Philip Goulet is almost blind, but none of that stops the 80-year-old Yellowknives Dene First Nation elder from remaining completely independent
Dane Gibson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Nov 13/00) - Philip Goulet moves around his Ndilo home with a walker because his joints are stiffening as he ages.
He's also almost blind, but none of that stops the 80-year-old Yellowknives Dene First Nation elder from remaining completely independent.
Philip has spent most of his life roaming through the Akaitcho Territory doing what he loves best, hunting and trapping. It is a lifestyle that requires self-reliance, and as he prepares a cup of coffee before sitting down at the kitchen table it is clear he will always remain independent.
He lives with his wife of 51 years, Madeline. They raised 11 children of their own and helped raise two of their grandchildren. The couple met at Gros Cap, a small island about 75 kilometres south on the Great Slave Lake. It is the place where Philip was born and the place he still refers to as home.
"My grandfather Charles Goulet was a fur trader. He built a little village of seven houses at Gros Cap and there was two families living there, ours and William and Saraphine Betsina's family," said Goulet.
When asked to remember his childhood, the memories flood back and his demeanour changes. Influenza ravaged his small village, and Yellowknives Dene throughout the region, in 1928.
"There was hardly anybody left. In my family it was just me, my mother and my mother's brother," said Goulet.
Madeline was a baby when the epidemic struck. She lost her father (her mother eventually remarried Philip's uncle) while Philip's father, Johnny Goulet, and grandfather, also died.
"The RCMP in Fort Resolution heard about the dying in the North so they went in and took everything that was good. They stole all that was left," he says quietly.
Raised in the bush
Philip was sent to residential school in Fort Resolution and Fort Smith and then back in Fort Resolution where he stayed from 1929 to 1932. His mother remarried Johnny Betsina in the springtime of 1932. They came to the school, picked up Philip and took him home.
"From then on I was raised in the bush and I had a lot of fun. I loved hunting and trapping. We lived in a tent and we moved all over," said Goulet.
"By 1935 my stepfather was tired of living all around so we went back to Gros Cap. We tore down two of the houses and rebuilt them on the next island over."
His teen years were a defining part of his life. Despite the isolation and no other boys his own age around, he never really felt lonely. He hunted and trapped, never once feeling his life was in danger during the harsh winters and the many long treks he took.
"When I was young I remember muskrat hunting at Beaulieu River in the springtime and travelling by dog team in the winter. When I would get hungry, I would go and get some fish. If I saw a rabbit or lynx, I would shoot it and save it to eat later," said Goulet.
"I remember there was some young people at a little village at Rocher River and I would go there sometimes. The only other time I saw young people my own age was when I went to Dettah. I didn't go often because I always had something to do."
Life with Madeline
In 1949 he and Madeline were married. They maintained the house on the island beside Gros Cap. Although he never had a close call on the land, Madeline did get seriously ill once in November of 1963. Her intestine twisted, making it impossible for her to eat.
"I stayed with her for three days and she still couldn't eat -- I could tell she was dying. The ice wasn't safe but I knew I had to get to town. My brother told me not to go but I went anyway," recalled Goulet.
"I hitched up the dogs and left in the late afternoon. I travelled all night. It was around midnight when I made it to Drybone Bay where there was another family. They gave me food and tea and warmed me up. I stayed there for an hour and kept going."
He followed an old trail in the darkness and in the early morning light he moved out onto the lake and followed the shoreline. It was dangerous he knew, but it was also faster. He mushed into Ndilo a little after three that afternoon.
"I went to the nurse and they said it was too late to go back. They would go in the morning," said Goulet.
"I was worried. I pitched a tent and tried to sleep but first thing in the morning I was at Ptarmigan Airways. It was a small plane going to pick her up so I couldn't go with them. They came back an hour later and when I saw she was still alive -- boy was I happy. They operated on her and the next time I saw her she was sleeping."
Madeline was in the hospital for about a month.
It was during his wait that someone from Ptarmigan Airways asked him if he would catch fish at Desperation Lake for them to sell.
He agreed and they flew him and all five of his children to the lake where they sent up camp and lived for several months.
Philip and his two eldest sons, George and Morris, set 30 nets. An airplane would arrive every couple of days, drop off supplies, and take whatever catch they had. Madeline rejoined her family at Desperation Lake just before Christmas. They stayed in a tent for most of that winter.
"I figure we pulled at least 21,000 pounds of fish out of that lake. By mid-February we started worrying there would be no more fish left so we hitched up two dog teams and moved on," said Goulet.
Move to Dettah
The family headed to Dettah and it took them five days because the going was rough.
"We couldn't get fish for the dogs and they don't like moose; it doesn't do them any good. We had dry meat and bannock so we were fine, but the dogs were starving."
Luckily, they found an abandoned cabin. They were able to get the old stove burning and after four days they moved on. Philip fed the dogs a stew-like mixture made out of meat, oats and flour and the dogs regained their strength.
The Goulet family eventually got a house in Dettah, but kept the one on the island beside Gros Cap.
They moved between the two by dog team. Eventually, they moved from Dettah to Ndilo.
"Our youngest kids were taken to residential schools and in 1970 we moved to Ndilo." His wife worked in the kitchen at what is now called the Yellowknife Inn for 17 years.
"Me, I helped cut the road from Dettah to the Ingraham Trail and I worked for NTPC at Snare Lake off and on for 10 years.
"I always went into the bush to trap for fur -- that was life."
Although he accepts that the Dene way of life is changing with the times, he hopes the Dene remember the old ways.
Goulet himself was the Canadian Dog Derby champion in 1956, and placed in the top four for five years running.
"The snowmachines came and the dog teams disappeared. You can't hardly sell furs anymore and the kids don't want to learn land skills. They can't help it, it's just the way things have changed," said Goulet.
"Nowadays, the kids have to go to school and they have to get a job.
"That's all there is to it. There's talk about preserving our language but it's going to be hard.
"We're losing our culture and we won't be going back. English language and culture is overpowering -- it's everywhere."
Philip hasn't been out to Gros Cap since 1984 and he figured he might have to make one more trip back there.
"I really wouldn't mind getting back there alright," he said while rising with the help of his walker. "It really was my home."
