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| (Image Information: An Inupiat Family from Noatak, AK, 1929; Web Source: Wikimedia) |
In “Papik, Who Killed His Wife’s Brother,” Papik goes on hunts with his wife’s brother, Aliaq. As you can guess from the name of the tale, Papik killed Aliaq because he was jealous of Aliaq’s ability to hunt. Aliaq’s mother, who knew of Papik’s sin, called him out on it and told him that she would make him pay. The woman went down to the shore and let the tide rush upon her, drowning her. After time had passed, Papik, no longer afraid, returned to the hunt, and immediately, the ghost of the mother found him and tore Papik to pieces. This story is a harsh way of saying men should not kill other men. Another story very similar to this is “Pâtussorssuaq, Who Killed His Uncle.” Pâtussorssuaq killed his uncle because his wife was so beautiful, but the uncle came back as a fox and ripped Pâtussorssuaq limb from limb.
In addition to killing, these people found lying to be just as bad. This can be seen in “The Woman Who Lied.” In this story (you guessed it) a woman lied. She lied to her old tribe that her husband’s new tribe was treating her poorly, and so the old tribe attacked the new tribe and slayed all but three of their women. When the new tribe saw what happened, they knew the woman was to blame, so they went back to where the old tribe was, killed the men, and took the women for themselves. But they didn’t forget about the woman who lied. They cut her arms off and let her bleed to death.
I certainly recommend this unit to anyone who is undecided on what Native American unit to do. It was a quick and interesting read. Just be sure to prepare yourself for the extremely violent, eye for an eye repercussions.
I read the Cherokee myths and legends this week and I think the impossible-to-pronounce names are a common theme among most of the Native units. I did not come across very many violent and gruesome stories thankfully, but I know from myths that I've read from other tribes that the whole 'eye for an eye' repercussions aren't limited to just the Inuit. Many times while going through stories from different cultures I've thought the punishments were too severe for what we consider petty things today, but times were different back then. There were no cute cat pictures or videos to calm people from their bloodlust.
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