Woman can't return home until incense burned
Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services
Rae/Edzo (May 21/01) - A wildlife officer shot a bear inside Christine Theriault's house in Edzo and she won't return until she burns rat-roots to chase away the smell that could make her ill.
According to Dogrib tradition, a woman will get an immense headache if she steps near freshly spilled bear blood.
"My dad's a hunter, he said there might be blood and I should be careful," said Theriault, 45.
The bear was shot last Thursday when Theriault was in Yellowknife. Her cousin Chris Antoine was baby-sitting her three grand-children when the bear entered the house..
Antoine was watching sports on television when he saw a bear pass by the window, stop and claw the screen on the porch door.
"It came out of nowhere," said Antoine, 30.
Antoine grabbed five year-old Rodney , three year-old Trent and one year-old Chanelle, and rushed them out the front door to a neighbour's house where he called Rae-Edzo's wildlife officers.
Wildlife officer Joe MacKenzie shot the bear in the kitchen with a 12 gauge shotgun.
The slug blew through the shoulder, nicking the refrigerator door and a cupboard.
"School had just let out and soon the streets were going to be filled with children," said MacKenzie.
Mackenzie and his partner Gord Bohnet ran for the door after the shot MacKenzie said bears can go along way after they're shot.
"The bear fell right at the door," said MacKenzie.
MacKenzie said the bear was rummaging through the cupboards when they found him after searching the woods near the house. The bear was eating Corn Flakes.
The bear entered the house through the front door which Antoine left ajar in the rush to escape.
MacKenzie said they checked the house twice for the bear. They looked in through a few open windows the first time and didn't hear a sound.
"I was thinking of mama bear and papa bear," said MacKenzie.
Apparently the bear was not intimidated by humans. When MacKenzie and Bohnet entered the house their second check they tried to coax the bear out but it wouldn't budge.
"I threw a basketball at it," said MacKenzie.
They shot the bear as a last resort. It weighed 123 kg and stood about 1.2 meters on its hind legs.
MacKenzie figured the bear was hungry having just emerged from hibernation.
"It was a really skinny bear," he said.
On Friday, Theriault said she would return home that night. A male friend burned rat-root incense to clear the rooms of the smell and the blood.
"I was shaking when I heard," said Theriault.
"I thought about my grand-children and about the blood and the smell," she said.
