The Couple Inside the Mountain and the Creation of the Barren Lands

One day a young wife was sewing by the door of her tent. Her new husband went hunting for caribou. He was a medicine man. When she was sewing a hunter came by. He was young. He had a bow. He looked like he didn’t have a wife to sew for him because he wasn't wearing a nice shirt. The young wife kept sewing. She liked what she was sewing for her new husband, the medicine man.

The young hunter kept watching her sew. She was a little scared. She pricked her finger with a quill and there was blood. The hunter thought the young girl was pretty. He liked the shirt she was sewing. He wanted it.

“I am a good hunter,” he said. “I need a good wife. Come away with me.”

The young wife shivered when he said this. She looked around the camp for her husband, the medicine man.

“A big cat with long teeth has crossed the river. Your husband has left you with no help. What if the big cat comes to you at night?” He sat down beside her. He said, “I need a wife. I need a good wife. Come with me. I can keep you safe.”

The wife didn't like the long toothed cat walking around. She thought about her husband. “I am scared to go away with you because my husband is a great medicine man.”

The young hunter took the shirt the young wife was sewing. He turned and walked away. The young wife got up and said, “I'm scared to go, but I will go with you.” The young hunter and the young wife walked together to the bush. They went to where the Barrenlands are now. They walked for a long time. Night was coming soon so they went to a cave. They set up camp. They lay spruce boughs down for a bed.

“We are safe here,” said the young hunter. “The bush is too big. Your husband will never find us.” This made the young wife shiver, but she soon fell asleep under the shirt. Meanwhile, the medicine man had a good hunt. He killed two caribou. He filled his pack with all the meat to bring to his wife. He put rocks on the bones and walked back to his wife. When he was walking home he heard voices. He called out, but no answer. It could have been a raven cawing. The medicine man walked home thinking of his wife heating the stones in the fire for the cooking pot.

When he got back to camp the fire was out. His wife could be picking berries. His wife could be at the water. He put his meat near the fire pit and waited. His wife did not come back to the camp. The medicine man ran to the berry patch. She was not there. He ran to the river. She was not there. He began to worry. Then he saw two sets of moccasin prints on the ground. One set was small like his wife's. One set was big like a man's. Now the medicine man was angry.

He followed the footprints into the bush. He lost them because the bush was too thick. He was really angry now. Then he remembered the voices he heard as he was walking home. The medicine man went this way and that way, but could not find his wife and the other man. The bush was too thick.

The medicine man was very angry. He said, “I'll find them even if I have to set fire to the bush.” He took out his flint stone and set a roaring fire to the land. The wind helped the fire go across the land from Ekwe to Hudson Bay.

The young wife and young hunter woke up coughing. Their cave was filled with smoke. “My husband has found us,” screamed the young wife. “He is going to kill us. We must go,” she said. They ran to the shore of the Great Slave Lake. The smoke was gone, but the wife fell into a hole and hurt her foot. She heard her husband shout. The young hunter took her hand and ran. They ran to Marian Lake.

The wife was tired. Her foot hurt. She wanted to give up, but the hunter saw a mountain. They ran to it. The hunter moved the rock on the side of the mountain. “Go inside,” he yelled. The hunter pushed her inside the mountain. He jumped in after her and put the rock back.

The medicine man yelled, “I can see you!” He ran to the rock and started digging. Then he heard voices in the mountain and started digging there, but he would hear voices over there and he would start digging where he heard the voices. Each time he lifted a rock he heard voices somewhere else. The medicine man got tired. He got so tired that his anger left him. He knew he couldn't get to them, so the medicine man shouted to his wife, “So long as the world goes on you are never coming to the surface of the ground again.” He left them inside the mountain and went to look for a new wife that would go to the Barren Lands to hunt caribou.

We call this mountain “e ıı ts’at a”, Went-Inside-Mountain. Sometimes Tlicho medicine men can still hear voices inside the mountain.