It is said that the Dolgans owe their very existence to the mammoth. Their creation myth tells how, when the world was only water, the mammoth Heli and the serpent Dzhabdar transformed it into a habitat suitable for people: Heli used her tusks to create the mountains and the serpent made rivers so the water could flow away, creating a place for the Dolgans to live. When Heli was finished she died, following the rest of her species into extinction in the permafrost.