Inuvik (Mar 06/06) - The North is a land where Inuvialuit people live from season to season, harvesting the land and animals with a tempered respect learned from bygone generations of teachers.

But this tradition of "living on the land" could change in 10 years, says Richard Gordon, an Inuvialuit who manages the Herschel Island Territorial Park.

"We are one of the last people who still continue our traditional lifestyle," Gordon said.

He called it a lifestyle that moves to the harmony of the North.

"When I was growing up, we never had televisions and our parents and grandparents still lived off the land," he said.

As a child, Gordon remembers in the spring he and his friends would be allowed to break from school and go with their parents to fish and hunt.

"Once we were out on the land, our school work would go out the window," he said.

That's not to say his school work was never complete when he returned to class, but that Gordon's education also included learning how to set traps, collect firewood and haul water.

"Times have changed since then and you must have a job in order to continue with the traditional lifestyle," he said.

Gordon is afraid that the younger generations of Inuvialuit trained in the oil and gas industry won't know how to live off the land.

"My generation, we're the last to really understand the wildlife. When we are gone, will future generations, who lack traditional knowledge, know where the caribou feeding and calving grounds are?" he questioned.

"We are told by everyone else 'this is the way the world is turning and you must turn with it,'" he said.

But at what cost must Inuvialuit continue to adapt to the needs of the world, wonders Gordon.

Like many Inuvialuit, Gordon is both optimistic and doubtful about the future, but he hopes the mistakes of the past will not happen again.

"Many people from my generation dropped out of school and went to work in the oil fields," he said. "When the exploration was done, and the oil companies left, many Inuvialuit who worked as labourers or in operations were left unemployed."

"After, they had to re-educate themselves to live off the land."