McLeod Lake Tse'Khene First Nation
Knowing he couldn’t leave the hole without being spotted, Dzauya crouched and waited as the sun started going down in the sky. Towards the late afternoon, the little one came down into the hole to see what was in the trap.

“Father, come quick, a man is in the trap!” the little one cried when it saw Dzauya laying in the bottom of the pit.

Wolverine Man came down into the hole and dragged Dzauya out, dropping him by the fire.

“Father, the man is not dead yet – we see him opening his eyes!”, cried the little one, as Wolverine Man was preparing his knife.

Jumping to his feet, Dzauya reached for a nearby moose bone, sung it like a club and killed Wolverine Man. Wolverine man’s wife came screaming at Dzauya with a large stone and Dzauya killed her with his club as well.

The little one changed into the form of Wolverine and began climbing a tree to escape. Dzauya tried to climb up after it but the little wolverine bared its teeth and lunged to bite, and Dzauya fell back to the ground.

Taking a beaver spear, Dzauya threw it to Wolverine, but the animal waved its arm in the air, saying “Fall to the side”, and the spear missed him.

Dzauya grabbed his bow and slung arrows at the animal, but Wolverine again waved its arm in the air, saying “Fall to the side”, and the arrows missed their mark.

Reaching for an axe and pitching it to Wolverine, once again, the animal waved its arm in the air, saying “Break into pieces”, at which point the axe fell apart and again missed its mark.

Scrambling out of the tree, Wolverine called out to Dzauya, “From  now on we are enemies. I will wreck your traps, I will steal your food and scare your little ones”, as it disappeared into the dark.

That is how the wolverine came to be. The stripes on its back are from the traps it carries on its back as it hunts groundhog and other vermin. It is said wolverine once packed the rainbow and that is the yellow strip it bears to this day.

Website developed and maintained by Nathan Paul Prince
a member of the McLeod Lake Indian Band
Created July 2006    Revised December 2008

WOLVERINE MAN

As Dzauya continued his travels looking for monsters to kill, he came across a wide hole that had been dug into the trail he was walking along. Peering into the pit, Dzauya saw a number of beaver hunting spears, their tips pointing upwards, entrenched at the bottom the hole.

Littered all around the large pit were bones of all the animals and people who’d fallen in before. Just as he was wondering what could possibly have done this, he heard voices. Seeing nowhere to hide, Dzauya jumped into the pit, struck his nose with a stone, wiped blood on the tips of the spears and lay down with his eyes closed.

Above him he could hear what sounded like a family setting up camp. Taking care not to make noise, he peered over the top of the pit and was amazed to see a large hairy man, his wife and two smaller ones. Wolverine Man was preparing a fire while his little one ran around excitedly picking up sticks for the flames.