The Story of the Thunder House
As told by Bernadette Uttaq
There were two orphan children, because in those days people couldn’t afford to have a big family. They couldn’t afford clothing and food was scarce. The two children were abandoned. One was holding a piece of skin and the other was, I guess they had left skin, one was holding a piece of caribou skin The other was holding two flint stones; there are a lot of flint stones in that area. As the child strikes the flint stones the thunder would make a tremendous noise. That is how the two children became thunders.
The child with the skin would flutter the skin holding the skin with both hands. Those two children are very smart, they turned into thunders. When the two children were abandoned they became thunders, as they wanted to become thunders. Because they were abandoned and hurt from being left all alone, I don’t blame them, there was no food, and they couldn’t hunt for themselves. As they thought of what to do when they were very small. Because they were left alone and scared, they wanted revenge on the people that had left them alone. When children lost their parents long ago they would become orphans. They sought revenge in the end. They call it the thunder house. Would you like to know who built that thunder house? Kakooteenik was my great grandfather; he was the one who built it. He made the thunder house exactly where the two children were abandoned. They must have been pitiful. He made them a house, so that is why it is called thunder house.