Continuing our sharing of Native American legends, today we will visit the Inuit tribe who live in the Arctic regions of Canada, the US, Russia & Greenland. Depending on where you go, they refer to themselves either as Inuit or Eskimo. Their legend tells how Crow brought them out of complete darkness by bringing daylight to their lands....
Many moons ago, the Inuit people lived far to the north in complete darkness all the time. They did not even know about daylight until Crow, who had traveled all around the world, told them about the people to the south who had light to let them see. The Inuit persuaded Crow to fly to these lands to the south and bring back some of the daylight, so they too could see.
Crow flew for many, many days until he saw light in the sky. There he saw a village and followed a girl back to her home. Her father was chief of the village and kept daylight in a box in his lodge. Crow turned into a speck of dust and landed in the ear of the chief's grandson. Crow convinced the little boy that he wanted to play with one of the balls of light. His doting grandfather, the chief, gave him one of the balls of daylight with which to take outside and play. Once outside, crow turned back into his normal shape, grabbed the ball of daylight, and flew back to the land of the Inuit people.
Once there, Crow dropped the ball of light on the ground where it shattered, letting light fill every corner of the land. The Inuit people were very excited and thankful to Crow, but he warned them that every six months, the light would have to rest and recharge and they would be in darkness again. The Inuit were happy to have six months of daylight since before all they had known was darkness. And to this day, they spend half the year in darkness and half the year in daylight, and they are always kind to Crow for bringing them the light first.
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