Peter M. Gardnera dense stand of young trees, there was a grassy firebreak that served
in both dry summer weather and in snow as our landing strip.
Most families spent two to nine months of the year away in the
bush, meaning that the segment of the population actually present
in the settlement was usually well below its theoretical peak. Whole
families went to fishing lakes for the summer; many more spent the
winter months in trapline cabins and tents. Their comings and go-
ings were timed in accordance with weather conditions: snow, ice, or
dry ground being needed for easy movement on land and open wa-
ter for travel by river.
Dene appreciated the rewards of living in both settings. The town
had its social and technological richness, and the bush offered per-
sonal freedom. People gave clear signs of anticipating eagerly each
move from town to bush and bush to town. Anyone having a va-
cation retreat should be able to understand this; it feels good to get
away from congestion and equally rewarding to return to the usual
amenities and bustle. I accompanied the young chief to his trapline
on his first trip of the winter, setting out on the very day that ice on
our smaller river was deemed safe to cross. A scant five miles from
the settlement, he stopped, built a fire to heat a frying pan of snow
for making tea, grinned at me, and summed up his feelings in two
words: “No boss!”
Despite their involvement in the world fur market, the people had
certainly not given up hunting and fishing for their sustenance. Fresh
or dried moose meat could be found in 90 percent of the households
on any given day, every month of the year, with caribou, bear, and
beaver to supplement it, or perhaps rabbit meat in a pinch. Fishing
for whitefish, lake trout, northern pike, burbot, and sucker was also
an activity that went on all year, except in late winter, both for hu-
man consumption and as food for sled dogs. There were also game
birds, plus berries in season. And people from the elderly down to
the most modern youngsters still went through meticulous ritual dis-
posal of moose heads, fish innards, and so on, when butchering, do-
ing so out of respect for the creatures that they had been obliged to
kill in order to sustain themselves. A youth might playfully have stood
up in a moving boat and put a. 22 long bullet through a moose knee
to bring it down, but the killing itself remained a serious activity.