The Land of Feast and Famine PDF
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THE LAND OF FEAST AND FAMINE This page intentionally left blank The Land of Feast and Famine BY HELGE INGSTAD Translated from the Norwegian by Eugene Gay-Tiffi McGiLL-QuEEN's UNIVERSITY PRESS Montreal & Kingston • London • Buffalo © McGill-Queen's University Press ISBN 0-7735-0911-9 (cloth) ISBN 0-7735-0912-7 (paper) Legal deposit second quarter 1992 Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec Originally published as Pelsjergerliv Blandt Nord-Kanadas Indianere, copyright 1931 by Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo. First published in English by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., copyright 1933. The translator and Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., wish to thank Father J. L. Coudert, O.M.I., of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta; Corporal R.A. Williams, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, of Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories; and Captain James C. Critchell-Bullock for their generous and invaluable assistance in the preparation of the first English edition. Printed in Canada on acid-free paper Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Ingstad, Helge, 1899- The land of feast and famine Translation of: Pelsjegerliv blanct Nord Kanadas indianere. ISBN 0-7735-0911-9 (bound) - ISBN 0-7735-0912-7 (pbk.) 1. Northwest Territories - Description and travel — 1906-1950. 2. Native peoples - Northwest Territories. 3. Trapping — Northwest Territories. 4. Ingstad, Helge, 1899- . I. Title. FC3963.I6413 1992 971.9'202'092 C92-09128-X TO MY FATHER This page intentionally left blank Contents PREFACE ix I-THE RIVER 3 II • GREAT SLAVE LAKE 25 III • PORTAGE 45 IV • LOG CABIN 59 V • WINTER 72 VI • BEAVER-HUNTING 92 VII • SUMMER ON GREAT SLAVE LAKE 117 VIII • RED NEIGHBORS 145 IX • THE CARIBOU 156 x • AUTUMN JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF THE CARIBOU-EATERS 167 XI • To THE UPPER THELON 191 Xii • THE CAMP OF THE CARIBOU-EATERS 224 XIII • THE BARREN GROUND INDIANS 245 XIV • THE TRAIL TO SOLITUDE 271 xv • ALONE ON THE BARRENS 288 XVI • THE END OF THE ADVENTURE 315 This page intentionally left blank Preface SIXTY-FIVE YEARS AGO I SOLD MY THRIVING LAWYER'S practice in Norway and made for the Canadian wilderness of the Northwest Territories. For four years (1926—30) I lived as a trapper in the isolated region north-east of Great Slave Lake. I had decided to realize a dream that had always been with me: a primitive life in northern, practi- cally uncharted wilds, in a region where the lives of the natives still largely followed their ancient traditions. The wilderness north-east of Great Slave Lake proved to be what' I had been looking for. After a long voyage by canoe, my partner Hjalmar Dale and I lit upon an enor- mous stretch of land with forests and tundras, extending to the Arctic Ocean in the north. A few groups of Indians, of Chipewyan stock, had their hunting grounds here. They were known as the Caribou-Eaters, a name they had received because their lives were utterly dependent on the caribou. At that time there were still great numbers - probably several hundred thousands — of caribou in the Northwest Territories. But the migrations of the caribou herds are mysterious. The Indians have a saying: "They are like ghosts; they come from nowhere, fill up all the land, then disappear." When thousands of these animals poured over the land, the Indians and the few white trap- pers there were filled with joy; when the animals disap- [ix]
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