Since the beginning of time, people were able to communicate with all living things as if they were human beings. That is why traditional natives have a lot of respect for living things and do not kill needlessly. Eventually, Creator made people the caretakers of all living things and the land. He made people smarter than other living things so they would know which animals to control. For example, do not let wolves and grizzly bears get overpopoulated because they have the power to wipe out a whole village. These are considered very sacred animals because they have the power to kill if people do not take the necessary precautions.

Since then, these stories were told to the children by their elders. The elders kept the stories as unaltered as they possibly could without writing them down. There was a panel of six or seven men who the story tellers went before to make sure they did not alter or distort the stories. The children were told stories to learn lessons and to understand between right and wrong. The listening ability of the Athabascan was very important in order to pass traditional values to the next generation.

The Ya Ne Dah Ah stories were told as a reward to the children. A child would have to do chores or help someone with something in order to hear a story, unless they really needed to learn a lesson.

These Ya Ne Dah Ah stories teach children to behave and be respectful. The characters in the stories are so outrageous that no one would want to be accused of acting like one of the characters, which is the real purpose of the stories. A parent doesn't have to nag and whine to discipline their children. They only have to tell a child, "You are acting like so and so in the stories" and it brings them to attention.

~Katherine Wade
Athabascan Elder & Grandmother of Dimi Macheras

HOW THE ANT GOT ITS BODY ~ An Athabascan Legend
Retold by Dimi Macheras

The following story is a legend handed down through generations before me in the storytelling traditions of the Athabascan people. When it was my turn to inherit these tales, methods of storytelling had evolved from fireplace gatherings to cinema and television. How would this ancient fable conform with the times? Well, the story hasn't changed, but the inspirations of a digital age have expanded upon the visualization of these mythological characters. The relationship of man to animal is a subject overlooked too much of the time. As a child obsessed with illustration, I thought the notion of animals interacting with humans seemed very much like a comic book, and it is in this way that I have attempted to recreate the bond our two species share in these timeless fables. My hopes are that by humanizing these animal archetypes, people may realize that a connection between humanity and nature is a necessity for our existence here on Mother Earth.
~ Dimi Macheras, 20 years old

A long time ago, a man and his wife lived in the woods by a lake. The wife was an ant. In the beginning of time, people were able to communicate with animals and insects on the same level as humans.

They both worked very hard. The husband hunted and fished and gathered wood. The wife took care of the household chores and did all the cooking.

One day, without warning, the husband lost his eyesight. It created a great hardship in their marriage because the husband could no longer do his share of the work. He even had to ask his wife to get him food and water. He was very sad.

Time went by and the wife started getting fed up with having to do all the work. She started getting angry and hateful.

The husband would say, "Wife, could you get me some food to eat? I am hungry." The wife was mad because she had to do everything. So she would cook up a nice piece of meat and cut off the edges, the parts she didn't want to eat, and put them on a plate and give the plate of leftover scraps to her husband to eat.

When the husband asked for a drink of water, his wife would take the cup and go outside and scoop up some dirty water. Sometimes there were worms in it. She would give it to her husband to drink.

The husband became so miserable he just wanted to die. One day he asked his wife to point him in the direction of the lake and he took his walking stick and eventually made his way to the shore of the lake. He sat down and started to cry. He was very heartbroken and sad.

Soon a swan came swimming close to the man. It was the swan who would give people back their eyesight. The swan sang a song:

Swan asked the man, "What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

The man said, "I can't see. I lost my eyesight and I'm just miserable."

The swan said, "I am the one who can give you back your eyesight."

The man was so excited he quit crying and said, "Oh please, give me back my eyesight!"

The swan said, "Get on my back and hold on real tight. I'm going to swim out to the middle of the lake and I have to dive down to the bottom of the lake three times.

The swan swam out to the middle of the lake and said, "Hang on tight. Close your eyes and keep them closed until I tell you to open them." Swan dove down, down, down, down to the bottom of the lake then back to the surface. The man kept his eyes shut tight. They took a deep breath and dove back down.

Three times the swan dove to the bottom of the lake and came back up. The third time the swan said, "Open your eyes."

The man opened his eyes and could see everything perfectly. He was very happy and appreciative and he thanked the swan. He wanted to tell his wife.

The man started thinking about all that lousy tasting food and water his wife had been serving him. He thought of a plan. He told himself, "I'll just go home and pretend I am still blind so I can see what she is doing."

He walked up the hill towards his house and when he got close he started using his walking stick, acting like he was still blind.

The man said to his wife "Wife, I am thirsty. Could you get me a drink of water?"

The wife was so annoyed to have to do these chores. She took a cup and went outside and scooped up some filthy water and brought it inside to her husband. He looked into the cup and saw dirt and bugs floating in the water. He pretended to drink it but he actually dumped it out.

Then we asked his wife, "Wife, I am really hungry. Could you get me something to eat?"

She looked at him with disgust and started cooking a nice piece of meat. He was watching her out of the corner of his eye as she took the tasty steak and trimmed off all the gristle and fat that she didn't want to eat and threw them on a plate and shoved it towards him.

She said, "Here is your food!"

The husband ate a little bit of it and couldn't believe she really would do such a thing.

Then he stood up and said to his wife, "You get out of his house. I got my eyesight back and I know what you've been feeding me. Get out of here!" He was so angry he grabbed his axe and as his wife was scurrying out the door he chopped her butt off. That is why the ants bodies are held together by just a little string, because of her cruelty.

The moral of the story is to always be nice to people, no matter if they have a handicap or not. If somebody is having problems, do not get rude and mean.