As Brown Bear walked, he asked the same question of each tree and animal he passed. “Where do we go when we die?” But none answered until finally he heard the smallest squeak of a mouse near the foot of an oak tree. The mouse told him that she knew where the dead made camp and that she would show Brown Bear the way.

He chased the mouse through the woods for hours. At last, he passed under a great felled elm and knew he had found the camp of the dead. He walked brazenly through the large circle of houses and passed the burning fires but saw no one. When he came to the largest home in the village, he walked in without stopping for he knew that the largest home would be that of his sister, the wife of the ty-ee, or chief.

“Have you died, Brother?” Ioi asked, surprised to see him.

“No, I have come here to see you for you were taken from me so suddenly.” Brown Bear’s heart leapt at the sight of her but was stung by her coldness.

Soon, he explored the rest of the village but saw no one. Inside many of the homes, he saw piles of bones. He asked Ioi why there was a pile of bones near the bed in her home, too.

“That is no ‘pile of bones,’ dear Brown Bear! That is your brother-in-law, my husband!”

Brown Bear was confused. He had never known his sister to lie, but she was blatantly lying now!

When night fell, the village filled with people.

“Where did all the people come from?” he asked Ioi.

“Dear Brother, those are not people. They are ghosts,” she said plainly. “You should follow them. If you are going to stay with us, you should learn to hunt and gather as we do.”

Bewildered again at his sister’s lies, he agreed to leave on a fishing trip. He joined a canoe with only one man to guide it. They set out with the young man steering the vessel and Brown Bear casting the net. Again and again, he cast his net and each time it returned with the same result: wet leaves and a few sticks! Frustrated, he flung the rubbish back into the water. He wondered why these people insisted on fishing at night! For surely, if he could see, he would be more successful. As it was, half of the leaves that he tried to fling back into the water ended up in the canoe at his feet.

In anger, he turned to his companion and exclaimed, “This net has something wrong! I can’t catch anything!”

But there where the young man had sat was nothing but a dusty pile of bones.

Brown Bear was shocked and confused. The young man had just been there. He had steered the canoe! As day broke over the eastern horizon, Brown Bear reached over the pile of bones for the oars and rowed back to camp.

“Not too bad a catch for such a cold spring night.” The young man spoke over Brown Bear’s shoulder.

Brown Bear jumped, startled and turned to see the young man sitting in the canoe, sifting through the piles of leaves and grass that had fallen to the bottom of the canoe. His confusion grew.

When they arrived back at the village they were met by other villagers. Happily, they gathered piles of leaves and sticks and carried them back to their fires. He saw one young woman, smiling broadly, carrying a dead moss-covered log to the home of his sister, as if it were some great gift!

Confused and angry now, Brown Bear strode up to Ioi’s home. There he found her and his brother-in-law, a tall proud man with broad shoulders, greeting the young fisherwoman and thanking her graciously for the gift. In his arms where the mossy log had been, Brown Bear saw a fat sea lion.

All around the camp, there were happy smiles, but none was shared with Brown Bear.

Brown Bear stayed in camp for some time but never felt welcome. He would be talking with his sister, and the next moment she was gone. The home empty but for the dusty and bones. But even when she was there, their conversations were filled with nothing but lies and tricks! She would hand him a plate of “food” which she called salmon or trout. But what she gave him was a pile of soggy leaves. Brown Bear’s heart ached.

He wanted things to be as they were. He wanted to spend time talking with his sweet Ioi and share in the day’s hunt with her and her husband. But it was not to be.

Feeling more alone than ever, he made the journey home. He lived many years, but he always missed his sister and felt bitter at how she coldly she had treated him on his visit. One day, a fire ran wild through his village and took Brown Bear from this life.

When next he saw his sister, her smile was radiant! She welcomed him warmly and brought him into her home where her husband greeted him as family. They feasted that night on whale meat and sang with joy!

Brown Bear asked his sister about the change. "My sweet Brown Bear, you are dead now. And that is all the difference. Only now can we really be together again."

For my tenas, we must understand that when our loved ones have gone to the village of the ghosts, we can never truly be with them again in this lifetime. They are there, keeping the fires warm for us, but they are forever out of our reach as long as we live. We must heed the warning of sister mouse and never seek the dead until it is our time to join them.