"The ends of the land and sea are bound by an immense abyss, over which a narrow and dangerous pathway leads to the heavenly regions. The sky is a great dome of hard material arched over the Earth. There is a hole in it through which the spirits pass to the true heavens. Only the spirits of those who have died a voluntary or vilolent death, and the raven, have been over this pathway. The spirits who live there light torches to guide the feet of new arrivals. This is the light of the aurora. They can be seen there feasting and playing football with a walrus skull."

"The whistling crackling noise which sometimes accompanies the aurora is the voices of these spirits trying to communicate with the people of the Earth. They should always be answered in a whispering voice. Youths dance to the aurora. The heavenly spirits are called, 'sky-dwellers,' those who live in the sky."

"Evil Thing"

"The Point Barrow Eskimos were the only Eskimo group that considered the aurora an evil thing. In the past they carried knives to keep it away from them."

"Omen of War"

"The Fox Indians, who lived in Wisconsin, regarded the light as an omen war and pestilence. To them the lights were the ghosts of their slain enemies who, restless for revenge, tried to rise up again."

"Dancing Spirits"

"The Salteaus Indians of eastern Canada and the Kwakiutl and Tlingit of Southeastern Alska interpreted the northern lights as the dancing of human spirits. The Eskimos who lived on the lower Yukon River believed that the aurora was the dance of an animal spirits, especially those of deer, seals, salmon, and beluga."

"Game of Ball"

"Most Eskimos groups have a myth of the northern lights as the spirits of the dead playing ball with a walrus head or skull. The Eskimos of Nunivak Island had the oppisith idea, of walrus spirits playing with a human skull."

"Spirits of Childern"

"The east Greenland Eskimos thought that the northern lights were the spirits of childern who died at birth. The dancing of the childern round and round caused the continually moving streamers and draperies of the aurora."

"Fires in the North"

"The Mandan Indians of North Dakota thought the lights were fires in the Far North, over which a tribe of dwarfs, half the length of a canoe paddle and so strong the caught whales with their hands, boiled blubber."

"Stew Pots"

"The Mandan of North Dakota expained the northern lights as fires over which the great medicine man and warriors of northern nations simmered their dead enemies in enormous pots. The Menominee Indians of Wisconsin regarded the lights as torches used by great, friendly giants in the north, to spear fish at night."

"Creator Reminder"

"An Algonquin myth tells of when Nanahbozho, creator of Earth, had finished his task of creation, he traveled to the north, where he remained. He built large fires, of which the northern lights are reflections, to remind his people that he still thinks of them."