This episode of After Dark is sponsored by True Detective Night Country, which is set in Alaska.

It stars Jody Foster and Kaylee Reese, and it's available now to watch on Sky TV. At the bottom of the ocean, somewhere off the shores of the north slope of Alaska is a house.

Outside it is a dog. Inside is a woman called Nilea Yuk or Sedna, the lady who lives in the ocean.

She's the goddess of the sea, the one responsible for autumn storms that crash against the land and for the life in the water.

Despite her great power, she still bears the scars from the day long ago that she became a goddess.

Because where her fingers should be there are only stumps,

stumps left behind by her father's knife as he cut away the fingers that clung to the side of his boat.

Her crime? Disobedience after he bade her marry.

A Sedna sank into the water that day.

The blood poured from her wounds and became sea mammals that now swim in the sea and the dog, really her

shapeshifter husband and the reason she could not would not marry, dashed out

from the land to join her in their new home at the bottom of the ocean. The Hello and I to After Dark. I'm Anthony.

And I'm Maddie and today's episode is sponsored by True Detective Night Country.

I am so excited for this episode.

It is set in Alaska just as true detective is and today we are going to be

exploring two different and often opposing sets of Alaskan myths or stories and how that fits into history. First there is the vast complex

storytelling traditions of indigenous Alaskan communities. And then there are the myths created

by American settlers and colonists which talk about myths of Alaska as a wilderness, the so-called last frontier, myths that turn colonizers into so-called true Alaskans.

Our guest today is Professor Tia Tidwell.

Tia is Professor of Alaska Native Studies

at the University of Alaska Fairbanks,

and she belongs to the Nuneuug people of Anachtuvak Pass.

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