INUVIK
William Greenland remembers the time his mother, Elizabeth Greenland, asked him to take her back to the place where she grew up.

Inuvik Boot Lake MLA Alfred Moses points out to the crowd as Elizabeth Greenland prepares to cut her six-foot cake at her 95th birthday celebration at Ingamo Hall on Feb. 13. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

He told the story to a crowd of over 150 people who had gathered to celebrate Elizabeth's 95 years of life at Ingamo Hall Feb. 13.

She wanted to go to Blackstone Mountain, tucked in Tombstone Territorial Park just west of the Dempster Highway. So, William and a number of his 13 siblings - four of whom were adopted - loaded their vehicles and began the trip.

William said they weren't sure exactly where they were going, but his mother said she would tell them when they were there.

Eventually, she told them to stop driving.

"She looked way up the mountain and pointed to a place up the mountain near some trees and she said that was the spot," William told the crowd.

It took the family more than half a day to make a pathway to the area on the mountain, but when they made it, Elizabeth felt at home. The group stayed there for a week, giving her time to rediscover the earliest years of her life.

One night before sleep, Elizabeth asked William to find a rock and put it under the wood stove. He didn't ask questions and found a large rock to put underneath it. Once it was heated up, she wrapped it in a cloth and put it in her sleeping bag to keep warm.

"We all complained how cold we were and she said 'well, you should have gotten your own!'" he said to a room full of laughter.

Born on Feb. 10, 1920 at a place called Truh tshi', Elizabeth was the eldest child in her family.

When she was five, Elizabeth and her grandmother set out from Dawson to what is now the Beaufort-Delta by dogsled. When she got older she would take her own dogs - five of them - and sled, following the path of her elders through the mountains and the tundra.

In 1944, Elizabeth married Alex Greenland at the age of 23. Standing next to her at her wedding was Effie Emma Thompson, and next to Alex was Frederick Blake Sr. The newlyweds lived in Aklavik until the late 1950s, when they moved to the newly-constructed town of Inuvik.

Elizabeth and Alex had nine children of their own - Sarah, Ruth, Georgina, Peter, Shirley, Alfred, Sonny, Georgie and William - and adopted four other children: Barry, Larry, Lori and Cheryl.

Despite not being her biological children, Elizabeth raised them with the core values she believed in - love, laughter and respect.

"She has done so much for us," Barry Greenland told the crowd during the feast. "We want to honour the things she taught us-to respect each other, smile and be happy."

According to Barry, Elizabeth has found much happiness throughout her life. He told a story of how she and her husband would travel all over the Delta just to dance, once sitting in the back of a pick-up truck in the dead of winter in order to get to Fort McPherson. The love for jigging and dancing among the large family came from the couple's enjoyment of it, he said.

'Taught to be happy'

"We were taught to be happy," he said. "God blessed us with 95 years. As our family, we want to be thankful for the time we have spent with her."

Boot Lake MLA Alfred Moses stood in the legislative assembly Feb. 12 and spoke of the important role Elizabeth has played in shaping the town, and how her commitment to the Gwich'in culture has been integral to keeping tradition alive.

"Elizabeth and her family have lived in the Inuvik region for years and they've contributed to making Inuvik what it is, have helped develop the traditional and the cultural ways of life, and continue to do that today," he said. "(She) has demonstrated great wisdom, traditional knowledge, leadership, strength and guidance, not only for her family but people in Inuvik and throughout the Beaufort-Delta."

From the Sahtu to the Deh Cho region, Barry said he's heard kind words from residents and elders, words that he says show the impact his mother has had on the people of the territory.

"People have so much respect for our mom," he said.

In 2002, Elizabeth was named a Wise Woman for her work in the community over the span of two decades, teaching youth how to dance and working to keep the Gwich'in language alive through storytelling.

At the time, Elizabeth said the greatest lesson she learned was to "keep talking and don't give up on kids that don't listen, because God never gives up on us."