Gwich'in pilgrimage
Delta Gwich'in journey to Alaska

Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Jun 19/98) - About 60 Gwich'in from the Mackenzie Delta region will be making the journey to Fort Yukon this weekend to take part in the annual Gwitch'in Assembly.

About 25 Inuvik Gwich'in will go. And 40 Gwich'in will likely go each from Aklavik, Fort McPherson and Tsiigehtchic, according to Barry Greenland from the Gwich'in Tribal Council.

All told, about 1,000 Gwich'in from around the NWT, Yukon and Alaska will head to Fort Yukon, Alaska for the assembly held once every two years.

"It is to discuss language and culture of the Gwich'in, the importance of it all, and to give time to see relatives in Alaska," Greenland said.

And for at least one Inuvikmiut, the trip will be a new experience.

"I'm kind of looking forward to it," said elder Mabel English.

"I was never involved in it, (so) nobody informed me that there was a Gwich'in gathering. I'd just hear about it when it happened. Everybody leaves and then they'd come back and say, 'I was at a Gwich'in gathering in Fort Yukon.'"

The chance to meet relatives is what drives English's excitement.

She knows she has relatives in the Yukon and Alaska but has never met many.

"My grandfather's name was Peter Snowshoe and my grandmother's name was Mary," English said.

"Before she was married her name was Mary Steamboat, I think."

English has relatives in Old Crow, Fort Yukon, Mayo and Dawson.

"If I tell them who my grandfather is and whose my grandmother, maybe they will just come out of the woodwork and say 'Well, I'm...,' you know," said English, who has travelled across Canada on vacation but never to Alaska despite always wanting to.

Another relative English knows of is the name of Jacob Bonnetplume, an uncle of her father's, though she does not know where he is.

"There are so many young people (who feel) alone in this world -- no relatives, nothing," she said.

"Some youth nowadays, (parents) don't tell them who they are related to, who their relatives are from their great great-grandfathers. And they don't know. Some young people now, they even go with their own relatives so I think I will talk about that at the Gwich'in gathering, that we should start telling our children who their close relatives and where they come from."