During the Cold War,  a group of Inuit were relocated to a remote and inhospitable location in the High Arctic as part of a Canadian government effort to assert Canadian sovereignty in the face of the United States the Soviet Union. The move was a disaster for the Inuit involved, since the area to which they were shipped had little food.

Today’s Toronto Star has a lengthy and well-researched article on this topic.

My previous post referred to the Inuit story of Takannaaluk, an powerful figure in Inuit legend.  This was my excuse to learn more about Inuit stories, and to do a Takannaluk – inspired drawing, as you can see. Takannaluk can be translated as “the terrible woman down there” or “the great one below”.    She has many other names but is best known as Sedna, so that is what I will call her.

There are many versions of Sedna’s story.  In some she marries a dog, in others she is so greedy that she tries to eat her father.  Here is my own version of her story, patched together from several sources:

This is the story of Sedna.  There she sits at the bottom of the sea with her long hair tangling  and all her creatures coming and going around her – the sharks, the seals and the all the little fish. When the hunting is bad the Inuit people say that Sedna is angry and has called all her creature to be close to her.  She is in pain and remembers who hurt her.

Long ago Sedna was a human girl, her father’s only daughter. She was beautiful and proud and many young men came courting her – but none of them were good enough for Sedna.  She was content with her life as it was and did not want to get married.

Her father became impatient.  He argued with his daughter but nothing he said would change her mind.  One day he lost his temper and promised that he would marry her to the very next man who came asking.  And so he did.

Sedna raged and cried, but it did no good.  In the struggle to get her into the stranger’s canoe nobody paid much attention to her new husband.  Nobody wondered why he did not take down his hood and his face was always hidden.  The stranger paddled his canoe out to sea, taking Sedna to the island where he lived.

When they reached the island Sedna was horrified.  It was nothing but a lump of rock in the middle of the sea.  There was nowhere to make a fire and no shelter from the wind.   She turned to her new husband, and saw that he had cast off his clothes, and was not a man at all.  The stranger who had carried her off in his canoe was a bird – he was Raven.  Raven laughed at her fear and offered her no comfort at all.

That was a very bad time for Sedna.  Raven did not look after her as a husband should.  She had nowhere to shelter from the weather and he brought her no food to eat.  He treated her cruelly and beat her every day.  Sedna wept. After a time her father heard of this and regretted his anger. He missed his daughter, and set out in his canoe to fetch her home.

At first his luck was good.  Raven was not at his island and Sedna scrambled back into her father’s canoe, happy to be on her way home again.  But their luck did not hold for long.  There was Raven, flying up over the sea and screaming in rage to see his bride  stolen from him.  He flew over them, flapping up a storm in his huge wings.

“Give her back, or I will drown you both!” cried the Raven and it seemed inevitable that the canoe would capsize and that Sedna and her father both drown in the freezing water.  Now fear overcame Sedna’s father.  Why should both of them die if one could survive?  He seized his daughter and tried to throw her over the side of the canoe.  But Sedna resisted.  She clutched at her father and held on to the side of the canoe.  In a frenzy of fear her father struck at her with his paddle. The paddle’s sharp blade cut into her hands.  Sedna’s fingers fell into the sea and one by one turned into the big and little fishes and swam away.

Still Sedna held on, and still her father beat at her with the paddle.  He cut off her hands and as they fell into the water they changed and became the seals and the walruses – and swam away.  But Sedna still held on, grasping at the canoe with her arms.  Raven screamed in the sky above them, sweeping the sea into ever bigger waves.  In a last attempt her father beat at her arms and cut them off at the elbow.  Sedna’s arms fell into the sea and became the whales and the killer whales, and swam away.

So at last Sedna could resist no longer and she slipped over the side of the canoe into the water. She dropped like a stone down, down to the bottom of the sea.

And that is where she is to this day.  Her creatures swim around her and tangle in her long hair – the sharks, seals and the little fish.  And sometimes when her limbs pain her she remembers who caused her injuries and her anger grows.  At such times, Sedna calls all her creatures down to the bottom of the sea, and the Inuit people starve.

That is when a shaman must make the dangerous journey down into Sedna’s realm.  There are many obstacles – some say there is a great grinding wheel of ice, and others that the door to her realm is as thin as the blade of a knife.  To calm Sedna the shaman combs and plats her long black hair.  Sedna finds this soothing and it makes her forget her pain – for a time.  And so Sedna lets her creatures rise once again to the surface of the sea where they can be hunted.

You can read some other versions of this story

• here by Linore Lindeman at Canada’s Arctic
• here an excerpt from Knud Rassmussen at the Inuit Art Zone
• here from Inuit Art of Canada (this one reveals where white people came from as well)

I think over again my small adventures, my fears, these small ones that seemed so big. For all the vital things I had to get and to reach. And yet there is only one great thing. The only thing. To live to see the great day that dawns and the light that fills the world.

Old Inuit Saying

by Willow Murton, Assistant Producer, Oceans/Jungles team

9^th October 2009

 This time a year ago, I flew to La Paz in Bolivia, the highest capital city in the world and there, short of breath and cheeks full of Andean colour, I began life on the Human Planet team.  I type this blog now under the stifling heat of the  Algerian Sahara, many miles from those early cool heights.

A village in the Algerian Sahara

Sometimes it is good to stop and reflect. There has not been much time over the last year for moments to look back – so much looking forward into the matrix of kit lists, itineraries and budgets that the months and the countries can go by. 

This October evening, we gathered on a carpet outside under the date palms and the eager gaze of the local well workers who we have been filming with.  Swirls of white turbans and the excited movement of children surround a small screen as we play out clips of what we have filmed over the last few days.  They watch the images and the sounds they have patiently repeated in order to get just the right shot, in the right light.  They laugh and we relax.  This is one of the best moments of film-making, sharing the work of crew and contributors.  We hope all our ridiculous demands make some kind of sense when seen on screen, and we too begin to understand more as questions bounce between us.

Cameraman Gavin Newman, researcher Jane Atkins and me

The claustrophobia of the small tunnel where we have been filming opens out into the warm evening.  Small glasses of sweet mint tea are passed about amongst the comments.  Filming is a demanding and long process which the workers have participated in with huge patience and good humour.  In order to give them a glimpse of how the final film may come together, as well as a chilly insight into another underground world, we put on an edit from an Arctic sequence.  There we are, warm in the evening air, watching people wrapped up from icy cold. There are gasps when I say that the temperature there is thirty degrees below Celsius. The days here in the desert are usually thirty degrees above and not unusually much higher.  Beneath the arid surface of the Sahara, the workers here have dug through thick red clay to make tunnels to feed an ever-growing irrigation system.  They cannot believe the effort of these distant Arctic dwellers as they dig into frozen crevasses. They are even more incredulous when they realise why.  What the Inuit consider a gastronomic delicacy, the workers of the Sahara struggle to imagine edible.  The frozen walls of an igloo protecting those inside from the cruel cold of the Arctic belong to another world, far from the rich red buildings of this small village, where people seek shade from a relentless burning sun.

Yet, further North, the Arctic is beginning its own dark turn to the winter once more.  This year on Human Planet has spanned continents and captured moments of incredible feats, emotion and beauty.  As the workers leave to sleep before they are called to prayer again and back to their work, I contemplate a year which has taken me to a frontline in the Simien mountains, above Greenlandic glaciers, into the path of avalanches, under sea ice and onto its floe edge, from Arctic darkness to midnight sun, from the green of a desert oasis to the barren hillsides of a Caribbean island.  Like the Andean heights where I began, it takes my breath away.

My mind went there and then my fingers and google found these…

By Marcy Davis

An overview of the Nuvuk site and archaeological excavations at Pt. Barrow, Alaska. Photo: Dennis O'Rourke

Researchers believe that humans probably arrived in the North American Arctic toward the end of or following the last Ice Age, about 12,000 years ago, via northern land bridges now covered by shallow seas (the Bering Sea is one example). These nomadic peoples likely followed large herds of caribou, muskox, bison, and mammoth.

Anthropological geneticist Dennis O’Rourke (University of Utah) is fascinated not only by how successfully people acclimatized to life in harsh high-latitude climates, but also how they spread out and settled in the Arctic. In an attempt to get at the details, O’Rourke and geneticist Geoff Hayes (Northwestern University) are giving new meaning to the age-old question “where do we come from,” at least for Iñupiat people of Barrow. O’Rourke and Hayes’ three-year project aims to determine ancestry and lineage in Alaska’s northwest Arctic and North Slope and in the circum-Arctic region.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) contains genetic information and instructions for cell and protein construction. We each obtain certain DNA components from our mothers and others from our fathers. O’Rourke and Hayes hope to track settlement patterns throughout the Arctic by comparing certain parts of the DNA contributed from mothers and certain parts from fathers in ancient and contemporary populations.

Collecting DNA from Barrow residents is relatively easy. Volunteers rinse with a special mouthwash and spit into a test tube. Their DNA can easily be teased out of their saliva back in Hayes’ lab. Obtaining DNA samples from residents of nearby Nuvuk, however, is a little more involved.

Located at the very end of Point Barrow, Nuvuk is an ancient village site. Archaeologists believe Nuvuk was occupied by the Thule culture, the Iñupiat ancestors, for more than 1000 years until the 1930’s, when it was abandoned. As a result, the only current residents of Nuvuk are found in the cemetery—an old burial ground that is slowly being washed away as the coastline gives way to shifting point sands and beach erosion. An effort has been ongoing for about 10 years to document, stabilize, rescue and relocate the burial sites; this effort also has allowed scientists to study the artifacts uncovered at the sites for information about the ancient people.

Justin Tackney, PhD student at the University of Utah, works at a sterile workstation on ancient DNA extractions from human remains. The sterile nature of the lab, the workstation, and the 'clean garb' Justin wears, prevents contamination of the ancient samples with modern DNA.

The Barrow community supports and is actively involved in the Nuvuk cemetery effort. “The local community felt this was the right thing to do and gave us permission to do the Nuvuk studies,” O’Rourke explains. “It’s wonderful that they are so helpful and interested in using these approaches to learning and understanding about where their ancestors came from.”

Anne Jensen, an archaeologist and UIC Science Director in Barrow, is working to locate, exhume, and reinter those buried at Nuvuk. O’Rourke and his students cooperate with Jensen, who also involves local high schoolers in the research, as part of a larger collaboration that hopes to trace the heritage of the Nuvuk people.

DNA degrades over time, but Barrow’s cold climate helps preserve DNA in the Thule buried at Nuvuk whose remains can be more than 1000 years old. Ancient DNA samples are easily contaminated, however, so O’Rourke’s team works closely with Jensen to collect very small samples, no larger than a small rib. As soon as specimens are unearthed, researchers cover and then place them in a sterile container.

Justin Tackney prepares to collect samples for ancient DNA analysis from Nuvuk, Pt. Barrow, AK. Photo: Dennis O'Rourke

The samples are stored in a freezer at Barrow until they are flown back to a clean lab in Salt Lake City. There, scientists chemically treat the samples to release specific DNA sequences. By comparing sequences obtained from the Nuvuk population to other ancient populations along the North Slope, southern Alaska, eastern Canada, and Greenland–and to contemporary populations at Barrow and around the Arctic–O’Rourke and Hayes can determine not only who’s related to whom and how closely related people are in time and space, but how people moved around and settled in the Arctic region.

This morning I woke up and decided to look around for any recent news on the movie, The Last Airbender. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go here and you can learn more. While there wasn’t anything new to discover, I did come across some videos about how the cast of the movie has been “whitewashed.” Basically people are angry because the movie is depicting originally Inuit and Asian characters (although Aang does look white in the cartoon) with white actors. These people have been calling it Racebending because in Avatar: The Last Airbender, people bend Earth, Wind, Fire and Water to their will. Clever, but I don’t really think that they’re going to accomplish what they want with this. While there is a boycott for the movie going on right now, I just don’t think that they understand what the phrase show business means. You see, while they did cast white actors for the three main roles in the movie, they did so because, according to the We Share Foundation’s website, 73% of Americans are white (that’s 206,250,000 people).

You see, even if 6% (12,375,000) of the white people in America boycott the movie because they think it’s racist (and that’s probably more people than actually will), that still leaves 67% of Americans who will possibly watch the movie. That’s 184,250,000 potential customers and that doesn’t count Europe, Russia and Australia who’s populations are largely (considered by the movie industry as) white as well. So, it’s pretty obvious why they would cast white actors for the main roles and why they don’t care too much about the racebending controversy. And to be perfectly honest, I think that it’s racist to make such a fuss about it. You don’t see people in Japan getting upset when Americans are drawn to look just like the Japanese characters in Anime. In fact, those Americans always speak perfect Japanese too. Is that racist? No, it’s an attempt to identify with the majority of an audience in order to make a profit.

So yeah, I’m going to watch the movie because I love Avatar and the profit made from the movie is going to find its way into the hands of the original creators, who I definitely want to support. So stop your wining about racebending and just cope with the fact that minorities are called that because that’s what they are. You want to make a movie that will prove everyone wrong? Do it! The Harold and Kumar movies were awesome and they did pretty well, so there is obviously an interest in movies that don’t star white people. You just can’t expect things to happen overnight.

-Rich

*If you want to learn more about the controversy, visit the sites below:

• Racebending.com
• Video Boycotts on YouTube.com
• A Letter from Paramount
  • MANAA’s Response

Author and musician, Paul Quarrington, diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, eloquently describes his plans to live each day as though it is his last, connecting with singing and the Canadian landscape.

“As we journeyed through the Torngat Mountains, I finally realized what this trip was all about, for me. First of all, let me get a little scientific on you. The Torngats-comprised of Precambrian gneisses-are amongst the oldest mountains in the world, almost four billions years old. They rise out of the water with enchanted austerity. Sitting well above the tree line, the Torngats are stark naked and make no apology about it. Torngat is an Inuktitut word meaning Place of Spirits, and it very clearly is. The mountaintops are usually shrouded in cloud, and it’s easy enough to imagine the Spirits assembling there, going through the itinerary for another year.  In short, the Torngat Mountains took what little breath I have away from me. The thought occurred that I was on another planet, and that’s when I realized, no, I’m on this planet, I’m just none too clear on what it actually looks like. I realized that what I wanted to do was spend a little time getting to know the third stone from the sun; it has been my home for 56 years, but I have spent much of it confined in the settlements. I wanted to explore and examine, I wanted to interact – yes, in the broadest, most spiritual sense.”

“So there, basically, you have the two main components of my plan for (what remains of) my future: singing and (spiritual) mountain climbing. For example, I think I’ll go fishing this week, getting to know Mother Ship Earth a bit better. I think I’ll go stand in a river just a few degrees above freezing and toss a yarn-fly into the current, over and over again, in the hopes of convincing some chromium-silver steelhead that the thing is edible. Or, I may simply go walkabout, kicking stones and major rock formations. I will build inuksuit (did you know that was the plural? I learned a lot on my voyages…) and I will try to build them across as much of the landscape as I can. In the meantime, I will be singing, all manner of songs. I will sing in Porkbelly Futures, I will sing with fiddlers and button accordionists, I will sing in Gospel choirs and Glee Clubs.”

Inuit mythology tells of the Torngait, the spirits that a Shaman or spiritual leader looks to for wisdom and power. Torngat comes from this Inuit name and the legends which hold that in this region the spirit world overlaps our own. White people have called this area the Ghost Coast and have commented how the sounds of the winds whistling through the rugged mountains bring forth the feeling that one is in another realm. If the earth is home to ancient spirits they would seek out this land where the rocks are among the oldest on the planet and the landforms hold an otherworldly appearance. Perhaps this truly is a place of spirits.

The Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve is the new name for this ancient place. It is the northern portion of the Inuit homeland of Nunatsiavut, located in northern Labrador. (Nunatsiavut means “Our beautiful land” in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit.) The park reserve encompasses roughly 10,000 km2 and extends from the deep waters of Saglek Fjord in the south, to the very northern tip of Labrador; and from the boundary with Quebec in the west, to the waters of the Labrador Sea in the east.

The human history of the park is rich and ancient. Within the park there are hundreds of archaeological sites including tent rings, stone caribou fences, caches, and ancient graves, all of which tell the story of the peoples and cultures, particularly the Inuit, who have made this special landscape their home.

South of Nachvak Fjord is Ramah Bay, home to a unique translucent stone called Ramah chert. This mineral holds an edge that is sharper than surgical steel. It was so prized by the ancient peoples of Labrador that prior to contact with the Europeans, some used this mineral almost exclusively in their arrows and blades.

Paul Quarrington: Each Day Like It’s My Last at National Post.

More at Wanderbird Expedition Cruises.

Ramah Chert.

For Sydney, and for Linda Gordon who loves the landscape.

Author and musician, Paul Quarrington, diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, eloquently describes his plans to live each day as though it is his last, connecting with singing and the Canadian landscape.

“As we journeyed through the Torngat Mountains, I finally realized what this trip was all about, for me. First of all, let me get a little scientific on you. The Torngats-comprised of Precambrian gneisses-are amongst the oldest mountains in the world, almost four billions years old. They rise out of the water with enchanted austerity. Sitting well above the tree line, the Torngats are stark naked and make no apology about it. Torngat is an Inuktitut word meaning Place of Spirits, and it very clearly is. The mountaintops are usually shrouded in cloud, and it’s easy enough to imagine the Spirits assembling there, going through the itinerary for another year. In short, the Torngat Mountains took what little breath I have away from me. The thought occurred that I was on another planet, and that’s when I realized, no, I’m on this planet, I’m just none too clear on what it actually looks like. I realized that what I wanted to do was spend a little time getting to know the third stone from the sun; it has been my home for 56 years, but I have spent much of it confined in the settlements. I wanted to explore and examine, I wanted to interact – yes, in the broadest, most spiritual sense.”

“So there, basically, you have the two main components of my plan for (what remains of) my future: singing and (spiritual) mountain climbing. For example, I think I’ll go fishing this week, getting to know Mother Ship Earth a bit better. I think I’ll go stand in a river just a few degrees above freezing and toss a yarn-fly into the current, over and over again, in the hopes of convincing some chromium-silver steelhead that the thing is edible. Or, I may simply go walkabout, kicking stones and major rock formations. I will build inuksuit (did you know that was the plural? I learned a lot on my voyages…) and I will try to build them across as much of the landscape as I can. In the meantime, I will be singing, all manner of songs. I will sing in Porkbelly Futures, I will sing with fiddlers and button accordionists, I will sing in Gospel choirs and Glee Clubs.”

Inuit mythology tells of the Torngait, the spirits that a Shaman or spiritual leader looks to for wisdom and power. Torngat comes from this Inuit name and the legends which hold that in this region the spirit world overlaps our own. White people have called this area the Ghost Coast and have commented how the sounds of the winds whistling through the rugged mountains bring forth the feeling that one is in another realm. If the earth is home to ancient spirits they would seek out this land where the rocks are among the oldest on the planet and the landforms hold an otherworldly appearance. Perhaps this truly is a place of spirits.

The Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve is the new name for this ancient place. It is the northern portion of the Inuit homeland of Nunatsiavut, located in northern Labrador. (Nunatsiavut means “Our beautiful land” in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit.) The park reserve encompasses roughly 10,000 km2 and extends from the deep waters of Saglek Fjord in the south, to the very northern tip of Labrador; and from the boundary with Quebec in the west, to the waters of the Labrador Sea in the east.

The human history of the park is rich and ancient. Within the park there are hundreds of archaeological sites including tent rings, stone caribou fences, caches, and ancient graves, all of which tell the story of the peoples and cultures, particularly the Inuit, who have made this special landscape their home.

South of Nachvak Fjord is Ramah Bay, home to a unique translucent stone called Ramah chert. This mineral holds an edge that is sharper than surgical steel. It was so prized by the ancient peoples of Labrador that prior to contact with the Europeans, some used this mineral almost exclusively in their arrows and blades.

Paul Quarrington: Each Day Like It’s My Last at National Post.

More at Wanderbird Expedition Cruises.

Ramah Chert.

For Sydney, and for Linda Gordon who loves the landscape.

We have uncovered a rare document from Brocket Alberta that dates from 1975, which has kindly been converted to PDF format. The focus of this document is Treaty 7 how it affects the aboriginal way of life, criticizes the Canadian education of First Nations Peoples, and other interesting comments from the voice of then 75 year old Peigan Tom Yellowhorn.

Click for Rare Brocket Document circa 1975!

http://dspace.cc.uregina.ca/dspace/bitstream/10294/600/1/IH-245B.pdf

DOCUMENT NAME/INFORMANT: TOM YELLOWHORN
INFORMANT’S ADDRESS: BROCKET, ALBERTA
PEIGAN RESERVE
INTERVIEW LOCATION: BROCKET, ALBERTA
PEIGAN RESERVE
TRIBE/NATION: PEIGAN
LANGUAGE:
DATE OF INTERVIEW: MARCH 7, 1975
INTERVIEWER: JOHNNY SMITH
INTERPRETER: JOHNNY SMITH
TRANSCRIBER: J. GREENWOOD
SOURCE: OFFICE OF SPECIFIC CLAIMS &
RESEARCH
WINTERBURN, ALBERTA
TAPE NUMBER: IH-245B
DISK: TRANSCRIPT DISC 26
PAGES: 17
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Tom Yellowhorn, aged 72, describes the acceptance by the
Peigans of Treaty #7, and its effects on their way of life.
- Compares U.S. and Canadian treaties and criticizes Canadian
education of Indians.
- Describes some aspects of traditional ceremonies (briefly).
- tells story of two spirits gambling for control of lands
adjacent to Rockies.
John Smith: I’m a researcher for T.A.R.R., my name is John W.
Smith. I’ll be interviewing an elderly gentleman here at
Brocket, Alberta. The date is March the seventh. This
interview will relate as to the time before the signing of the
treaties. The purpose of the interview is to try and cover all
possible areas where the leaders might have knowledge. It is
possible that the questions that will be asked of the
interviewee might not be able to give any information in answer
to any of them. In fact in most cases interviewees will not be
able to do so. This is expected and they should not feel that
the interviewer is trying to make them look stupid or ignorant.
The unfortunate fact is that most of this information has
probably been lost from the oral tradition. It would be a
shame, however, to lose any that might still be in someone’s
mind simply because no one ever asked the question. I will
start off by asking my grandfather his name, his age and where
he was born. The date today is March the seventh, 1975. What
is your name?
Tom: Tom Yellowhorn.
John: How old are you?
Tom: Well, I was seventy-two last birthday, November 24, 1974.
John: Where were you born?
Tom: Well, on the reserve.
John: On the Peigan reserve?
Tom: Yeah, Peigan reserve. And I think that’s the old
settlement we had across the river, which I still got myself
today.
John: Have you always lived here?
Tom: Oh yes, I have been here all my life.
John: Could you tell me the story about the time there was
buffalo around?
Tom: Well, I can tell you very little, Johnny, because on my
life line I was brought up, my father was a halfbreed. My
grandmother married a white man in the first place, so my dad
was a halfbreed and my mother was a full-blooded Indian, her
father’s and her name was Fox Herd, and he was from this
Blackfoot tribe in Montana. That’s where originally my
grandfather was from. Then this white man grandfather of mine
was, I think of many trades because he was up in North
Battleford when the treaty was made up there, because he went
there with my grandmother and then they brought three wagon
loads of good, mixed goods. Oh, everything for a household you
know, and he traded with the Indians up there. But on the other
side, my mother’s father, he was on this Yellowstone Park area
in Montana and he was a great hunter too. He was one of the
great parties that go out hunting buffalo for their livelihood
and I guess he was one of those that were raiding the
neighboring Indians in Missouri, further south, I guess Crows
and Cheyennes, and so forth like that. So they lived quite
entirely on buffalo, wild game, wildlife. They lived on that
for their livelihood. And they lived along this eastern slopes
of the Rockies all this time. And there was buffalo everywhere
until…well I think that the buffalo went, disappeared, it
seems to me disappeared before the first treaty was
signed…because, according to what I hear they had a mass
killing of buffalo in the States. And it was staged by the
American government. And I hear about the same time the
buffalo was killed off on the Canadian territory too. So I
think the two governments must have made some kind of agreement
to kill the buffalo off, because that was the Canadians’ main
source of living of life, because they used the buffalo for
everything. So when they made the treaties, well they told the
Indians, chiefs where they’re gonna stay, where they’re going to
live. But the treaty at Blackfoot Crossing, Cluny, well they
asked Chief Crowfoot where he was going to live. So he chose
Blackfoot Crossing and so this Blackfoot Crossing, I don’t know
how far it runs south and west, and the north and east, but
they had a big piece of territory for their own and when
Red Crow chose his, where he’s going to stay, he chose the Belly
Hills. Well the Belly Hills has got a river running on each,
started from way up west, not too close to Waterton Lake, but
from there the rivers they spread out, oh, I’d say about the
place it must be about 25 miles wide. And it runs way to the
east, to the north shores of the Old Man River and west of
Lethbridge. And when all the chiefs, (because Bull Head died
1874) no 1875 he died somewheres around about first part of
February, first few days of February. And he died of
pneumonia. And it was after his death when Colonel Macleod
finally went to see Chief Crowfoot to make treaty. Because Bull
Head has turned him down when he came there in October 1874.
He turned him down, he told him, when Colonel Macleod approached
him and told him that the Queen wants to make treaty with
him. And Bull Head turned him down and told him, “No, I’m not
ready to make treaty with you.” So he told Colonel Macleod,”You
go back the way you came from, but don’t take any fear that
anything is going to happen. I’ll see that nothing happens.”
So Colonel Macleod he gave him a uniform, the Queen’s own guide
uniform. So when he got this uniform from Colonel Macleod, Chief
Bull Head, in turn, gave him his name Bull Head, that he
himself is a great leader, great hunter, great warrior. And he
had the big responsibility of his people to see they got a big
area for their living where there’s plenty of game and lots of
water where you get a lot of fish and fowl. They look after
this from Red Deer River, Red Deer right straight south to
Yellowstone river. And up to the Rockies and east to the
Cypress Hills. This was all under Chief Bull Head’s, his
people to live here. So he lives up to the mountains far west
as the great divide, where the river, where the waters run each
side, where the river runs east and where the river water runs
west to the west coast. All anything that runs on this side
of the divide is Bull Head’s area, territory. So when he died
Bull Head, Colonel Macleod, he camped, he was here for three
years before he think that Crowfoot was the next successor of
Bull Head. So he went to see, they went to see Crowfoot to
sign treaty. And so that’s where the buffalo ended up was
before the treaty was signed. The two governments had agreed to
try and kill off the buffalo and…because they found out it
was the Indians’ great, the most valuable food and get all
their clothing from the buffalo because everything that comes
from buffalo, it’s used to the Indians.
John: Did the disappearance of the buffalo change their lives?
Tom: Oh yes. Well yes, it put the Indians on these
reservations which I call concentration camps. Well the Indian
can’t do nothing, there’s too many laws for him to respect.
You take this Indian Act, well the Indian people they respect
it oh for years and years, until the last, just about 25 years,
when the people got a little more smartened up in education.
So they thought they should fight for their rights. And now
today we found out that the Indian Act, it really means to
protect the white man and to punish the Indian. That’s what the
Indian Act means for the whole people of Canada. So that’s why
they got so many bad deals because they didn’t care what kind
of a deal they made for the Indian as long as they knew they
could get away with something. Because the white man they give
up the sweet talk; in the long run this sweet talk turns sour
and bitter. Then it’s no good for the Indian when it runs sour.
John: How were the Indians able to survive after the buffalo
disappeared?
Tom: Well they had a lot of uh, they still had a little bit of
hunting to do when the buffalo disappeared. They still had the
moose and elk or the antelope on the short grass country or
east on the Cypress and Medicine Hat area. All this eastern
country, it’s all short grass country, that’s where the
antelope run, but they’re not so, they’re not so,…buffalo is
the best hunting animals that the Indians, they live on.
Mainly, and for fish, well, they get all kinds of fish, until
white people clean out the rivers and lakes of the fish. They
kill them off just for sport not to eat, but the Indians, they
fish them to eat and to live on them for a living.
John: After the treaty was signed did it change the way the
people lived much?
Tom: Yes. Well it’s quite a…they had to go and live on
these reserves and oh that’s when they started to give them all
kinds of instructions, before they know they were free, before,
but well, after the treaty, well they tell them all kinds of
instructions to do which was no good for the Indian people.
And it really made them, …well they tell them this is a good
way to live but it’s not true.
John: What did the people around here, the Peigans, the
Bloods, the Blackfoot and the Sarcee, what did they think about
those treaties that were being made down in the States before
they signed their treaty here?
Tom: Well I’ll tell you, for instance the United States
government, they live up to their word on the education,
because that was one of the first promises they gave to the
Indians in the States to give them education, and they gave them
education so the Indians in the States they’re a hundred years
ahead of us in their education. They were well educated a
hundred years ago. While the people in Canada were educated
and it only made them just another class of people. They went
and lost their culture, traditions and their way of life and
they’re not qualified for the white society the way they were
educated. Yeah, it just made them to, the way they were
educated, they were scared to talk, they don’t know what
they’re really talking about. It’s just the poor education
they got from the government.
John: Do you think the signing of the treaty down in the
States influenced the people to sign the treaty here?
Tom: No, it’s got nothing to do with that but I’ll tell you
the treaties that were made in the States were altogether
different. Because the Indians that fought for their rights oh
long ago. They had been fighting because they had been
educated and they learned to use this claim, they knew how to
work on it and they got a lot of land what they lost – they got
it back, because they were educated. But here in Canada the
Indians were not educated right, well for a long time they
didn’t know what. And this, the Indians in the States they got
their voting rights, oh a long time ago too. So that’s why
they made their claims work out more for them than it did in
Canada. But now with this we’ve got our voting rights, we seem
to make another step into the daylight. We know where we stand
because there are a lot of people who are willing to help the
Indian people today instead of just the Indian Act. Oh there
was a big, would say a big war between the white man and the
Indian on the strength of the Indian Act.
John: The interpreter for Treaty 7, Jerry Potts…
Tom: No, Jerry Potts was just a guide.
John: He was just a guide?
Tom: Yeah, he was just a guide. Yeah, he was taking the
Mounties where they wanted to go. But he was not the
interpreter for the whole cause. The interpreter for the first
treaty at the Blackfoot Crossing, Cluny; it was James Bird, and
he was a halfbreed from the States. Well he talks the full
Blackfoot language and well practically he was more Indian than
a halfbreed and he was the one that was interpreter for the
whole thing when the first treaty was signed at Blackfoot
Crossing in Cluny. Because I visited his on, oh years after,
fifty years after the treaty was signed, and that’s what he
told me, he said “My father was interpreter at the Blackfoot
Crossing when they made the first treaty.”
John: What part did Jerry Potts play in the signing of the
treaty?
Tom: Well I couldn’t say what, cause I don’t hear anymore
about his, about Jerry, except on occasional trips with the
Mounties. That’s all I know, that’s all I heard about him, but
he was not the interpreter, because Tom Bird he told me himself
because he talks good English but he never went to school. But
I guess his father must have went to school and he knows
English well and he can talk Indian good, so he was the one
that interpreted for the whole signing of the Treaty 7 at the
Blackfoot Crossing. Because I visited Tom Bird in 1924, on his
own homestead, and just across the border his land adjacent to
the Canadian and U.S. border. He lives on that creek there, I
think they call it St. Mary’s Creek or Swift Current,
something like Swift Current. That’s it because St. Mary’s
River is on the other side. And this creek they call it Swift
Current, fast running water in other words, you call it. And
he lives right there.
John: Were there any treaties made before this treaty seven
with the Blackfoot?
never heard. As far as I hear about the treaties. That was
only treaty signed, was treaty number seven.

[There is much more to this interview but due to space constraints, we are including the direct link so you can download the full interview in PDF format yourselves.]

Direct Link:

http://dspace.cc.uregina.ca/dspace/bitstream/10294/600/1/IH-245B.pdf

We all know that once you go Black, you never go Back. But did you know…

Once you go Inuit, you never go Out of it.*

Once You Go Inuit...

*Gots to give credit where credit is due. I don’t like to steal credit. I’m no credit stealer. This tasty little nugget was the product of a very funny conversation with one of the most awesomest of peeps…

sich cool dabei fühlen 20 Hunde an Stahlseilen vor ein Quad zu spannen sich zu dritt auf selbigem rum zu flegeln und Kilometer auf Teufel komm raus zu fressen, trainieren wir derzeit noch die Hunde in kleinen Einheiten um Ihnen die nötigen Kommandos und sozialen Fähigkeiten für das fahren auf Wildtrails im Gelände,  sowie das Überleben mit dem Menschen als Teil des Teams in der Natur  zu vermitteln,  oder diese Fähigkeiten nach der Sommerpause wieder zu vertiefen.

Den nur so werden wir im Winter wieder absolut harmonische Teams haben die mit uns gemeinsam im Zelt oder der Hütte die Winternächte verbringen können, wochenlang ohne Unterstützung von außen als perfekte Einheit ohne viel Worte agierend.

Ein paar Fotos von der Schlammschlacht gestern:

Und wer mal genau hinschaut wird folgendes bemerken: Auch “fette” und “voll gefressene” Hunde arbeiten super hart ( das ist mindestens der 7te steile Anstieg auf 10 Kilometern,  letztes Drittel der Trainingsstrecke ) wenn man es versteht seine Hunde zu motivieren. Dazu braucht es keinerlei Nahrungsentzug, verhaltensgestörte Hunde durch Ketten- oder Zwingerhaltung oder sonstige “Druckmittel” oder Zwangsmotivationen.

Sondern nur Kenntnisse und Handeln nach der natürlichen Bedürfnisse der Hunde und sanfte, nachhaltige Steuerung des natürlichen Willens zum laufen und arbeiten.

Und dann, dann kann man im Winter auch richtig fahren, überall. Ohne Skiidootrails, Trailmaker , Depotsäcke und schlag mich tot. Und wenn es dann mal kritisch werden sollte, laufen die Hunde auch 400 KM im Tiefschnee mit 600 KG auf dem Schlitten ohne jegliche Nahrung. Für Ihr Team. Ihren Menschen.  Ohne gesundheitliche Schäden ( weil genug Substanz zum “zusetzen” vorhanden)  , “langsam”, aber stetig und sicher !!

Und bringen uns in jeder Situation sicher nach Hause… .

Das sind Schlittenhunde. Nichts anderes….

Have fun



Nachtrag: Und den erbarmungswürdigen Wixern die dauernd die “Eskimos” als Beispiele für Ihre Tierquälerei heranziehen sei mal folgendes gesagt: Das heißt Inuit, den Rohfleischfresser = Eskimo ( man sollte die Worte kennen die man benutzt ) ist eine miese,  rassistische Beleidigung. Und zweitens: Lebt doch erst mal einige Monate  mit Inuit die wirklich noch traditionell leben und ernährt euch selbst mal eben solange fast ausschließlich von Blubber ( Wer nicht weis was das ist soll lernen ). Dann, dann dürft Ihr mitreden. Ansonsten gilt nämlich: Wenn man keine Ahnung hat, einfach mal die Fresse halten !!

Nachtrag 2: Man teilt mir mit ich soll doch nicht immer verbal so auf die Kacke hauen und mal freundlich formulieren…. Hm…. Sehe ich gar nicht ein. Das hier ist mein virtuelles Wohnzimmer und da ziehe ich mir die Pantoffeln an, machs Bierchen auf und habe es bequem… .  Aber nun gut Friedensangebot: Statt Nachtrag wie oben folgende Formulierung: Bildung nebst Lebenserfahrung in der großen,  weiten Welt  tut nicht weh und hat auch noch keinem geschadet ) . Ferner soll das den Horizont , so vorhanden, erweitern… . Und eine Universität die einen beißt habe ich auch noch nicht gesehen…

sich cool dabei fühlen 20 Hunde an Stahlseilen vor ein Quad zu spannen sich zu dritt auf selbigem rum zu flegeln und Kilometer auf Teufel komm raus zu fressen, trainieren wir derzeit noch die Hunde in kleinen Einheiten um Ihnen die nötigen Kommandos und sozialen Fähigkeiten für das fahren auf Wildtrails im Gelände,  sowie das Überleben mit dem Menschen als Teil des Teams in der Natur  zu vermitteln,  oder diese Fähigkeiten nach der Sommerpause wieder zu vertiefen.

Den nur so werden wir im Winter wieder absolut harmonische Teams haben die mit uns gemeinsam im Zelt oder der Hütte die Winternächte verbringen können, wochenlang ohne Unterstützung von außen als perfekte Einheit ohne viel Worte agierend.

Ein paar Fotos von der Schlammschlacht gestern:

Und wer mal genau hinschaut wird folgendes bemerken: Auch “fette” und “voll gefressene” Hunde arbeiten super hart ( das ist mindestens der 7te steile Anstieg auf 10 Kilometern,  letztes Drittel der Trainingsstrecke ) wenn man es versteht seine Hunde zu motivieren. Dazu braucht es keinerlei Nahrungsentzug, verhaltensgestörte Hunde durch Ketten- oder Zwingerhaltung oder sonstige “Druckmittel” oder Zwangsmotivationen.

Sondern nur Kenntnisse und Handeln nach der natürlichen Bedürfnisse der Hunde und sanfte, nachhaltige Steuerung des natürlichen Willens zum laufen und arbeiten.

Und dann, dann kann man im Winter auch richtig fahren, überall. Ohne Skiidootrails, Trailmaker , Depotsäcke und schlag mich tot. Und wenn es dann mal kritisch werden sollte, laufen die Hunde auch 400 KM im Tiefschnee mit 600 KG auf dem Schlitten ohne jegliche Nahrung. Für Ihr Team. Ihren Menschen.  Ohne gesundheitliche Schäden ( weil genug Substanz zum “zusetzen” vorhanden)  , “langsam”, aber stetig und sicher !!

Und bringen uns in jeder Situation sicher nach Hause… .

Das sind Schlittenhunde. Nichts anderes….

Have fun



Nachtrag: Und den erbarmungswürdigen Wixern die dauernd die “Eskimos” als Beispiele für Ihre Tierquälerei heranziehen sei mal folgendes gesagt: Das heißt Inuit, den Rohfleischfresser = Eskimo ( man sollte die Worte kennen die man benutzt ) ist eine miese,  rassistische Beleidigung. Und zweitens: Lebt doch erst mal einige Monate  mit Inuit die wirklich noch traditionell leben und ernährt euch selbst mal eben solange fast ausschließlich von Blubber ( Wer nicht weis was das ist soll lernen ). Dann, dann dürft Ihr mitreden. Ansonsten gilt nämlich: Wenn man keine Ahnung hat, einfach mal die Fresse halten !!

Nachtrag 2: Man teilt mir mit ich soll doch nicht immer verbal so auf die Kacke hauen und mal freundlich formulieren…. Hm…. Sehe ich gar nicht ein. Das hier ist mein virtuelles Wohnzimmer und da ziehe ich mir die Pantoffeln an, machs Bierchen auf und habe es bequem… .  Aber nun gut Friedensangebot: Statt Nachtrag wie oben folgende Formulierung: Bildung nebst Lebenserfahrung in der großen,  weiten Welt  tut nicht weh und hat auch noch keinem geschadet ) . Ferner soll das den Horizont , so vorhanden, erweitern… . Und eine Universität die einen beißt habe ich auch noch nicht gesehen…

アラスカとラブラドル半島のInuit族の死亡率は1918年のパンデミック[1918 H1N1 Spanish pandemic] 時、30%-90%であった。
以下は2009 Influenza A(H1N1)について、
2009年4月16日から同年7月13日までの期間のICU入院患者168人中
　　First nations, Inuit, Métis, aboriginal 43人(25.6%)
死亡率はカナダのアボリジニが明らかに高いということはなかった。
Critically Ill Patients With 2009 Influenza A(H1N1) Infection in Canada
　http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/2009.1496

2009年6月1日から同年8月31日までの期間のICU入院患者722人のうち、オーストラリアのアボリジニとトレス諸島民（人口比2.5%）は 9.7%、ニュージーランドのマオリ族（人口比13.6%）は 25.0%であった。
同年10月16日時点でオーストラリアでは185人が死亡している（妊婦4人、Indigenous 24人を含む）
　http://www.healthemergency.gov.au/

Critical Care Services and 2009 H1N1 Influenza in Australia and New Zealand
　http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMoa0908481

aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia、Māori in New Zealand

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