The hunt was successful and the children of Tuktoyuktuk , “Looks like a Caribou”,  brought a plastic bucket of meat to the Elder Uyagok.  “Grandfather tell us how we came to be!” they clamored.  The old man beamed and began the telling to the semi circle of inquisitive children.

 As you know I am named for the first real person but how he and we came to be was nearly an accident.

 In those days the Creator’s spirit inhabited the body of the bowhead whale and the family of the Raven provided the co-captain to the Whale’s crew.  When the great whale looked out upon the sea, ice and earth and all that he had brought forth there, he sensed something was missing.  He said to Raven, “We need one more creature to complete this world.”  “There is little left to make one from” said the Raven, “but I shall try.”

So the Raven went to the pile of leftovers which had already been placed in buckets to feed the dogs and began to search for pieces.  The first he found was a little nose that was so useless it could barely smell black meat in the same room much less game at a distance.  No other animal had wanted it.

 He said, “Something is better than nothing”.

Then he found two eyes.  They did not see well and were worthless at night and squinted and made tears in bright light.  They weren’t even golden.  No self respecting creature would want such eyes, but:

 He said, “Something is better than nothing”.

 The ears were also a sad tale.  He could only find two tiny and broken remnants of ears.  The points had been rounded off and they did not move to point to sound, but:

 He said, “Something is better than nothing”.

 Then Raven got truly exasperated.  Search as he might he could not find four legs that matched.  The best he could do was two fore legs that were too short and two back legs that the gulls had so pecked the ends that they couldn’t be put on facing down!  But:

He said, “Something is better than nothing”.

 Finally he went searching for skin but a wolverine had taken all of it to line its den.  He found two tiny pieces of black fur and placed one on top and one on the bottom.  You know what he said?

 He said, “Something is better than nothing”.

 He stood this strange concoction up on the hind legs so the body pointed up and the forelegs could not touch the ground, and took it to the narrow lead where the Creator was feeding.  He called to the Whale to see his work.  When the Creator saw this he laughed so hard that he breached like a humpback and landed on the sea ice with such a thump that the mist from his blowhole landed on the Raven’s work and Uyagok came to life! 

While skinless Uyagok shivered and turned blue, the Whale still laughing asked the Raven, “ What were you thinking???”

 Raven said, “Something is better than nothing?” 

 Uyagok was simply not going to stand still for this and went and freed the souls of a caribou, and a seal, and a wolf.  He made himself a fine skin. And you know what he said? 

“Something is better than nothing.”