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As the festivities of the first day concluded and darkness touched the land, people gathered to the small Kotzebue schoolroom. The playful emotions of games and dance and song quickly shifted as the Elders took their seats in a semi-circle at the front of the room. The mood became serious, respectful. Those who had come to listen knew it would someday be their honor to pass to future generations the things they were about to hear.
Most of the Elders were nearly a century old, which is why they had been called together at this time in the village of Kotzebue. They would share the locations of ancient settlements and cemeteries, as well as their understanding of the Inupiaq history and fading traditions. But there was another, higher purpose for their meeting: to keep alive the legacy of just one man. A man who many among these Elders had seen with their own eyes and heard with their own hearts. These were the last whose fathers and mothers spoke of knowing him, listening to him, walking with him. Over the course of the next three nights, when the days' celebrations were done, these Elders would unite their memories and their witness of the great Inupiaq prophet, Maniilaq.
Many of those assembled had heard stories of Maniilaq throughout their lives. But for most, this would be the first time they would hear those stories from men and women who had not only been alive to hear Maniilaq's words but who had also lived to experience many of the changes he foretold. Men and women who waited still for the fulfillment of prophecies that had not yet come to pass. Excitement coursed through the crowded schoolroom. Adults waited in anticipation. Even children sat expectantly as the Elders slowly gathered.
For thousands of years, the Inupiaq families of the northernmost reaches of Alaska have joined together on appointed days to reunite their families, to play the games and sing the songs and dance the dances of their Fathers. With no form of written language, they relied upon the stories passed from generation to generation to maintain the heritage of their people. The expressiveness of their rhythmic, circular language, one of the most complex in the world, allowed them to preserve and pass on their history with clarity and richness.
They vividly described the ways in which their Fathers lived, hunted, honored the powers of the great northern lands, toiled, and died. And in recent generations they recounted with great emotion the coming of the new people, the coming of the white man.
Tonight there was a heightened sense that this time together would be even more profound. Those gathered in the classroom would hear from the men and women who had sat at Maniilaq's feet as he spoke about the arrival of these new people and the many ensuing changes to the Inupiaq way of life. Tonight they would hear the stories of the man who had defied the shamans. And the words that had first introduced God into the hearts and lives of their forefathers would become real in the mouths of those who had counseled with this great prophet.
Finally, all were assembled. The room became still. The first Elder stood. "Inuunialiq taatniinniqsauq anayuqaavut akamiknin anipmata . . ."

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