Long ago, Wolverine traveled around one winter with the wolves, so they say. A certain wolf woman was married to him. As there was no game all winter, they hunted in vain. Wolverine always camped back on their trail. While they went around hunting ahead of him, he always stayed behind hunting beaver. As it was getting dark in the evening, he would come along the trail, pulling a big load of beaver. Every evening, while he ate well, his companions were almost starving beside him. "Give us some food," they said to him, and what did he say but, "My poor children are about to fall over; what are you saying?" he said.
When they were eating in the evening, the wolf woman, who was married to the wolverine tied meat to a rope that ran underneath the snow. She pulled on the rope and they drew it back and forth beneath the snow. "What a lot of meat you're taking for nothing!" the wolverine said to his wife.
"What a lot of children you have eating it-what do you mean!" she replied. He got angry and flopped over on his back with his stubby legs in the air.
All winter he killed many beaver, but he never once thought "My brothers-in-law next door are starving." After midwinter, as usual, the wolverine was going along hunting behind them, when the wolves unexpectedly came upon caribou sleeping by a creek. They fell upon them and killed many. They packed home heavy loads of meat and fat. As it was getting dark, he came along pulling a young beaver which he had killed, as usual, back on their trail. He saw his tent set up in the middle of the camp and stood above it, looking at it. "What's the matter with you?" his wife said to him. "Your brothers- in-law have packed food home. We're just preparing it. Come, eat with us, what is the matter with you?"
"Ah, thank you, they are truly my brothers-in-law, it is done properly. Back on the trail, I killed some young beaver with great effort, thinking as I did so, I shall relieve my brothers-in-law from starvation. The young beaver are tender, and my mothers-in-law and my grandmothers have poor teeth and will swallow them; but never mind, here!" So saying, as he had never done before, he distributed them among his mothers-in-law and his grandmothers. The beaver which he gave to them, they threw right back. "Why didn't you do that before, when we were starving?" said one woman to him, as she hurled the beaver at his chest.
"Hey, my grandmother and I are joking together again. Of course, we are relatives; it is right for us to do that."
They were crowded together in the tent, and they made a place for him in the middle, saying, "Here he comes, our brother-in-law," they gave a shout saying, "Evidently my brothers-in-law have hunted again as before." He sat down in their midst with a black expression. Meat and fat were roasting on sticks before the fire. That evening, after having starved all winter, they all ate well, of roasted heads, marrow, and stomach fat, and after he had eaten a great deal, the wolverine flopped down comfortably on his back. After he had quickly fallen asleep, they took a stone which they had ready, red-hot, and while they held him down, they threw it onto his belly, on which they had put some fat. "My relatives, I only live with you. Why are you doing this?" The hot stone and the fat quickly burned right into his belly.3 While he was still saying, "My poor dear brothers-in- law, my children, what will become of them, what are you doing?" he quickly died.