“For seven months each year, the subarctic environment is transformed by a gift (or perhaps some would say a curse) of the weather. This, of course, is snow. By midwinter the land is covered by soft powder lying two to six feet deep in the forest, hardened to dunelike drifts on the broad lakes and rivers, creating a nivean world of its own. The coming of snow is forecast by many signs… When the sky is bright orange at sunrise there will be snow, "usually two mornings later." Perhaps the best sign of snow is a moondog, a luminous circle around a bright winter moon. When the Koyukon speak of it, they say, "the moon pulls his (parka] ruff around his face," as if he is telling them that snow is coming soon.

The Koyukon people regard snow as an elemental part of their world, much like the river, the air, or the sun. It can be a great inconvenience at times, but mostly it is a benefit. Without snow, the ease and freedom of winter travel would be lost, the movements of animals would not be faithfully recorded, the winter darkness would be far deeper, and the quintessential beauty of the world would be lessened. I never heard Koyukon people complain about snow, even when it stubbornly refused to melt away in late spring.”