INUVIK
Famous reindeer herder, former RCMP special constable and all-around legend Otto Binder has died.

Otto Binder was most comfortable out on the land or on the water, where he spent as much time as he could. - photo courtesy of Kristian Binder

"Even when he was 85, he was helping to move the herd," said his son, Lloyd Binder. "In the last years, when he became less mobile, he was always there to consult, and to give advice. I always had someone to ask."

Otto died last week at 93 after contracting pneumonia. His son said Otto was fully aware of what was happening and had made his peace with it.

"He was very perceptive of all things natural," Lloyd said. "Weather, winds, water . it allowed him to be able to take a few more risks."

That connection with the land was the hallmark of Otto's life. Born near Kugluktuk in 1921, he grew up for the most part in Tuktoyaktuk. Lloyd said his father learned early to be self-reliant and took off from town for a winter when he was around 15 years old and, along with another boy, spent the season in the bush, only returning when they got sick of eating ptarmigan.

As a teenager, he attended the mission school at Shingle Point, where he was when he witnessed the reindeer cross into Canada in 1935. The sight sparked what became a lifelong career with the beasts, and he soon moved to Reindeer Station to work in the industry.

"He was captivated with the thought of having caribou - because the reindeer were brought in to replace the caribou - just there, to not have to go chasing after it," Lloyd said. "He acquired his own herd, but had to turn it over to the government a few years later."

A herder in his own right, Lloyd said the land his father had to support the reindeer was not remotely sufficient. By that point, Otto had small children and needed work, so he moved to Aklavik where there was more opportunity and a school. Soon after, a position with the RCMP came up and Otto jumped at the chance.

"His main task was to feed and maintain the sled dogs," Lloyd said, adding that this involved a whole lot of fishing. "He translated for the RCMP between English and Inuvialuktun, and generally helped maintain good relations with people in the region."

After 25 years as a special constable, Otto semi-retired and took up piloting barges on the river for another decade. Throughout his many careers, an ability to read the water and the land served him - and others - well. Lloyd recalled how a particular story from the 1940s still comes up in when he visits Paulatuk, about how his father was up that way and rescued two women from a capsized boat.

"There's no record of it," Lloyd said. "But it comes up sometimes."

Another time, Otto had taken four young men up to the coast to hunt geese. Having gotten up in the middle of the night to relieve himself, Otto noticed the water behaving strangely and roused the camp. By then, the water had risen several feet up the shore and there was only time to grab the basics and jump in one of the boats. Otto and the boys clung to willows on higher ground all night and into the day as the water surged around them. As it turned out, there had been an earthquake in Alaska and it had set off a tidal wave that wracked the Arctic coast.

"The camp was washed out, they never found anything from it. He was never a bragger, when he told stories, it was always for something else," said Lloyd. "He was a very good teacher for that, teaching by example."

Even after his retirement from barging, Otto spent his time on the land, sometimes for months at a time.

"It was bush life as a holiday," Lloyd said, chuckling.

He admitted he and his father were different in many ways - he said he did not inherit that ease his father had with reading the weather and the land that so defined him - but that they shared an affinity for reindeer.

"That's something you're lucky to find in a herding family, once every two or three generations or so," he said. "If anyone were to compare me with my father, I would hope that that would be a positive."

After a failed attempt in the 1970s, Lloyd said they had formed a company in 2001 to take over a herd, fulfilling Otto's lifelong dream. He was involved in one way or another right up until his death.