In Inuit mythology, Nanook (Inuktitut: ᓇᓄᖅ,[1] [na.'nuq],[2] lit. "Polar Bear") was the master of bears, meaning he decided if hunters deserved success in finding and hunting bears and punished violations of taboos.[3] The word was popularized by Nanook of the North, the first feature-length documentary.
In northern Canada and Alaska there is small culture of Native peoples who told legends and myths about creatures of the North. These are the Inuit people, and they have many legends about bears, Nanuk in particular. The Nanook was the Bear God of the Inuit and decided if hunters would be successful or not. The Hunters had a good chance of being cursed if they break the rules of hunting.
The Inuit used and worshiped polar Bears. They hunted them and used their hide for trousers to keep their hunters warm. The Inuit believed that the Polar bear, also goes by the name of Nanuk, was powerful and mighty and that he was "almost man." There is a legend that states " if a hunter did not pay respect to the bears after the hunt, then the bears would stay away.
Nanuk was known as the Bear God, He was a great Polar Bear, and the Inuit hunters would worship this great bear because they believed that he decided if the Hunters would be successful or not that day. “In the past, the Inuit ate polar bear meat and used the fur to make warm trousers for men and kamiks (soft boots) for women”.[4] Respect was given to Nanuk when a Bear was killed by the hunter hanging the bear’s hide in a special section of his igloo and it would stay there for a few days. They would also offer the bear’s spirit weapons and other hunting tools to the bear if it was a male. If the bear was female however, it would be offered needle cases, scrapers used to scrape the fat off of the hides, and knives. “Native people believed that polar bears allowed themselves to be killed in order to obtain the souls of the tools (tatkoit), which they would take with them into the hereafter.”[4] “Legend says that if a dead polar bear was treated properly by the hunter, it would share the good news with other bears so they would be eager to be killed by him. Bears would stay away from hunters who failed to pay respect.”[4]