'The angle between earth and the sun changed'

Since I travel through the Arctic, I ask people what's their explanation for climate change. Some of the older hunters, who rely on the position of the sun for reasons of navigation, have an answer I never could explain: 'The angle between earth and the sun changed'. I got this answer many times in all different places.

Last week I read an article from a Belgian journalist who interviewed a hunter in Gjoa Haven, Northern Canada, and he told her the same answer: 'The angle of the sun changed'. I couldn't resist and contacted a friend of mine who next week will receive his Ph.D. in astronomy. His response was overwhelming: he asked me if I had a brain collapse. The angle between earth and the sun didn't change, and never will in the next thousands of years!
I can't get it out of my mind. Did the composition of atmospheric gasses change so that the breaking angle changed? I still don't have an explanation, but am sure that something changed. Who knows the answer?