for the women. Other long wing feathers are used for the men’s dancing headdresses. The feathers are fastened into wooden bands to fit the men’s heads. This lets the feathers stand up straight. The sealskin dance mitts have ivory rattlers sewn on them. Some of those rattles are white and some of them are red from alder bark. The mitts are long with holes for the fingers to go through so those dancers can shake them good and loud. The headdresses for the wolf dancers are all ready. They look just like live wolves when they are put on those men’s heads. All the things are ready. Now we must practice so we will not make any mistakes. The spirit people will help us to remember. We must do everything just the way I tell you. If we do not do it the way the spirit people showed me, the tingmiakpak’s spirit will not go back to his mother. Then she will still have a heavy burden in her heart.”

The next night the singers and dancers began to practice everything together. Toolik sat on a little stool. He held the kalukauk by the handle and began to drum against the ivory piece on the side with a big walrus tusk club. They began to sing and dance just like the spirit people Toolik saw after he killed the giant bird. When they finished, Toolik said, “You have followed exactly what I told you to do with the drum. Now you have done exactly what I saw the spirit people do. We are ready to send the tingmiakpak’s spirit back to his mother. We will do this every night until the kivgaauhk come back from the country of the Sinramuit.”

IV

The Kivgaauhk

While Toolik and the Kauweramiut were practicing in the kazghi at Sand Bar Village (Kauwerak), the messengers were in the land used by the Sinramuit. Whenever they came to a place where people lived they would hide. They did not let anybody see them. When bad weather came they stayed in a cave. When the snow came, they dug a sleeping place in the snow and no one could see them. They had plenty of food in their packs. They practiced their songs while they traveled. Each messenger would have two songs ready when they reached the kazghi of the Sinramuit at Sinrapaaga. Every time they made camp, they told each other the messages each one carried from two men of Kauwerak to those other two leading men at Sinrapaaga.

Finally, those two men came to the shore ice. They were right by Sinrapaaga. They stayed in the rough ice until it got dark. Nobody in the village knew they were there. When it was real dark, those two kivgaauhk walked up to the last house at the end of the village. They went right in. Those people were sure surprised to see them. “Ahweiroolaroot!” (there are visitors here.) Somebody went to tell the others.

Pretty soon everybody was in the kazghi. They had all gone through the tunnel leading to the katauk, the round door in the beach wood floor of the kazghi, and had come into the building to take a seat on the seating shelves around the walls of the room.

Everybody was watching the katauk. All at once those people heard a loud noise like ice breaking. Then they saw two hands had slapped hard on the floor of the kazghi at the katauk. Next an arm reached through the katauk and laid a long pole with wolverine fur on top, red and black bands around it, and eagle feathers fastened to it on the floor. Next, a man’s body was coming up out of the katauk. He was raising himself up using just his thumb and first finger to pull up his body. Then that man swung his legs out on the floor. Suddenly, he jumped up standing straight and holding that staff. He moved over a little way, and a second man came up through the katauk just like the other one. Those Sinramuit were sure surprised to see them. Those Kauwerak men had on different parkas and mukluks than they had ever seen before.

The first Messenger walked one step. He pounded the floor of the kazghi with the bottom of his staff. Then he took a second step and pounded the floor again. Third time, he did the same thing. He stood still. Then the second man took one step and pounded the floor with his staff. He took two more steps, hitting the floor each time until he was standing right beside the first man. The kivgaauhk started their songs. They told why they had come to Sinrapaaga. Then the first Messenger pointed to the red band on his staff. He called out the name of one of the four men of Kauwerak and told the things that man wanted from a man of Sinrapaaga. The second Messenger named another Kauweramiut man and gave his message. Then the first kivgaauhk told what the third Kauwerak man needed, and the second kivgaauhk told what the fourth man had said in the kazghi at Kauwerak. Then those Messengers were finished. They sat down on the floor facing the katauk and laid their staffs next to them. Nobody was talking. It was very quiet in that place.

Soon a woman’s hand holding a wooden bucket came through the katauk. Next her head came out, and then she came in the room. She brought the bucket to the first Messenger. It had fresh water in it. He drank some. Then the woman put a bowl of food in front of him so he could eat. Another woman came in and brought the same thing to the second man. Pretty soon lots of other women came in the kazghi bringing different kinds of food. Each man ate a little bit of everything.

After they ate, someone asked, “How was the journey?” The kivgaauhk told themn “It was a real hard trip. We traveled in many storms. There was lots of bad weather. It was real cold. It was not easy traveling in all that bad weather.”

Then the Messengers told the Sinramuit what they should do to help the Kauweramiut return the tingmiakpak’s spirit to his mother. The Sinruk people wanted to help them.

The Messengers stayed there about one month. They showed them the dances and sang the songs Toolik gave them before they left their homes. They told them, “These are the songs and dances you should do when you come to the dance at Kauwerak. If you do these just the way we showed you and bring the things our people need, we will sueceed in returning the giant bird’s spirit to his mother.” Next time the moon was full, they got ready to leave.

The kivgaauhk told the Sinramuit, “Now is the time for us to leave for Kauwerak.” Many runners left the village to visit the Kauweramiut. Soon the others followed. They traveled with many dog teams. The sleds had thick beachwood runners with ivory or caribou horn on the bottoms so they would go fast. Every sled had lots of people with it.

V

The Feast

People were happy and excited at Kauwerak. The kivgaauhk came running into the village one morning. They told everybody, “The Sinramuit are almost here!”

The young men had been getting ready. They were fast runners — pauhktit. Toolik told them, “Now the Sinramuit are almost here. You fellows run to meet them. When you see those Sinrapaaga runners, all you boys race each other back here to Kauwerak.

Four of those boys had a short water willow stick with a piece of meat tied on it. All of the pauhktit started off running slow to meet the visitors. When they got to them, all those people had pulled their sleds into a line. One sled was alongside another one. Everybody stood in front of those sleds. They were all smiling to welcome the pauhktit. The four Sinramuit men who were bringing things to the four Kauweramiut men stood in the middle of the line and a little bit out in front. Petty soon the four boys with the sticks came up to those men. They smiled at each other. They gave them the meat on the sticks to eat. Then the four men gave the boys something to carry back for the other four men who invited them to Kauwerak. At the same time, all the other pauhktit were going along the line telling the Sinrapaaga people they were happy to see them. They invited the young men to race with them to Kauwerak. Those fellows were called akpatit. The pauhktit told the akpatit, “If you get there first, you Sinramuit can take over the kazghi and have the first choice of the seats. If we get there first, the Kauweramiut will take the kazghi.” Everybody agreed, and the boys lined up ready to go.

One old man of the Sinramuit shouted “Qiahauh!”

Soon everybody could see a few of the fastest runners were ahead of the others. Then, only one man was ahead of all the others. He was from Kauwerak, but a Sinrapaaga man was close behind him. When they were almost to the village, the front runner ran faster. But, that other man was always close behind him. All the people of Kauwerak were watching those boys run. Pretty soon people began to yell and holler, “Ki! Ki! Come on! Look, look, paukktit! Ki! Ki!”

The boy from Kauwerak went faster and faster. He kept on until he ran right inside the kazghi. The akpatit followed right behind him. Pretty soon all the runners went along. They went into the kazghi. They were smiling and laughing. People could see they had a good time running the race.

The Kauwerak people stood outside the kazghi. Soon they saw the sleds coming. One sled had a tall stick fastened to it. People knew it was the leading Sinrapaaga man’s sled. There was something tied on top of the stick. Some present for a Kauwerak man. The sleds kept coming. Pretty soon they were all lined up on the river ice in front of the kazghi. The four Sinrapaaga men stood together out in front of their sleds. Everybody was watching.

Four men came out of the kazghi. They were dressed in old clothes. The parkas had no hair left on them. The sleeves were too short, and there were holes where the elbows showed. The pants were old and the knees were showing through. They sure looked poor. All those men had belts with a tail hanging from it on the back. These were wolverine, fox, or wolf — something like that. They carried their bows and arrows.

Those men were Kauweramiut hunters. They hollered out and jumped off the bank right in front of those four Sinrapaaga men standing in front of the sleds. They waved their bows in front of the Sinramuit with the arrows put in them backwards. Then they turned the arrows around and shot them up in the air and over on the ground far away from the Sinramuit.

Everybody smiled at each other. Those Kauweramiut were sure glad to see the Sinramuit who came to help them with the Eagle-Wolf Dance. Pretty soon the womenfolk of Kauwerak came down the river bank bringing hot soup for all the visitors. Then every family in Kauwerak took some family from Sinrapaaga to their house to stay. They told them to bring their dog teams, too. The four Kauwerak men that sent the Messages to Sinrapaaga took the four Sinramuit men who agreed to dance to their homes. Everybody was happy because now the Eagle-Wolf Dance could start.

That evening everybody came to the kazghi for a big feast. When the people started to come, a Kauwerak man stood in front of the kazghi. He had on a fancy parka and mukluks. He sang songs as the people came in. He sang one song about the Kauwerak, one song about the Sinrapaaga, and one song about the Messengers and their feast at Sinrapaaga. His songs welcomed everybody to the kazghi. Pretty soon everybody was inside. The four men of Kauwerak and the four men of Sinrapaaga sat together. All the other people sat around the walls on the seating shelves. The men sat on the top benches. The women and children sat on the floor underneath. The seal oil lamps were burning nice and clean with a blue fire and there was no smoke.

Toolik walked to where the kalukauk was hanging from a strong rawhide rope fastened to the ceiling of the kazghi. He sat down on the little stool. He was wearing clothes like none of those Sinramuit had ever seen before in their lives. Everybody was very quiet. Pretty soon Toolik began to drum slow. That kalukauk sounded just like the beating heart of the giant bird’s mother. Pretty soon he began to drum faster and louder. The men began to sing, “Aii yunga yunga. Aii yunga yunga.…”

There were four women, all dressed the same, with dancing staffs in their hands standing at the back of the raised bench. There were four men sitting in front of the women. They were all dressed alike in fancy winter bleached parkas. The bench was covered with all kinds of skins and some of them fell down over the front of the bench. The men’s legs hung down over the edge of the bench.

There were four stuffed eagle skins hanging from the ceiling of the kazghi. They looked like real eagles flying or hunting. There were four men dancers on the floor. They were wearing special fancy dress parkas and they had eagle feather headdresses on their heads. The men began to dance. The others were singing and making dancing motions with their hands. Everybody had on dancing mittens. They did just as Toolik saw the spirit people do up on the mountain after the giant bird died. Some songs had fast lively dances, some had slow dances to let the dancers rest a little bit.

The first song was about the village people coming together to feast on ahghutuk. The second song was a resting song without words. The third song told about all the beavers that lived around Kauwerak. The fourth song was a resting song about the enjoyment of walking in the land in the springtime. The fifth song was about eating ripe, soft salmonberries around Kauwerak and the good taste of salmon-egg ahghutuk. The sixth song was a resting song about how spring is really coming when the birds sing out on the open ground. The seventh song talked about fresh rabbit meat to be found around Kauwerak. The eighth song was resting and told about the gathering of caribou fawn skins in the early spring.

After the eighth song the people noticed that the Eagle dancers were looking around behind them. Toolik was telling them to do something different with his drumming. The men on the bench had moved their legs around and had pulled away some of the skins from the bench. There, in the sides of the bench were four dark round holes. All of the sudden, those four Eagle dancers jumped backwards, all at one time. They disappeared into those holes! The men on the bench dropped the skins down. The Eagle dancers were gone!

Pretty soon the dancers on the bench moved their legs. You could see the holes again. There was something in them. It looked like wolves were looking out of those sitit! There were two black wolves and two white wolves. Their mouths were open and all their teeth showed. You could see their tongues in their mouths. The people watching began to get a little bit scared. Then those wolves would start to come out of the dens. Toolik would shake the drumming club at them. They would draw back in the sitit. Then they started to come out again. He shook the club at them again. Once more they drew back in. Finally, those wolves just jumped right out on the floor of the kazghi! They were the Wolf Dancers!

The songs began again. The ninth song tells that the wolves are ready to go back in their dens when the tingmiakpak flies overhead again, as it happened while the wolves were threatening to come out of the sitit. The tenth song was a happy song. The wolves were going to come out of the den. They would soon be able to share the food the giant bird left behind after it had eaten. The eleventh song was very happy and lively. The wolves were dancing to show how happy they were to share the tingmiakpak’s food. The twelfth song was a resting song. The wolves were showing that they were happy to be helping the Kauweramiut return the giant bird’s spirit to his mother. The last song was a happy song, too. This was where the wolves helped the Kauweramiut send the spirit on its way to the Mother who waits in the Kigluaik Mountains.

The dancing was over when the last song was finished. Then the women brought in great trays and bowls of food. There was all kinds, and plenty of it. Everybody feasted. Then everybody went to the houses to sleep and be ready for the dancing the next morning.

All those people had not talked much while they saw the dancing. There had never been any dancing like this before. There was nothing like it in the stories handed down from generation to generation. Their ancestors had never done anything like that. They were thinking a lot. They sure hoped their singing and dancing would help the giant bird’s mother and the Kauweramuit. The next day lots of people talked to Toolik. “You sure were a lucky man to kill that tingmiakpak all by yourself. Nobody ever did that before.” They looked at that giant bird’s skin hanging on the pole by Toolik’s cache. They looked at each other with wide eyes. They could hardly believe what they saw. Then Toolik took the skin back to the kazghi.

The next evening they came to the kazghi again. It was time for the Sinrapaaga people to do the Eagle-Wolf Dance. It was just like the way the Kauweramiut did it the night before. They were good dancers. On the third evening, the Kauwerak people danced again. On the fourth evening, the Sinramuit danced one more time. Every time, they had a big feast before the dancing started, and another feast of ahghutuk after it ended.

Before the dance started, on the fourth night, just as before, Toolik took the giant bird’s skin out of the kazghi. He hung it on the tall pole. Everybody watched him. Suddenly, they heard an eagle’s voice coming from that skin. It hollered out four times. All the Sinramuit and all the Kauweramiut heard it. Toolik heard it and he was scared. There was nothing in that giant bird skin but the hollow, dried-out head and the dried leg and wing bones. Everybody knew it was the spirit voice of the tingmiakpak.

There were many aungutguhks and shamishes that had come to that Eagle-Wolf Dance. There was one that Toolik knew was not a bad aungutguhk. He always tried to help people when they needed it. Toolik asked him, “Aungutguhk, maybe that giant bird called out because we did not do the Dance right. Maybe your spirits will tell you.” The man said, “I will ask my spirits. You must do what I tell you to. Everybody should go back in the kazghi.”

When everybody was back in the kazghi sitting down, the aungutguhk told Toolik to put out the seal oil lamps. Then he began to drum on his own hand-drum. He sang to his spirits to help him. He told them to tell him why the tingmiakpak’s spirit called out four times. Someone answered, “The tingmiakpak’s mother says she cannot receive her son’s spirit until Toolik, who killed him, helps the people to finish all the dancing. Then my son’s spirit will come to me.”

Now Toolik knew what the cries said. The tingmiakpak’s spirit was ready to return to his mother’s nest. When the dance was finished that night, the spirit would go back to his home. His spirit could not go to his mother until the last dance was done.

Toolik said, “Now, you Sinrapaaga people can really help us Kauweramiut. You can do the Eagle-Wolf Dance the last time. When you finish, the giant eagle’s spirit will be able to go back to the Mother. She will feel better.”

The dancers all went to their places. Toolik began to drum one more time.

After the last dance ended, all the dancers sat down. Then the drum started once more. Toolik made a motion with his club, and different ones of the four Sinramuit men and the four Kauwerak men would point to two people and tell them to go out. When they said “Kie! (Go!)” the people had to leave the kazghi. Soon, everybody was gone. As the last person left the kazghi, the tingmiakpak’s spirit called out four times. Each time it was harder to hear its voice. The last time, the people could hardly hear it at all. It was coming from the south, toward the Kigluaik Mountains. Now, they knew the giant bird’s spirit had gone back to his mother. The Spirit Messengers were taking him to his spirit home.

After they heard that, everybody was very happy. They had a great feast to end the dance. The Kauwerak men gave the four men from Sinrapaaga everything they said they needed. Then those Sinramuit people went back to their homes.

Toolik lived to be a very old man. One morning when he woke up he did not feel so good. His wives felt bad to see him being sick. They took good care of him. The people came from very far away to visit him before he died. They even came from Sinramuit country and other places. He told those people they should keep on doing the Eagle-Wolf Dance just like the spirits showed them. They would make the spirit people happy and they would help out the Eskimo people. He told them to tell all their coming generations about it from generation to generation. He said, “We must teach our children and our children’s children about the Eagle-Wolf Dance. They must do it just like we did. If they forget it, there will be trouble for all of us Eskimos.” Then Toolik died.

When the new generations of Eskimo people came along, they heard about the Eagle-Wolf Dance. They wanted to learn it, too. They wanted to get the help from the spirit people like the Kauweramiut did. They learned how to do the dance from the people at Kauwerak. One time, two men from Little Diomede Island decided to come to the village. Each brought his whole family along. They stayed all that winter and visited. They spent a lot of time in the kazghi. They learned the Eagle-Wolf Dance from the Dancers of Kauwerak. They still remember some of those parts they learned a long time ago.

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