Inuit Paper

Katie Young

Dr. Kennedy

Section 006

The Inuit people are the indigenous people who lived primarily in the northwest of North America; and spent their time hunting seals which would feed them and give them seal skin that was used for numerous improvements. One of the Inuit’s myths is called the Blind Man Who Recovered his Sight this story explains the origin of the narwhal a whale the Inuit people find prestigious and with high credentials. The myth is about a young boy hunter who is blinded by his mother, who used witchcraft to have the hunter’s bow recoil and injure himself. While hunting one day the boy tries shooting a seal and is blinded by his bow, unaware that his mother is really behind the inefficient bow. The blinded boy continues to hunt and with his game that is caught he feeds his mother and sister; however, he does not get any meat in return other than the scraps his mother leaves him. While hunting blind one day, the boy is given his sight back from birds. Going back to his house the boy pretends he is blind to see if his mother is telling the truth and his treating him and not feeding him the food he has caught. After discovering that his mother was behind his loss of sight and the lies she hides behind he takes her out hunting and pushes her into the water. His mother drowns and becomes a whale, producing the origin of the narwhal (Kroeber, A "Animal Tales of the Eskimo").

This myth represents the significance the narwhal’s have to the Inuit people. For thousands of years narwhals have stabilized the Inuit economy giving the Inuit people tusks, maqtaq (bladder), meat, and skin. The narwhal’s have the same resemblance to the Inuit people as the buffalo have to the Lakota people. Both indigenous religions use all parts of the animal, showing respect to it. This is because the religions, being animistic, believe every living thing has a soul.

This myth is a trickster myth; this is because the woman, who blinded her son, used magic...