Denahi

**Denahi** is a male human.

He is the brother of Sitka and Kenai. **Denahi and his younger brother, Kenai, grew up under the care and tutelage of their elder brother, Sitka. They learned to hunt, fish, and contribute to their tribe together, which forged an inseparable bond between them. As an adolescent, Denahi witnessed Sitka die in a fight with a bear, which Kenai had instigated. As a result, Denahi blamed Sitka's death on Kenai, which drove Kenai to pursue and kill the bear to avenge Sitka's death.** Though Denahi attempted to stop Kenai, he arrived at the scene of the fight to find Kenai gone and a bear standing in his place. Unaware that the bear was really a transformed Kenai, Denahi swore his vengeance and embarked on a quest to slay the bear. Denahi made many attempts on Kenai's life, even endangering himself in the process, and almost succeeded until Sitka interfered and transformed Kenai back into a human. **With Kenai restored to his natural form, the brothers reconciled, and Denahi denounced his original mission to enact revenge. Due to his time as a bear and his bond with a bear cub named Koda, Kenai chose to remain a bear, and Denahi gave him his blessing.** Later, Denahi officiated the ceremony in which Kenai placed his paw print on the wall of their ancestors. Eventually, Denahi went on to succeed Tanana as the shaman of their tribe, to whom he related the story of Kenai's miraculous transformation.

## Biography

### Background

Denahi was born as the younger brother of Sitka and the elder brother of Kenai. It is implied that Sitka raised and took care of both him and Kenai. **When he came of age, Denahi received his totem: the Wolf of Wisdom.**

### *Brother Bear 001*

While out with his brothers, Sitka and Kenai, Denahi spots Kenai fleeing a stampede of caribou. The brothers take shelter behind their canoes, though one of the caribou kicks Denahi in the head. After the herd passes, Denahi tackles Kenai and starts drooling in his face, only for Sitka to seize his brothers in headlocks and lecture them for fighting. Denahi continues to tease Kenai for being their "baby brother" and for making such a big deal out of his upcoming ceremony. This spins Kenai into a fury, and the two start squabbling again, but Sitka promptly breaks it up, reminding them that they can only return to the village once they have caught enough fish. **The brothers return to their canoes and paddle back to the village. Along the way, Denahi and Sitka catch fish with a net, but Kenai disrupts their work by riding on a mammoth. Though Sitka is amused, Denahi is annoyed. Eventually, the boys catch enough fish and return to the village, where Kenai deposits their catch into a basket and ties it into a tree. Meanwhile, Denahi and Sitka run ahead to the village.** During the ceremony, Denahi and Sitka spectate while the tribe's shawoman, Tanana, gives Kenai his totem: the Bear of Love. This causes Denahi to snicker. After the ceremony, Denahi teases Kenai for his totem, showering him with flowers and calling him "lover boy." Sitka orders Denahi to take care of the fish, and he saunters off, only to get bitten in the hind by a dog. **Once free, Denahi finds that a bear had made off with their catch due to Kenai's failure to tie up the basket properly. He yells at Kenai for the error, complaining that it had taken him two weeks to make the basket. This prompts Kenai to fetch his spear and take off after the bear in an effort to retrieve Denahi's basket. Unable to stop Kenai from leaving, Sitka glares at Denahi.** Shortly after Kenai leaves, Denahi and Sitka set off after him. They find him being attacked by a bear and so rush to his rescue. While Sitka helps Kenai climb off a ledge, Denahi distracts the bear and lures it onto an unstable glacier. However, he falls through a fissure in the ice, and Kenai rushes over to help him. In the meantime, Sitka takes on the bear, though he is quickly overpowered. As the bear advances on a prone Denahi and Kenai, Sitka stabs his spear into the ice, breaking the glacier and causing it to fall into the water below, taking himself and the bear with it. **After Sitka's fall, Denahi and Kenai climb down the glacier after him. They comb the water for him, but find only his hood. While Kenai stubbornly refuses to give up hope, Denahi holds Sitka's hood sadly, halting his search.** That night, the tribe holds a funeral for Sitka, during which Denahi looks on sorrowfully. Shortly afterward, Kenai implores Denahi to help him track down and kill the bear that had killed Sitka. Denahi refuses, claiming that such a course of action would be wrong, and coldly tells Kenai that he does not blame the bear for Sitka's death. He then reminds Kenai that killing the bear will not make him a man, but Kenai simply mocks him for trying to be wise. In a desperate bid to change Kenai's mind, Denahi says that he is simply trying to follow his totem and that Kenai should do the same, but Kenai ignores this, asserting that a man would not simply do nothing. Denahi warns Kenai not to upset the Great Spirits, but Kenai brushes him aside, throws his totem in the embers of the funeral pyre, and leaves. After a bit, Denahi grabs Kenai's totem and follows. **Denahi tracks Kenai to the Mountain Where the Lights Touch the Earth, unaware that Kenai had killed the bear and subsequently been transformed into a bear by the Great Spirits as punishment. He finds Kenai's bear form stumbling among the remains of torn clothing and so assumes that Kenai is dead. However, before the two can have a confrontation, a fork of lightning sends Kenai falling off the side of the mountain into a raging river below. Meanwhile, Denahi resolves to hunt down the bear and avenge Kenai's death.** Eventually, Denahi tracks Kenai to a forest and makes an attempt on his life, but Kenai manages to escape into an ice cave. Denahi's actions shock Kenai, who does not understand why Denahi has had such a fierce change of heart about revenge. **The next morning, Denahi explores the ice cave where Kenai had been hiding, only to find it empty. He leaves the cave and glares up at two nearby moose, Rutt and Tuke, who flee in a panic. The moose track down Kenai and beg him for protection against Denahi. Kenai agrees, and the party rides on mammoths in order to hide their trail from Denahi.** Despite Kenai's efforts to conceal his location, Denahi eventually catches up to him at the Valley of Fire. He throws a spear at Kenai, narrowly missing, and Kenai uses a geyser to temporarily disable Denahi. With Denahi winded, Kenai and his companion, Koda, hasten to cross a gorge by way of a fallen log. Denahi soon catches up to them and heaves one end of the log into the ravine, aiming to take them with it. However, to Denahi's outrage, Kenai makes it safely to the other side. **As Kenai and Koda walk away, Denahi angrily clutches Kenai's totem in one fist, then jumps across the gorge with a scream, barely catching on to the still-hanging log. Kenai cries out for his brother and tries to stop the log from falling, but it plunges into the river below, taking Denahi with it. To Kenai's relief, Denahi surfaces, alive and uninjured, and is carried away by the current.** Later, Denahi huddles against the cold on the Mountain Where the Lights Touch the Earth. He apologizes to Kenai's spirit and admits that he does not know what he is doing anymore. Just then, an eagle appears and flies off, tugging at Denahi's hood as it does so. Recognizing the eagle as Sitka, Denahi follows it. **The eagle leads Denahi to Kenai, and the two have a final confrontation. Their fight takes them to a cliff, and the two fall a great height to a ledge below. With Kenai weak and winded, Denahi prepares to finish him off, only to be knocked aside by Koda. Once recovered, Denahi lunges for his fallen spear, but Koda runs away with it in his mouth. Terrified that Denahi will hurt Koda, Kenai races after him. Denahi manages to recover his spear and turns to impale Kenai, but Sitka's spirit intervenes, lifting Kenai out of harm's way.** As Denahi watches, Sitka transforms Kenai back into a human, and Denahi realizes with horror that the bear he had been trying to kill was his brother. Meanwhile, Kenai has a touching moment with Koda, during which he tells Sitka that Koda needs him. Denahi jokes that Kenai had looked better as a bear, and though Kenai laughs at first, he quickly turns somber and worries over Denahi's fate. At this, Denahi tells him that they will always be brothers, no matter what Kenai chooses. The two embrace, and Sitka honors Kenai's request by transforming him back into a bear. The three brothers share a final tender moment before Sitka rejoins the Great Spirits. **Later, Denahi becomes Tanana's successor as the village shaman. As such, he officiates Kenai's ceremony to place his paw print on the wall of his ancestors.** Many years pass, with Denahi growing into an old man, and he tells the story of him and his brothers to the village. He concludes the story by explaining that Kenai had gone on to live with the bears of the Salmon Run and had become a man by becoming a bear.

## Physical Appearance Characteristics

Denahi is identifiable by his outfit: a blue parka with white trim. While hunting Kenai, Denahi wears a cloak against the cold weather and carries a spear. **As the middle brother, Denahi is the second largest in size. He is several inches shorter than his elder brother Sitka, with a slightly smaller build. However, he is taller and beefier than his younger brother Kenai, with wider shoulders and a taller stature. Like his tribesmen, Denahi is bronze-skinned and has dark hair, which he lets grow to the base of his neck with a single braid to one side. His eyes are brown.** After embarking on a mad quest to get revenge on the bear that he believed killed both his brothers, Denahi stops taking care of his appearance. He grows a scraggly moustache and goatee, and his hair grows noticeably longer and wilder. However, after realizing that Kenai is alive, Denahi returns his appearance to its usual state. **As an old man, Denahi looks much the same, just noticeably more wrinkled and with white hair. He sports the same moustache and goatee as before.**

## Personality and traits

Of his brothers, Denahi is the least serious. He is prone to cracking jokes, making sardonic remarks, and teasing his younger brother, Kenai. However, he will defer to and obey his elder brother, Sitka, even if he is in the middle of causing mischief. He takes his duties as a member of his tribe seriously and works hard to produce good products and labor, which is a source of tension between him and Kenai, as the latter continually ruins Denahi's hard work with his antics. **When upset, Denahi has a fierce temper and can be harshly critical. This anger does not interfere with his conscience, as he continually makes attempts to follow his totem despite any animosity he may feel. He serves as a voice of reason to Kenai, trying to talk him down from his rage and thirst for revenge.** Denahi's temperament suffers a major blow when he believes that Kenai was killed by the same bear that had killed Sitka. At this point, Denahi embraces his anger and pursues the bear to avenge the deaths of his brothers. He becomes callous, violent, and savage, displaying hostility for a pair of harmless moose and even a small bear cub. **As Denahi's hunt for the bear goes on, he descends slowly into madness. He stops taking care of his appearance, growing a scraggly mustache and goatee, and lashes out with extreme anger whenever he fails to kill the bear. His actions gradually become more desperate and wild, and he shows disregard for his own life by throwing himself into dangerous situations.** After discovering that the bear he had been pursuing was Kenai, Denahi is humbled and horrified by what he has done. He shows acceptance and understanding for Kenai's decision to remain a bear and proves his unconditional love by declaring that they will always be brothers, no matter their circumstances. Denahi's change of heart is so exceptional that he becomes Tanana's successor as leader of the tribe, proving that he has fully embraced his totem's virtue: wisdom.

## Trivia

* Denahi is voiced by Jason Raize. His elderly Inuit voice is provided by Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley, while his elderly English voice is provided by Harold Gould.
* Despite being a major character in *Brother Bear*, Denahi is neither seen nor mentioned in the sequel.
* During early production of *Brother Bear*, Denahi was going to be Kenai's father rather than his brother.

## References

1. ↑ Jason Raize. *IMDb*. Amazon. Retrieved on June 25, 2020.
2. ↑ Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley. *IMDb*. Amazon. Retrieved on June 29, 2020.
3. ↑ Harold Gould. *IMDb*. Amazon. Retrieved on June 29, 2020.
4. ↑ Revealed in Disney's *Brother Bear 2* (2006). Written by Rich Burns, and directed by Ben Gluck. Distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc.
5. ↑ Brother Bear: Das Interview mit Ruben Aquino. *OutNow* (January 11, 2003). Archived from the original on April 17, 2009. Retrieved on June 28, 2020.