Battle Lines In The Sand
When we were growing up, I would hear stories from the Elders about the tribal wars between Dene and Inuvialuit. One story I remember…
Never Show Up An Elder
There’s only one way in the North to deal with an arrogant prick (Lord knows we’ve had our share) and that’s a damned-good practical joke.
Dog Gone Long Time
How a traditional walk helps make sense of life. Learning about stamina and resilience between Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope
ME AND WILLIE
The 1969 spring carnival talent show was the talk of the town. I begged and pleaded, with my mom, for a dollar to go. She reminded me that I would skip next week’s allowance if I took the dollar now, plus, I had to fill the woodbox with firewood. I assured her that I was …
The Battle at the Mad Trapper Bar
Northerners; we tell stories. Our northern stories are our wealth & our identity. They are about independent, hardy people full of character.
Whit Fraser: A Versatile Man Under the Midnight Sun
Whit Fraser led coverage of the Berger Inquiry & Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. Some argue it defined the North & mayber altered northern life.
Give a dog a bone – Part 2
I’ve had some tough times in my life, but fighting a dog over a bone was about the toughest. End of that story.
Give a dog a bone – Part 1
I’ve had some tough times in my life, but fighting a dog over a bone was about the toughest. Pull up a stump and I’ll fill you in.
Ice road woes (and whoas)
I was driving back to Red Deer from Calgary the other day and got a speeding ticket in a blinding snowstorm. The cop told me there is a law in Alberta that states that speed limits are reduced to 80 km/h when winds exceed 70 km/h. I told him, in no uncertain terms, that I’d …
Muskrat season
In the delta, March meant one thing—muskrat trapping season was open. And trapped muskrat pelts fetched damned near $2.50 apiece back in 1976.
Calgary snowmobile
Dennis has a tale of crashing an old Elan skidoo into a cop car I was driving to work this morning when I saw snowmobile tracks on the side of the road. It reminded me of the time me and my buddy Chubby had to drive from Calgary to Edmonton on an old Elan skidoo. …
Read the land
As long as I remember, I’ve travelled throughout the Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Coast with my dad. We travelled all over during different seasons hunting or trapping different animals.
Deals with the Anaatquuq
As a musician, you put yourself out there in the public and you have to be ready to appease your fans. That means answering questions after the show. The most common question I get is, “How long have you been playing?” Well, I’m here to tell you, I don’t know. It seems music has always …
A Tuk load of memories
I was back home in Inuvik this summer and I took the opportunity to drive to Tuk for the first time. It always hits close to the bone whenever I am there. The first time I went to Tuk, I was 12 years old. We were whaling at East Whitefish Station at the mouth of …
Homesick in Alberta
I was up in the Yukon last week working with Gwaandak Theatre on a series of radio plays based on legends from Old Crow. It was great to see all my Vuntut Gwich’in relatives and meet the famed Paul Kennedy from the CBC radio program, Ideas. He looks nothing like he sounds on radio. Is that …
A raven conspiracy?
Back in Inuvik, when the powers that be were trying to figure out why they could not keep ravens from shorting out and blowing power transformers in the winter.
The greatest living history in the North
I was walking through downtown Edmonton, the other day, when an old-timer in curled-up cowboy boots saddled up to me and bummed six bits off of me for a glass of draught. I was so happy to hear that particular vernacular that I almost gave him a hug.
Percolating with ‘the guys’
I work with federal inmates at an institution in central Alberta. And of all people, you would think they would know how to make coffee in an old-style coffee percolator. You know the ones … you put your coffee grounds in a round metal filter and place it onto a spigot that sends boiling water …
Dogsleds: Driverless cars, ‘all that and a bag of chips’
What people don’t know is that we’ve had driverless transport here in the North for eons. It’s called a dogsled.
Moosehide – shining a light across the North
The 2018 Moosehide Gathering in Dawson City was, once again, a smashing success. The local Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in relocated to Moosehide, two miles north of Dawson City on the Yukon River, during the gold rush of 1898, to escape the insanity of thirty-thousand lousy, drunken gold-hungry stampeders. It is a refuge for Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, and the …
One night, one stage, one amazing group of people…
As I was growing up in northern Canada, music was as much a staple as frying pan bannock.
A ‘real’ Yukon man or woman (knowin’ how to pick a good one)
There’s only one place you’ll find the best Yukon woman, and that’s at the dump, looking for parts. If she’s ripping the ball joint off an old Ford, then you’ve got it made.
Indian Horse
Indian Horse will be screened at the Atlin BC Globe Theatre on Thursday, July 5, 2018 at 7 PM as part of the Atlin Arts & Music Festival.
“I’m gonna live forever”
I don’t recall how long ago or what time, exactly, that I met Cor Guimond, but the moment I met him I knew he was going to be a lifelong friend.