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History

Like many Aboriginal groups in Canada, the Haida believe there was a time when great animals and birds lived on the earth. The Haida believe that these great beings are the spirits of the smaller animals and birds that we know today. Sometimes what we think of as legends actually developed because of people passing down stories of things that happened long ago. The Haida's belief in great animals and birds may be one example of this.

Source		Source
Cast of giant beaver skeleton		Model of a giant beaver

Many thousands of years ago, during the last Ice Age, great creatures such as the mastodon, giant beaver and wooly mammoth roamed the earth. These animals were much larger than the animals we know today. It is possible that the Haida's beliefs come from hearing stories, through their oral traditions, about these animals.