Fort Smith (Oct 09/06) - It is now a story in a children's book, but Henry Beaver says the "The Slave River Creature" is a tale based on fact.

"It's not a legend," said the Fort Smith elder. "It's a true story."

Henry Beaver has told the story "The Slave River Creature" in a new illustrated book promoting aboriginal languages. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Beaver was told the story many years ago by his late father, Magloire, who recounted seeing the creature in the 1930s.

"He said it was like a big log, like a big snake," Beaver said. "It was round and dark."

As told to Beaver, his father and a group of other men were searching the Slave River for his brother who had fallen out of a canoe at Fort Smith.

They were looking at Sawmill Island, 16 km downstream, where the body of Beaver's uncle was later found.

The searchers were in two boats, Beaver said. "All of a sudden the water started moving up and down."

Being a hunter, his father realized something was coming up out of the water and pointed for the boats to head for shore, where three of the men grabbed rifles.

"He said it was just like a big log came out of the water and started coming towards them," Beaver recalled, adding his father and others started shooting around the animal to scare it away.

His father told him the animal's neck rose 10 to 15 feet out of the water.

"Once it got fairly close, it stuck its head in the water and disappeared," Beaver said, adding his father recalled seeing a mouth and eyes on the creature.

It was never seen again, as far as Beaver knows.

There is a legend in the Cree and Chipewyan cultures of a large animal which breaks the ice, he noted, adding that's what the men thought they were seeing.

Beaver said his father, who passed away in the 1980s, was not the kind of person to make up such stories.

"My dad was a man of his word," he said.

Beaver noted the creature could still be in the river system or in Great Slave Lake.

"There's lots of underground rivers in this area," he noted. "He could be anywhere."

The story of the creature has been published by the South Slave Divisional Education Council in association with the NWT Cree Language Program.

Three versions of the book were published each in different languages, Cree, Chipewyan and South Slavey, along with English translations.

The other two books are recollections from the childhood of Fort Smith elder Georgina Mercredi, who grew up in Camsell Portage, Sask. Her stories are "Saturday Chores" and "A Walk to Remember."

"The Slave River Creature" is illustrated by Fort Smith high school student Larissa Lusty, while other South Slave students illustrated the other books.

Mercredi said she hopes the stories will help teach the languages to young people.