Anne-Marie Jennings
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 22/98) - It was bought for $25 back in 1894 and taken to the University of Iowa.

Few people had ever seen it since. But last weekend, it was put on display for everyone to see.

The item in question is a 105-year-old caribou skin lodge once owned by Dogrib Chief Bear Lake in what was then known as Fort Rae.

Known to his followers and the Hudson's Bay Company as K'aawidaa or "highest trader," Chief Bear Lake had many other identities. To the church, he was known as Francis Yambi. Elders in Rae Lakes knew him as Gochiata, yet in church records in Fort Norman he was Eyirape or Francis Eyambi.

During his life, Bear Lake helped many explorers in their travels, providing information on trails and routes further North.

One of those he helped was Frank Russell, whom he first met in 1893. Back then, the 24-year-old graduate student from the University of Iowa was travelling through the Mackenzie Valley on a natural history expedition.

Using Fort Rae as his base, Russell returned to Iowa with more 600 natural history specimens and 300 artifacts, including Bear Lake's teepee. While many of the artifacts were put on display, the caribou skin lodge remained in storage.

Russell never returned to Fort Rae once he went home. He died in 1903 of tuberculosis -- contracted while in the North -- at the age of 35.

The teepee was returned to Yellowknife and to the Dogrib people of Rae earlier this month.

But how did the tent make its way back to the land to which it belongs?

In 1994, subarctic archaeologist Tom Andrews was introduced to June Helm, an anthropologist from the University of Iowa who worked with the people of Rae from 1959 to 1970. In their many conversations, Helms told Andrews the story of Russell and Bear Lake, and when Andrews asked if there was way the teepee could be brought back to the North, Helm offered to help.

Many Dogrib can trace their roots back to Chief Bear Lake, including his grandson, Grand Chief Joe Rabesca. During the repatriation ceremony, Rabesca spoke not only of the historical value of the teepee, but of the social significance of its return.

Rabesca also spoke of his appreciation of the choice of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre as a permanent home for the teepee, as he is certain it would be well preserved for the future.

The Dogrib caribou skin lodge of Chief Bear Lake is currently on display at the Northern Heritage Centre, and will be until October.