"Traditional Chipewyan apprehension of reality is based upon the felt need to maintain reciprocal communication with each other and with other-than-human-beings, especially with the animal people, upon whom they were (and, for some, are) dependent" (Smith, World As Event 73).

"As an old man succinctly and eloquently told me, ‘By inkoze the people helped each other to live before. It’s the animals that give inkoze to the people. Animals are always the best medicine people" (Smith, World as Event 74).

"Just as dreams are not dualistically distinct from waking life, the animal’s spiritual aspect is never separated from the material aspect. When someone goes to the roots it is to a real place in the bush, and the person is fully awake, although experiencing heightened awareness. The experience might thus be labeled an epiphany. The animal appears – not the animal’s vaporous spirit but the entire animal – and communicates with the person, giving instructions on the use of power roots, power songs, decorations for one’s tambourine drum, or other such teachings as may be associated with one’s particular gift of power" (Smith, World as Event 83).