Elder wrestles polar bear - and wins

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Standing face-to-face with a female polar bear protecting two cubs and wrestling that bear to save yourself and your family is the stuff of Arctic legends.

And if that's case, then Rankin Inlet Elder Moses Aliyak is a living, breathing legend.

On July 19, 1994, Aliyak, his wife Simona and grandson Kuuk were at their cabin outside of Rankin Inlet when the most dangerous of all Northern creatures paid them a visit.

And Aliyak, so taken by surprise that he didn't even have time to go for his rife, fought the bear off with his bare hands - and with such courage that the bear conceded victory and bounded away.

Aliyak explained that he and his wife and grandson were out hunting geese, and that morning were preparing to collect eggs.

They had just had tea. Kuuk was on top of the cabin, Simona was cleaning out

the tea pot, and Aliyak had picked up his binoculars and was walking away. The bear, attracted to a pot of caribou stew, had wandered over to their boat. None of them had noticed it.

Simona saw the bear first. She saw a dog near their boat, and then saw the bear nearby. When the bear started running towards her, she turned and ran back to the cabin.

Aliyak saw his wife running to the cabin and realized that the bear was after her, so he ran back as well. The bear then spotted Aliyak, changed direction, and ran towards him.

The bear gave Aliyak a shove and Aliyak, tired from running back to the cabin, fell down. When the bear took a swipe at him, her claw got stuck in Aliyak's jacket. Aliyak said that at this point he was almost on his stomach.

Aliyak scrambled to his feet and the bear let our a roar. He was now face to

face with her. then Simona had the rifle, but she couldn't get a clear shot at the bear without the risk of hitting her husband. So she prayed instead.

Aliyak said that, in the moment that he and the bear stood together, his wife prayed for him to gather the strength to conquer the mother bear. He said he knew her thoughts were with him.

Somebody must have been listening, because Aliyak then gave the bear a great push, knocking her flat on her back. She'd had enough of Aliyak. So she got to her feet, turned toward her cubs, and ran off with them.

The silence that followed the scene was broken by Kuuk. He came down from his cabin and went over to his grandfather.

"Let's just go home," Kuuk said.

And that they did - with no fresh eggs but a story to tell for decades to come. Aliyak said he encourages everyone who goes out on the land to take a dog with them to warn them of danger.

(Written from an interview conducted and translated by Nunatsiaq News Inuktitut editor Clara Kolit.)