Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Colville Lake (Aug 21/00) - Fall has always been a cherished season for residents of this Sahtu community.

It's more than just a changing of seasons.

It's also the beginning of the caribou hunt, and for this community of fewer than 100 people, its significance means more than the bounty of fresh meat it provides.

According to sub-chief Alvin Orlias, the fall hunt -- which begins Aug. 28 -- offers a spiritual link to their past and knowledge for their future.

"It's not so much for the meat, but a traditional thing," Orlias says.

Each fall for the last six years more than half the community -- men, women and children -- pick up and head towards Horton Lake, about 160 kilometres east.

Even though the journey is now made by float plane, the people of Colville Lake take pride in retracing a route older than most memories can be expected to recall.

"In the old days people use to walk out there with their dog packs in the fall-time," Orlias says.

"The people here really enjoy it. It's a time to get back to your roots. You go out there and set up your camp, and bring out your children. It's like a tent city out there."

Even though the caribou habitually migrate through and even stay near Colville Lake throughout the winter months, Orlias says fall is the best season to hunt.

"We shoot nothing but straight bulls in the fall-time because they're good and fat just before the rut," Orlias says.

"After the rut, they start letting out their scent and they don't taste as good."

This year, Colville Lake will be joined by approximately 30 people from nearby Fort Good Hope.

"Last year, some members of the community participated in the hunt," says Ronald Pierott, a community council member in Fort Good Hope, who is organizing the trip this year for the hamlet.

Pierott says an important reason for joining Colville Lake on this year's fall hunt is to offer youth offenders a chance to take part in an experience very much at the centre of Sahtu Dene culture.

"We want wanted to bring some troubled youth along," Pierott says.

"We want to teach them the traditional values in ways of identifying medication from herbs on the land, learning how the caribou migrate, and learning what our ancestors did on the barrens."

In any case, whether people come to stock up on meat until winter, or in the hope of teaching their children traditional values, the main emphasis remains on simply having fun.

"It's a really big event for Colville Lake," Orlias says. "We're already looking forward to it in the spring."