Gwich'in elder points to handgames issue
It's not in their culture to play, says Charlie Snowshow
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Thursday, May 25, 2017
INUVIK
The reason some Gwich'in people do not play handgames today is because of the destruction of their culture in the past, says Fort McPherson elder Charlie Snowshoe.
Charlie Snowshoe, pictured here receiving an Indspire Award in 2014, says the reason many Gwich'in people in the North no longer play handgames is because their culture was suppressed. - NNSL file photo
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He was responding to an editorial in the Inuvik Drum questioning the practice's history and attitudes toward it in different communities.
"In the olden days, way back in the 1700s, the Gwich'in people had their ways of traditional games, they had their own beliefs, which is what they used before the missionaries came in," said Snowshoe.
Snowshoe says that when the missionaries came, the Gwich'in people were told that their beliefs were not right.
His mother-in-law passed a story on to him of the missionaries asking the people to pile up items representative of their beliefs and ways of life.
"What they did is they got whatever they got, (and) they burned everything," said Snowshoe. "The only thing they couldn't burn was a drum song."
That's what happened to his people in Fort McPherson, Dawson, Old Crow and Fort Yukon, he said.
"Dawson, they got (their culture) back," he said.
"Fort Yukon got it back. Old Crow and McPherson, they have nothing, absolutely nothing."
Responding to the editorial, Snowshoe said, "You're asking the question how come we don't have handgames? We got absolutely nothing on our side."
There are old time dances, he said, but those are modern dances.
'Pretty well brainwashed'
"The elders were so brainwashed into their religion they don't want to talk about anything that our people used to believe in," said Snowshoe.
"That's a fact. Very few people might say this is what we used to do at one time, this is what we believe in.
"Maybe 10 per cent of our people talk about the traditional knowledge, but concerning the religion part of it, they're pretty well brainwashed."
He said it's not that some Gwich'in don't like handgames, but that they've never had it. He believes most people would enjoy them if exposed to the games.
"It's not that they don't like it. It's that they don't know too much about it," he said.
The Inuvialuit still have their drum dance, he said.
"What do you see from our side, the Gwich'in people? Fort McPherson, Inuvik, Aklavik, Old Crow, nothing."
Snowshoe relayed a story about a Gwich'in gathering in Old Crow two years ago, saying some young children started dancing to a drum dance but were told by an adult not to go up and dance anymore.
"I just happened to see that and the chief was beside me," said Snowshoe. "The way I look at it, it's in their blood, and the chief made a sign to them (to) go, and they all went back and really enjoyed themselves."
He said it's a shame about how many elders are gone but he wants young people to understand what really happened and why cultures in different regions vary.
