Far North by Will Hobbs

Author:Will Hobbs [Hobbs, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ages 8 & Up
ISBN: 9780061963643
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 1999-10-11T07:00:00+00:00

14

“‘MY NAME IS Mary Canadien,’” Raymond read aloud. “‘I am a nurse at the hospital here in Yellowknife, N.W.T. I am a Dene from Fort Providence. My patient, Johnny Raven, has asked me to write down his testament for him in English as he tells it to me in Slavey. I regret that the English words that follow will only be an approximation of his thoughts in Slavey.’”

Johnny Raven is my name. My last name comes from my original Dene name, which meant Raven’s Eye. I was born not far below the great falls of the Nahanni. I was born of the mountain people who lived on the Yukon side of the mountains in the winter and built long boats out of moose skins to come down the Keele River or the Ross or the Nahanni in the spring to trade at the forts. At the end of the summer we would pack our dogs and return on foot to the mountains, where we made our fall hunt, mostly sheep back then.

We made as much dry meat as we could for the winter. We were never many, and the new diseases that were coming into the country took many lives, including my mother’s. After that we had to stay in the low country. My father took me to the mission, but I didn’t stay there very long. He came back for my little brother and me and we lived in the bush. Sometimes I wish I had stayed longer at the mission, only because I would have learned English there.

As it is, today, I cannot speak with my grandchildren and the other young people, and that is the worst thing. If they understood Slavey, I could tell them the stories and what we learned. Sometimes when I think about their future, I am overwhelmed with sadness. Is it true that what the elders know, the young people no longer need to know? I am leaving my thoughts in hopes that some young person will read them and maybe think about them. I will not live much longer. So this is my message to you.

When we lived in the bush, the land was beautiful and felt just like it was new. We always had to be working to try to survive. We lived in lean-tos and stick teepees covered with branches or hides. Most times there was enough to eat, and there was joking and laughter and dances. We wore rabbit skins, beaver or caribou jackets if we were lucky. But sometimes there was no game, not even rabbits. When I was eleven, my father starved to death.

In 1928 that’s when all the people came together to get the treaty payments. They were all in one place when the steamboat came down the Deh Cho and the influenza arrived with it. Many of the elders died, and many of the young, including my first wife, my baby son, and baby daughter.

More and more white men came into the country. They built houses for us if we would stay in the villages instead of living out in the bush.

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