When time first began, it was believed that all things, human, animals, spirits etc could talk one language and go transform readily into variouis forms, humans could become shaped like animals, animals to humans etc. In many origin tales, certain species are explained this way. Listed below are some of the samples that we have collected over the years. Please note that some origin tales maybe somewhat different due to the various regions of the north.   Origin of Ptarmigan When the land was young, an old waoman was known as a prankster. This was in the time when forms could be interchanged. Anyhow, the old woman would play tricks on all the people, much to their consternation but to the humour of all. One day, the old woman decided to play a trick on a small group of children who were engrossed in their play. The prankster crept silently up behind and suddenly she loudly clapped her hands. The children frightened beyond belief, immediately transformed into Ptarmigan and flew away. Because they were but children, they did not know how to transform back and so the race of ptarmigan was born.   Origin of Misquitoes Once upon a time, they was a camp of Inuit, but it faced hard times, for there was no game nor was there fish or seals for the taking. Slowly, one by one the people except for two old woman. They survived by eating the lice found on each other. When eventually, a new group of Inuit arrived, they found all dead except the two old ladies. Suspecting them of cannibalism, the old woman were immediately killed and their stomachs cut open, Frightened the lice grew wings and flew away and so the Mosquito was born.   Origin of the Raven Once upon a time, two birds were together and decided to become more beautiful then any other birds. They decided that they would tattoo each other, creating designs upon themselves which would be the envy of all other birds. As one bird began painting the other, the bird being painted would not hold still, after repeated scoldings by the one painting, the other bird stil;l would not hold still. Finally, his patience wearing thin, the painter dumped all the black color over the bird and thus the first raven came into existence.   Origin of Caribou Back in the days when animals and men could change themselves and all spoke one language, a spirit came and took a human woman for a wife. He dwelt among the humans but does not hunt for food for he needs none. The other hunters work hard to provide the needed materials for their families and slowly grow angry that such a one among them does not hunt. The hunters angrily say he must hunt or will be exiled from the camp. Angrily, the spirit leaves the camp and after walking several miles, the spirit punches a hole into the ground and out jumps a caribou which he immediately kills, then covers the hole returning back to the camp. He says to the hunters "There, this animal is food, I am a hunter". The next day the spirit goes out to hunt again, but this time another hunter secretly follows him. When he gets out of sight of the camp, the spirit once again punches a hole into the earth and once again out jumps a caribou. Once again the spirit slays it and covers the hole. Unbeknownst to him, he was being watched. After the spirit leaves, the man rans to the hole and uncovers it, again a caribou jumps out frightening the man so he runs away, leaving the hole open so that all the caribou come out. The dot the land for there is many. The spirit seeing them, runs to them and kicks them in the head, flattening their foreheads and says "You must always wander the land now; and you will always fear man". This is how the caribou came to be, why they have flat heads, their coloring comes from the land and they are timid for they always remember a man kicking them.   Origin of Fog When the land was young, Tuniqs and Inuit lived, but were enemies. One day a hunter goes fishing for his catch for his family hungers, he fishes and catches nothing all day, he looks everywhere upon the land but there is no game. Finally, he sees a man in the distance growing ever bigger the closer he comes, it is a Tuniq. Seeing the giant, the hunter realizes his life is in danger, so to avoid certain death, the hunter lies down and acts dead. The giant reaches him and seeing the puny Inuit, he lifts him up to see if he breathes, but the hunter was smart and held his breath. "He is dead" thinks the giant and so grabbing the hunter he carries him across his back back to his Tuniq home. The man continues to pretend death. Along the way, as the Giant marches homeward, the smart hunter grabs unto small trees and shrubs then releasing them thus impeding the Giant and making him weary. Again and again the smart hunter pulls upon the trees, and so by the time the Giant arrives at his home, the giant is exhausted. The giant leans the hunter who he thought was dead in the corner to eat later, then he lies down to sleep for he is tired. As the Giant finally sleeps, the smart hunter reaches back and using the Giant's axe, he chops him and then is able to run away, back toward his own lands. But the Giant's wife who was gathering wood for cooking the hunter sees him and gives chase. The Wife quickly is overtaking the hunter, so the hunter chops into the land and a river springs forth with him on the other side. The Wife stops and looks at the water and looks at the river. "How did you get across"? she asks. The smart hunter responds, "I drank it." The Wife begins drinking..and drinking ..and drinking. The more she drinks, the bigger she gets but there is still water left..so she drinks more until she exploding, spraying water droplets far and wide which becomes fog. Unable to see, the smart hunter stays put, until the wind comes and blows away the fog. Only then does the smart hunter return to his family.   Origin of Mountains As mentioned before, when the Inuit first followed the caribou to this new land after many seasons, they found the land inhabited. Two types of people dwelt here, one were the little people, only seen out of the corner of your eyes, they were a happy people and if you caught one you could make them sing. They were small and could fit in the palm of your hand. The others were the fearsome Tuniqs, sometimes 4 and 5 times the size of inuit, some even much larger. They were war like and tried to capture Inuit and cook them and eat them. Inuit were smarter and so could use their brains to outsmart them. One day a hunter was returning to his camp from a successful hunt when he was espied by one of the giant. Knowing he would be eaten if caught, the Inuit dropped his caribou and fled southward, running as swiftly as he could. The Tuniq gave chase. Hearing the commotion, another Giant looked around and saw the hunter running and he too gave chase. The Inuit was swift but not swift enough for both giants were gaining on him and would soon catch him, so he stopped and turned to the Giants and said "Why do you chase me?" Each Giant responded "Because you are going into my pot and I am going to eat you". The Inuk being both a hunter and smarter then the tuniqs expressed surprised and said "I am but a puny Inuit with little meat and you are both Big Tuniqs, I can only feed one, who should eat me?" This stumped the Tuniqs, each one claiming to be the victor, each claiming that the meat was theirs for they claimed to see him first. Finally, the smart Inuit proposed a solution. "Because both saw me but I can only feed one, you must fight and I will jump into the cook pot of the winner". Now ensued one of the greatest battles known, for the Giants fought and fought, they fought for several days and several nights, slamming each other into the ground for they had mighty strength. With each slam, the land would tilt and push up, creating valleys and hills, the Giants fought and fought, until exhausted they collapsed. The smart hunter then shot them both with his arrows and turned and walked away to retrieve his caribou and to feed his family. Behind him rose up the great piles of earth all over the land where the two stupid Giants battled.