Derek Neary
Northern News Services

FORT SIMPSON (Sep 03/99) - One of the most remarkable qualities Eva Hope possesses is her thorough knack for detail.

Sitting in her office at Acho Dene Native Crafts in Fort Liard, which also serves as a tourist information centre, any business-related questions she can't answer by way of memory, she can look up in her files without hesitation.

"How many people have come through the craft shop this summer?" she's asked.

Not only does she come up with a number -- 820 visitors from May 18 to Aug. 25 -- she produces a list of their comments, recorded informally on a piece of bond paper. Among them:

"Great people and most interesting store; very interesting people."

"Love the North! The Dene!"

"Beautiful craft work."

This is just one of the keys that has seen Hope manage the craft business in the community for 23 years now.

"I like to have things organized," she explained, "so you find it easier."

Hope is now the general manager of the craft shop, which is owned by the NWT Development Corp. Currently, her duties include taking inventory, buying and pricing merchandise and writing monthly reports. Her dedication to the business and the upholding of traditions hasn't gone unnoticed by the Development Corp., which awarded her a plaque at their third annual assembly in Pangnirtung in 1995, marking 20 years of service.

"I like working with my own people. I think that's what I enjoy, being honest and straightforward with one another," she said of her perseverance. "I have a good relationship with the staff. We work well together."

She started work with the craft shop when it was opened in its former location in 1976. She had been a member of the Fort Liard Craft Council, which had been formed a year earlier. She fondly recalls attending workshops in the old community hall, making moccasins, birchbark baskets, porcupine quill work, beadwork and tanning moosehide.

Hope had first learned how to make crafts through instruction from her parents, Alex and Augustine Behile, who were residents of Fort Liard. Other elders also showed her a stitch or two.

"They would come and have coffee and talk about how arts and crafts were done a long, long time ago," she recalled.

Although the methods may have changed slightly, the finished product still closely resembles the originals, she said. Now close to 50 people produce crafts for the craft shop, the most popular of which remain the locally-made birchbark baskets. A promising sign is that the majority of the local crafters are women in their 30s.

"They're teaching it to their young daughters at home. They're passing it on to their children," said Hope.

Perhaps those children will begin creating crafts they will one day sell to Hope in the familiar environs of the craft shop.

"I never thought I'd work this long," she said. "I just take it year by year. If God's willing, I'll be willing to work as long as I can."

For the immediate future, she has a vacation on her mind now that the busy summer tourist season is beginning to wind down. Some time to go to the cabin, relax and enjoy some moose meat.