"My father used to tell me the story of "ajagutak", what you call the rainbow." "It is a story from way back in time, passed down from one storyteller to the next." "My father told me, the rainbow holds up the sky." "It is the Earth's walking stick." "This place is very special to me." "My father brought me here when I was a boy, as his father brought him." "My name is Adamie Inukpuk." "I have lived in this land for 5,000 years." "Some stones are made to tell you things where to hunt, where it is safe to travel." "They hold the knowledge of my people." "We call these stones "Inukshuk"." "It means, "That which takes the place of a man"." "My grandfather had much knowledge." "The world called him "Nanook of the North"." "But to me, he was just "Nanook", my father's father." "People still like to tell stories about him." "Without our stories, what would we know of our past?" "And what would we pass on to our children?" "That is why, for us, the great storyteller is just as important as the great hunter." "We "Inuit" have more stories about the caribou than any other animal." "We call them "Tuktu", "The Wandering Ones"." "We followed them to this land thousands of years ago." "They are everything for us, our meat and our magic." "Like his grandfather "Nanook"," "Adamie Inukpuk has a strong bond with his land, its history and its animals." "The caribou are so vital to "Inuit" life that they define the calendar." ""Nurraluit" is the word for spring." "It means, "The time when the caribou calves are born"." "Until recently, the great migrations of the caribou were shrouded in mystery." ""The Wandering Ones" would simply disappear in winter and then reappear the following Spring." "Minutes after a calf is born it will learn to know its mother." "Her smell and her call will stay with the calf so strongly that she'll be recognized, even in a group of tens of thousands." "This bond will last until the young caribou is old enough to fend for itself." "This spring, close to half a million calves will be born in this herd." "Unlike wolf cubs, who are born blind and don't open their eyes for almost two weeks, this young calf must be strong enough to run with the herd within 48 hours." "Wolves, bears, even eagles, prey on the young caribou." "But the worst of the predators is the tiny mosquito." "As much as a million liters of blood a week will be drained from the caribou into the mosquitoes." "Soon after the calves are born the caribou start gathering." "Small bands flow together, finally forming massive herds." "Over a million strong, the George and Leaf river herds of northern Quebec and Labrador are the largest assembly of migrating mammals on Earth." "During the short weeks of the northern summer the herd will wander from desolate coastline to mountainous highlands, feeding their young and fattening up for the hard winter ahead." "On the other side of the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden, the Saami have lives not unlike their neighbors, the "Inuit"." "At the center of Saami culture is herding reindeer, the caribou's close cousin." "The epic stories and legends of the Saami are told in song." "Apmut Kuoljok comes from a family of herders and epic singers." "With no written language until recently, singers like Apmut are the history books of their people." "My song praises the mountain, the reindeer and our tradition." "Autumn is my favorite season, a time when i see my friends and my family." "A time for the Saami people to help each other and to live in the ancient way." "When i was a boy, we were still nomads." "We lived with the reindeer all the time and followed the herd everywhere." "My father had reindeer that worked for us." "But i think, we really worked for the reindeer." "Looking after them wasn't always so easy." "But i can still hear the music from their bells." "Today I sang to the reindeer." "I hope they heard me calling." "I hope my song worked." "The Saami haven't let time pass them by." "Reindeer are still at the center of their culture, and the roundup is as important as ever." "But they take what they need from modern technology." "Helicopters and horses, singing and cell phones whatever works best." "This year, Apmut's song to the reindeer must've worked its magic." "The Saami gathered together 5,000 animals from out of the woods and mountains." "But getting the reindeer into the corral is only half the job." "Oh, the radio signal is very weak, so lets go higher." "How much you want me to go?" "Up to 5,000 feet." "There is no roundup in the Canadian north." "And no one's ever tamed the caribou." "You just can't call them out of the mountains with a song." "Today the caribou can be tracked using radio transmitters." "For the last year and a half biologists have been following a female caribou they fitted out with a radio collar." "For the first year they traced her as she traveled for more than 6,000 kilometers." "Since last April she's gone almost half that distance again." "This was her last known position." "You might think it would be easy to spot 10,000 caribou, but not when they're wandering a territory roughly twice the size of France." " Okay." " Slow down on advancement." "Slow down a bit, there's a big bunch here." "Let's net this one from the'copter'." "Okay." "Slow down..." "Slow down..." "Fasterl" "The one with the antler." "This will be the shot." "Slow down..." "Okay, that one, that one!" "Yes, sirl" "Roll her, get on the side." "Adamie and biologist Serge Couturier hope that with a new radio collar, this caribou may help to unravel the herd's mysterious migrations." "Antlers, female's." "What age?" "There are so many caribou now, they seem to go on forever." "But i know this was not always true." "When my father was a boy, there were no caribou." "The wandering ones had gone away, but they had not returned." "My father did not see one until he was an old man." "Now, we're finding out where the caribou go." "That is good to know." "But can anyone tell us that they will always come back?" "I do not think so." "The caribous long trek southward will not be an easy one." "The migration is especially hard on the young." "Out of the half a million calves born in the Spring only a quarter will survive their first winter." "In the corral, the Saami herders start the autumn roundup by harvesting a number of bulls for food." "The Saami call themselves" ""The People of the Sun and the Wind"." "The ancestors of these men and women domesticated the reindeer centuries before people elsewhere in the world had tamed the horse." "The roundup isn't all work." "It's also a big social event." "I haven't seen my daughter Lisabeth for almost a year." "This old house has been in our family for generations." "It holds wonderful memories for both of us." "Apmut sings of the master reindeer, a celestial bull who hides in the northern lights." "One night, when the lights were at their brightest, the legendary bull rode the stars down to Earth and stole the reindeer from the Saami." "Ever since then, the Saami have been watchful in case he should return one day and steal the herd again." "Today in the corral, battles for supremacy break out among the descendants of that legendary bull of the northern sky." "Since that night when the master reindeer came from the sky and stole the herd, the Saami take precautions not to lose their reindeer again." "The herders now carefully mark each calf." "On one ear, the herder puts his family's mark." "On the other ear, he puts his own." "All the marks of all the families are recorded in a great book, an ancient registry, where every Saami counts his wealth in recorded earmarks." "Apmut is a respected elder of the Saami." "So is this old bull." "They both have been given the honor of the final act of the roundup." "This may be one of my last roundups, and this old fellow's, too." "I've known him since i marked him as a calf many, many years ago." "Now his last job is to guide the others out of the corral, back to the woods and mountains, back to freedom." "The Saami believe that the reindeer belong to the sun and the wind." "They are only on loan to human beings." "The Saami also believe that as long as the reindeer are allowed their freedom they will always return, like the sun, like the wind." "It is the heart of winter in the Canadian arctic, and all the caribou are gone." "The "Inuit" have a story that when the caribou leave them for the winter, they go to the caribou house, a hollow mountain, far, far away." "Over the years, many foolish hunters have followed them, but none has ever returned." "My grandfather Nanook lived his whole life in an igloo." "The snow house was the only home he knew." "I have not lived that way." "But I know how to build an igloo, because my father taught me." "Now, things are so much different." "My son Papak is almost a grown man, yet he has never lived in an igloo, not even one night." "But tonight, he will sleep in his snow house." "Maybe he will dream that his great grandfather smiled at him." "If i don't teach my son our ways, nobody will." "Then my grandfather's shame would be with me forever." "I came to this place many years ago with my father." "He taught me how to turn my sled into a ladder." "He taught me how to find food deep under the ice." "Now I've taught my son to come here, but only when the full moon draws the tide far back." "Only then can you gather the mussels." "And even then, you must be quick." "Papak says that he feels safe here." "I'm glad that I've shown him this place." ""The patient man survives," that's one of the things my grandfather Nanook loved to say." "Nanook could wait all day for a seal." "And his patience was rewarded." "One seal meant food, clothing, light and heat for a week." "For the hunter and for his family." "Patience is everything for us." "To wait is not a waste of time." "Our hunt was successful." "Now, it's time to celebrate and to thank the animals." "Legend has it that "Inuit" women learned to sing this way from the "Tunnituarruit."" "Half human, half birdlike creatures, all covered with tattoos, who once lived in the dark corners of abandoned igloos." "The sounds come from the wild geese." "The words, from the northern lights." "My father learned to hunt from his father, Nanook." ""Nanook" means "The Great White Bear", the fiercest hunter of them all." "Nanook made hunting seem like play." "When my father was still a boy our people suffered through a terrible winter." "We were starving." "One day Nanook, "The Great White Bear", went out to hunt for caribou." "He never came back." "Maybe the power of the Inukshuk didn't travel with him." "Maybe the wind drowned out the whispering of its voices." "We all need those voices." "We all need their help sometimes." "My name is Adamie Inukpuk." "I have listened to the voices of this land for over 5,000 years."