Introduction-E

would show that a child hadn’t been defended when he was young. Regarding a child
who was defended, the mother would go to the mother of the child who was fighting in
a state of anger and say, “Your awful son has hurt my child.” The bears and walrus
tended to attack these types of children, when they grew up to hunt. That was a belief
and it was probably true.
There are hard times now and then. How did they deal with a person
who was going through hard times?
Elisapee: We used to live in small camps. If a camp member was sick, he was well taken
care of. When he passed away, they used to prepare the relative for a burial on their
own, because the family members were the only ones there. They would dress the
deceased person. If there was no container for the body, they would wrap up the body.
Even when they were grieving, there weren’t enough people to tend to the family at loss
around the clock. Today, we are very well taken care of. We do not have to make
preparations ourselves. Our forefathers went through really hard times when they had
to deal with someone who had died.
Sometimes people go through depression. How was that dealt with,
when a person died?
Elisapee: There didn’t seem to be much depression back then, other than grieving for
the person who had died. We were asked what we were down about, if we showed any
sign of it, and advised right away not to be depressed, and it soon went away. Today,
there seems to be so much more depression; and some have no one to advise them. We
aren’t really aware of who’s depressed anymore as they keep to themselves. They get
weak as their mind is overpowering them.
42 Introduction to the Oral Traditions