months are still very much with us. The hardships that accompany the harsh weather present a daily
challenge to the people of the Earth. The waters rage in form of snow and ice upon the land; they toss
the ships upon the sea as if they were feathers in a wind.
Inuits
The Alaskan Inuits know Igaluk, the Moon god, as the supreme deity in the universe. Under his watchful
eye, the world’s living creatures were created. Many versions of Igaluk’s legends exist. Carried
primarily through oral tradition, the remembrance of the tales has been less than precise. The tales still
survive, however, colored with the flavor of whatever storyteller last repeated the myth.
Sedna, often seen as a one-eyed sea Goddess, may have been a child of Igaluk, the Moon God. Some say,
though, she was born of the union of Moon man and Sun woman; others say she was the daughter of
the people of the Earth.
Although the storytellers do not agree about her birth, they do agree that Sedna was a sinister demon. To
look into her single eye was to invite death. Sedna despised the people of the Earth. With evil eye and
violent temper, it was only the angokoq, or tribal shaman, who dared approach her. She was the
mistress of the dead and controlled the human population by drowning people in her storms.
According to one legend, Sedna began as a spiteful and unruly child. She ate and flesh she could find, with
little regard to whose death was necessary to feed her carnal desires. One night, she began to eat the
flesh of her father as he slept. Because of the horror of her behavior, her father rowed her out to sea to
throw her overboard.
But Sedna held fast to the side of the boat. Her father tried to loosen her grasp by hitting her hands with his
paddle. Still, she held firmly. Finally, Sedna’s father severed the girls fingers, one by one. As each
finger fell into the sea, it was transformed into a fish, whale, or seal. This was the beginning of those
creatures that inhabit the sea.
Finally, Sedna sunk to the ocean bottom. She dwells there still, guarding the creatures of the waters.
Despising people, she raises storms to prevent fishing. Because she is fingerless, she can not comb the
knots from her matted hair. Shamans visit her to ask her forgiveness and please her by brushing her
hair. When the shaman is successful , Sedna holds back the storms and releases a few sea creatures to
the shaman.
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