Our Story: Aboriginal Voices on Canada's Past by Tantoo Cardinal Page B

that all Tunit men possessed.
    So this is the great Angula
.
    Angula stood flanked by three younger men, who eyed Kannujaq uneasily. Cronies, no doubt, their allegiance bought with Angulas treasures. Fortunately, there were no weapons being brandished at the moment. Kannujaq could see several other Tunit men, women, and children milling around behind Angula. Nervous glances everywhere.
    And then Kannujaq saw the first beautiful thing that he had seen since coming here. It was a woman, one with eyes like dark stones beneath sunlit water. But the lines of her face bespoke frowning more than smiling. Her hair was worn in normal braids, rather than in the crazy Tunit way, and her clothes were of unusually high quality …
    This was no Tunik! This was a woman of his own kind.
    Kannujaq greeted Angula in a friendly manner, but the creature only made a
chuff
noise, like a bear. Again he began to wonder aloud why there was a stranger hiding in his camp. While he did so, his cronies snickered next to him, but their eyes—like those of the other Tunit here—betrayed the fact that they were uncomfortable with Angula’s behaviour.
    Angula obviously had a problem with Kannujaq’s kind. He spoke more as a show of dominance, for the sake of the onlookers, rather than directly to Kannujaq. He constantly looked Kannujaq up and down, sometimes pursing his lips in disgust.
    â€œIt is obvious,” Angula said, “that this is why the Siaraili have attacked yet again! This is a camp full of disobedience. I have been defied once more, for now someone has tried to hide one of the foreign dogsledders among us.”
    Then he saw the knife, still in Kannujaq’s hand.
    â€œWhat is this?” he exploded, coming eye to eye with some of the people. They seemed to wither before him.
    â€œA dogsledder comes among us to steal!” he railed. “It is bad enough that their dogsledding kind ever soil our traditional lands! But now the trespassers steal from us!”
    Kannujaq noticed that Angula liked the term “dogsledder.” It seemed to epitomize his detestation of Kannujaq’s people.
    Then Angula wheeled and pointed at Kannujaq, saying, “You are jealous! That’s why you have come to steal! You dogsledding foreigners always think you have better things than Tunit! But now a Tunik has better things than you, and you can’t stand it, can you?”
    Kannujaq remained shocked into silence throughout the tirade. But Angula’s shameful spectacle was not allowed to continue. A youthful voice suddenly barked at Angula from Kannujaq’s rear.
    â€œAngula!”
    Siku had emerged. His blue eyes had paled even further with rage, blazing out at Angula. While all stood, dumbstruck, he uncurled the fingers of one hand to reveal his helper.
    Kannujaq had one glimpse at a tiny, skeletal figure in the boy’s palm—a carved figurine that symbolized the helper—before he looked away in horror. There were gasps all around, and the boy began to speak at Angula in an oddly spidery voice.
    Kannujaq quickly realized that it was the helper, who announced himself as He Who Carries Beneath, speaking through the boy. An
angakoq
could have many helpers, whether monstrous spirits ritually tethered or the souls of animals or ancestors. No one would see He Who Carries Beneath, but the boy was revealing him through the figurine he had carved, a representation of the helper. If necessary, he could also arm him with invisible weapons, similar carvings of little knives or spears.
    Yet it seemed that, for now, the helper was messenger only. Speaking through Siku, He Who Carries Beneath told Angula, “You are no longer leader of this camp. It is the dogsledder who must become the camp’s headman for a time. It is the
kannujaq
he wears about his neck that is a sign of this. He will drive away the Siaraili.”
    The helper then addressed the people, saying, “It is Angula’s sins that have