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The Legend of Sliding Hill

Watch an animated video adaptation of this legend (excerpt from Wolverine: Devil of the North, produced by Cogent/Benger Productions

Click here to watch the video...

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.

   
Yamozhah spares the wolverine's family (illustration by Autumn Downey)
The slide at Hodoodzoo (illustration by Autumn Downey)
Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada