George Blondin
Guest columnist
Monday, December 6, 2004
Around 1934, I'd go out on the land with my parents in the Great Bear Lake area. We would canoe when we could, but otherwise we'd have to walk a long ways.
After resting and feasting on fish and rabbit the previous day, we continued our travels with enough food for one day only. We reached a ridge and there were just timbers, no more lakes or rivers.
My dad said "I will leave the canoe here." That night we had hardly any food to eat. The dogs were hungry. The next day we travelled and my dad said "It's not too far now."
We reached a fairly good-sized river, but the water was so low you could walk across it. Dad said when the snow came, thousands of grayling would start their run down the river. We'd be able to catch a lot of them for food for our dogs later on. That night was a bad night. There was nothing to eat.
The next morning, my dad said "I will hunt up the river. I might find moose tracks." He told me to hunt chickens. Before noon I shot one chicken and my mom and me had a good meal, but the dogs had nothing to eat.
In the afternoon sometime, my dad was yelling across the river. He came, all excited and said "I forgot to bring a lot of shells for the gun. I saw three moose. They saw me and started to run away. I
missed two shots, but on the third I killed a cow moose, then I got a small moose and with my last shot I wounded a big bullmoose. I am going to run back there and try to kill the bullmoose.
My dad told us where we were to go and we took the dogs with packs up the river. It was about three miles. When we got there, my dad had killed the wounded bullmoose and we had three moose to skin now. My mom and I helped. The dogs had good meat to eat and we all feasted on the fat moose that night.
My dad told us that about five miles down the river there was a big valley full of small lakes and moose liked to go there. He said he'd go there later. The next day my dad went hunting, but he didn't come back for two days. He shot three moose and one was a big one. From there on we were very busy making drymeat for the coming winter. Altogether, he shot nine moose that fall.
We had a lot of meat.
When the snow came and the grayling were starting their run down the river. There were thousands of them. We got lots of fish for our dogs for the winter. My dad said it was the right time to start trapping for fur, which would buy us things for ourselves. We had to travel to Fort Norman, NWT, which was about 200 miles across the land. We caught about 100 furs. Marten, mink and fox were a good price.
By March, we'd made the long trip to Fort Norman to buy the things we wanted on the land. I learned a lot about how to live in the bush. My mom and dad were good teachers. I have never regretted having these experiences. I was only 15 years old, but I did the jobs of an adult person.
- George Blondin is the author of two books, a member of the Order of Canada and a respected Dogrib elder