The Gitxsan people of British Columbia tell how many years ago a man carried off one of their maidens into the sky. She came back down eventually, and the man turned into a grizzly bear. The maiden's brothers killed the bear without realizing what they were doing. They brought its skin to the riverside, and here the Gitxsans have dwelled ever since. This story, preserved for centuries by tribal elders, has been admitted as evidence of a legal claim to thousands of square miles of British Columbia by the Supreme Court of Canada. As reported in the New York Times, it may reflect a change in attitude by the Canadian people. In a related development, the Candian Government formally apologized to the country's aboriginal people for a century and a half of mistreatment.