A girl became the wife of a bear

This narrative by Alla Nitankavavna Kechgichaivina is about a girl who got lost while picking berries, where she was taken as a wife by a bear. The following year, the fishermen noticed that their dried salmon (yukola) kept disappearing from the racks overnight. Then one day, the girl appeared on the opposite bank of the river and explained that her husband, the bear, was taking good care of her – but that she was still used to eating yukola. She also said that in the meantime, she had had a child by him: a cub that looked just like its father. And while she was taking some yukola, the bear and their young one waited for her on the other side of the river. Before she would completely turn into a bear herself, she gives humans a vision: that one day in the future, they will live in peace with all animals.

The narrative is embedded in a longer introduction, in which Alla Kechgichaivina explains from whom she received the story – such attribution being in line with the traditional practice.