Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

TETLIT'ZHEH/FORT MCPHERSON - A group of youth and elders from Fort McPherson recently completed a two-week journey through Gwich'in ancestral homeland.

Eight youth and three elders from Fort McPherson, along with a film crew from Germany, paddled down the Snake River and onto the Peel River during late July.

"That area is the traditional lands of the Tetlit Gwich'in people," said long-time Fort McPherson teacher Jacksun Grice.

"There's an effort to get that area protected from industrial development so our initiative at the school is to start involving youth in that process."

The trip began at Duo Lakes, the headwaters of the Snake River, in the Yukon. Fort McPherson elder Gladys Alexie went along on the trip to share cultural knowledge. She said the group was greeted by a break in the otherwise bad weather and a rainbow as they landed on the lakes.

They then hiked more than two kilometres to launch their rafts and canoe.

"As we were going down the river I remember thinking, 'Why did my people ever leave this beautiful place for mud?'" said Alexie.

"McPherson is always full of mud."

The group saw lots of wildlife along the way, including a wolf taking down a caribou on their first night at camp. Grice said they saw just about every large animal that would be in that area. He said that was a sure sign the ecosystem is still very healthy.

Janelle Wilson, 19, has been involved with this project for well over a year. Last summer she went to Germany to see what the environment is like there. This year it was her turn to show her German friends her homeland.

"It was cool just thinking that my relatives used to live there year round and now we can barely go there," said Wilson.

"It was cool thinking it was my land in a way."

Wilson said the mountains were amazing. The cliffs she has seen near Tsiigehtchic now look small by comparison.

The youth took water and air samples all along the trip and they will be comparing them to samples they took in Germany last year.

The experiment will help everyone understand the difference between a nearly untouched wilderness and land that has long been industrialized.

Jennifer Greenland was another youth who made the journey.

She said the whole town was waiting on the banks of the Peel River when they arrived. They had a feast of turkey and ham ready for everyone. Greenland said it was an amazing trip.

"It was good to see our land," she said.

The film crew from Germany will be making a documentary for German public television. There are also plans to run the documentary on APTN and CBC when it is completed.

Grice said making videos and pictures of the trip will allow the next generation of students to experience their ancestral homeland without having to transport each one there.

"If we can present it to the youth in our town and even across the North in movies, photos, You-Tube and Bebo, you get discussion going and suddenly you have young people caring about very important issues," said Grice.

The eight Gwich'in youth who made the trip will now be acting as ambassadors for the wilderness.

Wilson said she hopes to share the message with younger kids and plans to stay involved with the project for as long as it continues, adding the land needs to be protected.

"It's important to preserve the land because it is one of a kind," said Wilson.