Peter M. Gardnera mile from one another. But then half a mile is only a few minutes’
walk. People liked to live near relatives and spend time with them,
but they exhibited an exaggerated need for space.
Within limits, Dene households ought to be independent and self-
sufficient, they believed. Nonetheless, because their main sources of
food were enormous, it made sense to share any large animal kill with
close relatives and with whomever else in the community dropped by
for a share. This was absolutely routine with moose or caribou; I saw
it done, too, when a trapper brought in the carcasses of ten beavers at
one time, a substantial amount of meat. It was quite clear to us that a
couple of men who never hunted were given shares of meat hesitantly
and reluctantly. We heard them scorned for living such that they and
their dependents always turned out to be receivers of food.
Pairs or small groups of people worked as teams in brief tasks, such
as hunting, butchering, hide scraping, and building cabins or sleds,
but they did so as well in season-long trapping arrangements. These
long-term partnerships had to be especially stressful for the individ-
ualistic Dene. If trapline partners happened to be grandfather and
grandson, or uncle and nephew, this might not happen, but it seemed
inevitable that unrelated partners would experience difficulty in cop-
ing with disagreements and differences of opinion when coordinated
work was called for.
I learned about this from direct experience. The first person who
took me out to his trapline for a few days found me puzzling at times.
For reasons I did not really understand, he would look at me now and
then with a searching, troubled expression. I sought to participate
as much as possible and be helpful, but my suggestions and actions
weren’t always received as I had hoped. Perhaps I was not comport-
ing myself as a learner should. Perhaps I made too many suggestions,
or made them too eagerly, or it could be that some of my ideas struck
him as being off the wall. He also behaved as if he thought I was an-
noyed over his losing his rifle shells along the trail as a result of stor-
ing them too casually. In truth, I was. By and large, it was a good trip,
however, and these were subtle little matters. While they all passed
without discussion, they remained undealt with.
In my mind, the biggest problem of all came when he asked me to
stay at his house right after we returned, in order to have several rounds