My grandfather was suppose to be a big medicine man. I heard stories about him but never saw him do anything because he gave it up before I was born. He just stopped doing it. Said it didn't pay to be a medicine man. He said he would get in trouble with other medicine men trying to kill him through that medicine business.
Grandfather claimed he could get caribou to come close. He said he could do it, and it happened. The caribou came. They just happened to come. I don't know if it's through medicine or not. Maybe they just made up their mind to travel in a certain direction.
People used to depend on those "anatkuq" but as I look at it there is nothing they could do. People think the medicine man will change a lot of things, but to my knowledge, they never did any good.
Grandfather claimed he could go to the moon. One time when he was going to go, the people tied him up real tight with a rawhide rope. Tied him real tight and tied an ax on the end of the rope. Then they put the light out. I don't understand medicine men much. He chants some kind of songs and pretty soon he starts moving. They could hear the ax hitting the ceiling some place and they could hear he went out. They always have an opening for a vent in their snowhouses. After he left, they could hear someone talking by the fireplace. Talking and telling where he is, how far he went. He is on the moon now.
He claimed the moon-man stole some snowshoes from somebody. Grandfather was going to go up and get those snowshoes back. And he came back. It was the same, nobody saw him come through the opening. The rope was still tied to him all over, but his parka was turned inside out. He had frost all over him. Claim he was up on the moon and he had the snowshoes in his hand.
One time he came back and the ax was all bloody. He said he hit game. Game was real close.
I don't know about the Indian kids downriver, but up here our kids don't know anything about our medicine men or what they could do. We never teach them anything about that.