Watch an animated video adaptation of this legend (excerpt from Wolverine:
Devil of the North, produced by Cogent/Benger
Productions
Yamozhah*
woke one morning at Ihti
kika
near Yahiiti
and cut down a birch tree to make a bow. After working on his bow for some time,
he began to walk south. Eventually he reached Hodoodzoo, a place where
people slid for good luck. Here he found that Nogha
('wolverine') had placed sharpened stakes at the bottom of the slide to entrap
people. Yamozhah decided that he would make Hodoodzoo safe for
people again, so he quietly approached the stakes and carefully slid his caribou
skin shirt over one of them. Twisting his nose until it bled, he covered the
top of the stake with blood, and then pretended to be dead. Soon Nogha
came by and took Yamozhah back to his camp. Yamozhah, through
use of his power, freed himself and killed Nogha, though letting the
wolverine's family escape unharmed. In this way Yamozhah made Hodoodzoo
safe for people to slide at again.
- Paraphrased from a story told by Dogrib elder Harry Simpson
*Yamozhah means 'the one who travels'. The Yamozhah myths are
often collectively referred to as the stories of the two brothers. Yamozhah
is a culture hero shared by many Dene groups, though known by different names.
For example, among the Dene Dha'a of northern Alberta he is known as Yamohdeyi,
as Zhambadezha by the Fort Simpson Slavey, as Yampa Deja by the
Slavey of Fort Liard, as Yabatheya by the Chipewyan of the NWT, as Atachookaii
by the Gwichya Gwich'in of Tsiigehtchic, and as Yamoria by the Sahtu
Dene and in the North Slavey dialect. Because the mythology of this important
culture hero is shared widely among the Dene groups of the NWT, one of the Yamoria
legends was chosen to symbolically represent the political unity of the Dene
Nation, and is reflected in their corporate logo.