The Caribou Master, variously known as Kanipinikassikueu, Katipenimitak, Papakashtshishk, or Caribou Man is a powerful spirit in traditional

Innu The Innu / Ilnu ("man", "person") or Innut / Innuat / Ilnuatsh ("people"), formerly called Montagnais from the French colonial period (French for "mountain people", English pronunciation: ), are the Indigenous inhabitants of territory in the n ...

religion and mythology, an indigenous people of present-day

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

and

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

. In the myth, an Innu man goes to live with the caribou. He marries one of the does and is himself transformed into caribou form. He becomes the master of the caribou and the provider of caribou for the Innu people.

References

Innu Myth
* Peter Armitage, "The Innu (the Montagnais-Naskapi)", ''Indians of North America'', Chelsea House Publishers, 1991, 1555467172, p. 83 * B. C. Goddard, "''Rangifer'' and Man: An ancient relationship", ''in'' Proc. Ninth Workshop North American Caribou, edd. S. Coutourier and Q. van Ginhoven, Kuujjuac, Quebec, 2003. '' Rangifer'' special volume 14, pp. 15–28 * Kaneuketat, Georg Henriksen, "I dreamed the animals: Kaniuekutat : the life of an Innu hunter", Berghahn Books, 2009, , pp. 110–111
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.
Algonquian mythology Animal gods Innu culture {{NorthAm-myth-stub