Kotan-kar-kamuy

Kotan-kar-kamuy means ‘the deity who makes villages’. The missionary John Batchelor held that every other kamuy answered to him as eternal ruler of the universe, but later scholars doubt this, noting that he is only rarely worshipped.

One myth tells how he tried to make fire as a gift for humankind. A poplar drill failed and turned into evil spirits; an elm succeeded, and from its white shavings came the huntress goddess Hasinaw-uk-kamuy, and from the black the Mountain God, the bear.