Woodland Caribou
Rangifer tarandus caribou
Status: Critically Endangered. Highly adapted to a boreal ecosystem, they are threatened by habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation, as well as industrial-scale resource extraction.
Caribou have an essential relationship with the Innu Tribes, for the nomadic tribes relied on the animals and hunted them, but also deeply respected the spirit of the creatures. For the Innu, the spirit world is bound to the real world seamlessly and the shamans would communicate with the spirits with their drums. Animal Masters within Innu mythology are supernatural beings who give the people permission to hunt the creatures in a respectful way, for food and for the materials to support their livelihood. They ensure that the people follow the traditions and hunting rituals, else face famine and repercussions.
Among the Animal Masters, Caribou Man (Kanipinikassikueu), is one of the most important leaders. He is sometimes said to have once been a man, who fell in love with a caribou-woman and was transformed into a caribou. This marriage and transformation between human and caribou highlights the mutual nature of the relationship of hunters and the animals, and how life is thus granted by sacrifice.
References:
Native Languages: Caribou Man (Kanipinikassikueu)
http://www.native-languages.org/caribou-man.htm
Walker, John (1996). Place of the Boss: Utshimassits. National Film Board of Canada https://vimeo.com/247193637
Blaser, M. (2014). Ontology and indigeneity: on the political ontology of heterogeneous assemblages. Cultural Geographies, 21(1), 49-58. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26168541
Innu Mythology, archived from innu.ca https://web.archive.org/web/20050828084236/http://innu.ca/myth.html
Interview of Jerry Alfred (Northern Tutchone, Selkirk First Nation) by Hubl Greiner in Pelly Crossing, Canada, 2013. Telling of the legend of "Caribou Man" by Jerry Alfred. https://www.hubl.com/interview-with-first-nations-musician-jerry-alfred/