Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services
Taloyoak (Nov 27/00) - Descended from a mother and father who met on the trapline and knew the Arctic from Baffin to Taloyoak, the Lyall clan is one of the largest families in the Kitikmeot.
 Dennis Lyall |
News/North: I understand you have one of the biggest families in the Kitikmeot.
Dennis Lyall: One of the few big families I guess. I've got two brothers and a sister in Cambridge Bay, a sister in Kugluktuk, a sister in Yellowknife, a sister in Iqaluit and the (four) of us in town here. Half of us were born around Fort Ross and the other half was born in Taloyoak.
News/North: Did your parents tell you stories about what it was like living in Fort Ross?
DL: The supply ship couldn't make it into Fort Ross for three years, 1946, 1947 and 1948, so they decided to move the Hudson's Bay post in Taloyoak where the ice conditions were better than Fort Ross.
News/North: What year did your father first go to Fort Ross?
DL: He was born in 1910. He tells me he left home when he was 17 years old and joined Hudson's Bay at the time. He'd done Labrador, Baffin, Northern Quebec, Keewatin, the whole works.
News/North: When did he meet your mother?
DL: That was way back there. I can't remember exactly, but they got married on the Hudson's Bay boat. They met somewhere along the trapline.
News/North: What did you think of you dad's book, Arctic Man?
DL: It's a great reading book. I think more of these books should be written by the elders before they all finish off. They give a personal opinion of what really happened and how it should go. My dad really strongly makes the opinion in the book that Inuktitut should continue and not be forgotten.
My dad was the interpreter for the Hudson Bay Company, the RCMP. He was a doctor, he was a dentist, a nurse, a JP, a lawyer -- all because he spoke Inuktitut and had a little bit of knowledge about how to pull teeth. At one point he did take an appendix out over short-wave radio. That was successful.
News/North: Was your mother from Fort Ross?
DL: No, she was from Cape Dorset.
News/North: How did she make her way over to the Kitikmeot?
DL: My grandfather originally came from Northern Quebec. He rowed across to Baffin Island and then they moved north to the Frobisher Bay area. They stuck with the Hudson's Bay Company and their ships went where the hunting and trapping was good.
That's how they ended up all through North Baffin and Somerset Island area and west of there.
News/North: You were born in Taloyoak?
DL: That's right. I was born in a tent June 29, 1950.
There was a Hudson's Bay post when I was growing up and the RCMP later on. About 1955, the Roman Catholic people came in and built a church and shortly after, the Anglican people built a house and a church. It stayed that was until they built the nursing station and the school in 1958. That's when people started moving in.
News/North: What do you remember about those days?
DL: I remember waiting for my grandparents and my uncles and people to come in from the outlying camps.
News/North: Does the occasion come up for all the Lyalls to get together?
DL: A couple times it did. My father died a few years ago and we all got together. The next sad occasion was my mother's funeral.
News/North: Would you describe yourself as a rich man?
DL: I'd describe myself as a rich man because I've had the privilege of being born to this good part of our country here.
I have seen how we went from dog-teams to airplanes to snowmobiles and road systems in the communities.
I feel very rich that way, but money-wise, Revenue Canada got all that.
My mother and father used to welcome people to the house. That way I'm very rich...trying to keep the tradition of welcoming people.
News/North: What is it about Taloyoak that makes you live there?
DL: When Christine and I got married, I wanted to move back because mom and dad were living here and I was born here. I know the country and where there are some secret fishing spots.
News/North: If you could change one thing as you look back over your life, what would it be?
DL: I wouldn't want to send my five and six-year old children to far away residential school and not have them able to come back home for Christmas. If I could change something, I would do away with the residential schools.
(Residential schools) have most certainly scarred the parents. Communications were so poor and they wondered if their children were alive or had passed on. They always had that horrible feeling. If you sent a letter out, it took three months to find out what condition your child was in.
News/North: Did you talk with your own parents about what it was like for them to send you away?
DL: They had an empty feeling...but my father was a strong believer in us getting our education. He had to give up something to gain something for us. He gave up a lot of the family lifestyle so we could better ourselves.
News/North: What about your mom?
DL: Mom had a difficult time because she didn't speak or read English. She knew we had to be on our own in the future and look after ourselves, so she pretty much went along with our father on getting us educated.
