Do you hear what I hear?

Do you hear what I hear? 

In 1978 a special conference of the Elders of the NANA (Northwest Arctic Native Association) was held. Each night for three nights, men and women who themselves or whose parents had met or known Maniilaq, gathered and told his story. Maniilaq is known as the Eskimo or Inupiaq prophet. These were the last of those who had personal knowledge of his counsels, who had seen his face and heard his words. Most of the Elders were nearly a century old. Their stories were recorded describing the amazing fulfillment of many of his prophecies and those prophecies yet to be fulfilled. 

“inuunialiq taatniinniqsauq anayuqaavut akamiknin anipmata…  The times into which our Fathers were born were very different from our times. Survival was more difficult, yet life was more satisfying. There was no talk of God. Shamans were the seers, teachers, and healers. Some were good and some were bad. Everyone did as the Shamans said. Their teachings became part of the traditions and taboos of our Fathers and their families across many generations of time.  

Our people did not often settle in villages like we do today. They moved their families from season to season. Times were often very difficult, marked by sickness and great hunger. Times without God. Times ruled by the shamans. It was in these times that the one called Maniilaq was born.” 

Maniilaq was born in the late 1800s without the influence of a father. His mother taught him to trap small game at a young age. One day while checking his snares, he found a small bluff not far from a stream. It was quiet and protected by trees and shrubs, a good place for a young boy to rest. After a short while he heard a strange call, like that of a bird in the trees. Again he heard the call high above, this time he understood what he heard, “Taatagiik taatagiik.” He recognized these special Inupiaq words: “Father and son, father and son.” 

Maniilaq would hear these words many times in his youth when he was alone in the wild. Soon he heard other things, “Taatagiik. Isrummiqsuqtik, isrummiqsuqtik.” “Father and son, father and son; source of intelligence, source of thought.” 

When he shared what he had heard with his mother she said, “You must be becoming a shaman.” “No, mother. It is not the power of the shamans that speak to me. I do not believe that I am becoming a shaman. I cannot say that I am becoming anything. However, I can now understand what the source of intelligence is saying. I listen with much pleasure, and it tells me that no harm shall come to me. Mother, I bring home with me a ray of light each time I listen to it. Do not worry. It is the beginning of a wonderful thing. A wonderful thing for our family and for all our people.” 

Time passed, Maniilaq grew into manhood, married, had two sons and a daughter. He was a good hunter and provider for his family. He would often go out alone, sometimes for days, and listen to the “source of intelligence.” 

One day, Maniilaq did what was taboo by scraping the skin of a Dall sheep. The shaman taught it was forbidden to scrape white furred skins in summer. The elders warned that sickness and death would come because of his deed. Many families fled from the area. Maniilaq said he and his family would not leave or become ill. He said the truth was not with the shamans. News of his defiance of the shamans and their traditions spread quickly. Soon people  would travel to hear what the “voice that speaks for our Grandfather” told him. 

Maniilaq would tell his people many new things dispelling the traditions of the shaman. He would call for equal treatment for women, predict travel someday would be in the sky, and adhere to working for six days and resting on the seventh. Resting a full day during winter preparations caused predictions of death for his family in winter. As far as anyone knows, his family never went without. 

Most important to him were the words he heard for his people. “There will be a time when our people will learn from others about this Grandfather. Others will come who will tell them many things about our Grandfather. But He wants this people to know that he does not just speak to others who are different from us. He wants us to know that he has spoken to this people as well. He cares for us, and has always known us. These things that I see, and of which I must tell the people, they will not happen for many days. But when they do happen, they will be a way for the people to know that our Grandfather has spoken to them. That he has been with them and knows their ways and the ways of their Fathers. Our Grandfather wants this people to know that he does love them and that He has always loved them.” The white man would come just a decade later. 

When I think of Maniilaq, I am reminded of lines from a Christmas Carol: 

“Do you hear what I hear? 

Do you hear what I Hear?  

Ringing through the sky shepherd boy,  

Do you hear what I hear?  

Do you hear what I hear?  

A song, a song, high above the trees  

With a voice as big as the sea,  

With a voice as big as the sea.” 

Go outside and listen for the voice.