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While our Fathers hunted, the women and children stayed busy in the fish camps, working the seines when the salmon appeared and searching the land for berries and greens. They also collected roots and willow bark to make seines during the still days of winter.
If an offense to the shamans had caused high waters, summer fishing could be very dangerous, and few fish would be caught. When many days of rain came it was difficult for them to dry their meat. Seasons like these were difficult for our people, causing much hardship and great hunger in the winter to follow.
Near the end of the summer season, our Fathers returned to the women, children and elders at the fishing camps, and the families again prepared to move. They took their summer harvest upstream in birch-bark canoes, pushed by long poles and paddles or pulled from the banks by a team of two or three dogs. When they arrived upstream, they chose a place for their fall settlement, a place near lakes or streams where they felt the migrating caribou would come.
At the end of this short but busy fall season, the families of our Fathers again returned to their winter settlements. Each settlement had to be rebuilt each year, because there were taboos against living in the same hut for more than one winter. There was much work to be done to prepare winter settlements before the first storms came. These storms usually arrived during the nuliavik tatqiq, the moon when caribou rut—the time we now call October. The ice spread on the rivers and streams. The ducks, geese and salmon could no longer be found. The sun would soon be gone, not to rise again into the sky for many days.
The long winters were often very difficult for our Fathers and their families. They had to live on the foods they had gathered and preserved. Sometimes there were ptarmigan birds or rabbits that could be snared during the winter to add to what they had stored. But in the days of late winter, they sometimes had only the grease boiled out of bones or ptarmigan droppings to eat. Sometimes many died of hunger. And sometimes they froze to death in the cold wind of fierce winter storms.
Through all the seasons, and especially during the darkness of winter, the shamans visited the family settlements and gatherings to demonstrate their power. Wearing their skins and furs and amulets, they called forth their magic by singing songs, chanting incantations, and using special oils. Sometimes they fell into a trance, lying very still for many hours, while their spirits wandered the land and performed their works. Some were said to speak with dead relatives, do battle with the spirits of other shamans, or call upon their animal helper spirits to extinguish the souls of those who had failed to respect their demands.
Though the days of winter were dark and difficult, they were also some of the best days, for that was when the families of our Fathers would come together for their messenger feasts and gatherings. They had special structures called qargis, where they met as we do this night. Families from distant camps joined together to share food and listen to the Elders tell their stories from days past. They danced to the rhythm of the drums, acting out successful hunts and practical jokes played on family members. They also played games to show their great strength.
Finally, as the darkness of winter gave way to the first signs of breakup, the annual thaw, families again prepared to travel to their spring camps. The cycle of the seasons, and the tireless journeys of our Fathers, began again. Such were the times of our Fathers. Times that were often very difficult, marked by sickness and great hunger. Times without a God. Times ruled by the shamans.
This was how the families of our Fathers lived. And it was into these times that the one called Maniilaq was born.

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