ROBERT LINSDELL
the northern lights used to have no colours. Children were warned to stay inside at night or they
would be stolen away by the lights. According to
the stories, some children didn’t listen and were
carried away. It is said that the colours visible to
us nowadays are the colourful parkas of the children as they dance in the sky.
Some Inuit folk tales claim that the northern
lights are alive, and if you whistle at them they will
come closer and snatch you away. Children were
warned not to whistle at the northern lights for
fear of being taken or having their heads cut off.
The Fox tribe of Wisconsin regarded the
northern lights as an omen symbolizing war
Forager 2 Fall 2015
and pestilence. They feared the northern lights,
believing them to be spirits of their former enemies
who wanted to rise up and claim their vengeance.
Other native groups in North America held
a more positive belief about the northern lights.
The Menominee people of Wisconsin believed
the northern lights were torches used by friendly
giants of the North to help them spear fish at
night. Athabaskan natives believed they were
the spirits of the dead, who were watching over
them, and at times they believed these spirits,
or ‘sky dwellers,’ were trying to communicate and send them messages. The Dogrib, an
Athabaskan-speaking Dene First Nations people
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