Day 8: Soil Ingestion Research Project ~ Cold Lake First Nations (English Bay)

Day 8:

Our CLFNS Coordinator/Representative, Brian
~ I'm grateful for all he has shared in regards
to traditional knowledge, Aiy-hey, maci cho 

This morning started off early for our Outfitter & Coordinator, Brian.  They went out at 5:00 AM to try & hunt for deer or moose.  I finally crawled, literally (so tired) crawled out of bed this morning.  We go all day & all the fresh air is good because it gives you energy but then when you drop to sleep, you literally drop.  We all have been sleeping really well since we’ve been drinking mint tea each night.  So much that we are sleeping in having breakfast at 8:00 AM instead of 7:00 AM, even our researchers have been sleeping in & they are on Eastern time zones.  I told them all, that I’m not giving them mint tea anymore, going to change to muskeg & tamarack tea (we pick the muskeg & use the bark from the tamarack tree) because everyone is getting to relaxed, they all laughed but said they have been sleeping well but agree we should cut back on the mint tea.

We didn’t go out in the morning, we all hung around the camp while Jewel & our Muskrat Warrior went out to Cold Lake so Jewel could take care of University business.  In the mean time, I went and helped the E-bay Community Centre staff with their Weekly Wednesday Community Soup & Bannock lunch.  I did little stuff but asked them to document all they are putting in the soup because we have to record everything.  I’ve kind of taken it on as my responsibility to help Graham record when he is away from Camp because today he had to take a run to Edmonton to send the first batch of test samples to Ottawa…yes we Ginny Pigs (lol) are so important, the capital of Canada wants our bodily waste (hee, hee) ;)…we always get a kick out of that…but did they get to Ottawa, so we thought but we found out different by mid-day…

When noon arrived, I weighed all our servings & had all of us record our food but BANNOCK was off limits.  We aren’t allowed to eat bannock throughout this project because, apparently, baking powder has aluminum in it & it messes up the test results, so E-bay staff we very generous enough to accommodate us & give us whole wheat buns…..hmmmm our compliments to the chef, the soup & berries with whip cream was the best!

I was so glad to see my mom & auntie Terri, they came for soup & bannock, I hadn’t seen my mom in over two weeks & she just finished her last radiation last Friday.  She was looking well, she is walking better & I can see hair is starting to grow back, not enough to make braids (jokes) …  love teasing her!  However, when we had lunch, I warned Pakan that I was going to have my auntie sit beside him & he better not flirt with her (we had a good laugh)…he is teaser too.

Later mom & auntie came to see our camp & they laughed at my mansion, all mom kept saying was, “oh my” & keep laughing.  She is cute, now she wants to come sleep with me.

One of the four bears we saw over 2 days ~ the bear is
probably wondering what strange creators we are while
he/she is minding their own business...doing what
Muskwak (Cree) or Susas (Dene) do best

When Jewel returned from Cold Lake, five of us: Jewel, Brian, Pakan, John, & myself went up to the Imperial Oil site, right within the area an hour north of Bonnyville & we even drove as far north as to the Bombing Range gates.  Our Coordinator took us to many interesting sites & we also say two bears again.  It’s amazing how many bears there are in this area.  As we drove to a few sites to take samples, we picked raspberries, more muskeg, & tamarack.  I can never get tired of seeing the beauty out here & all the vegetation.  There are places is the bush, so plush, moss all over, & everything is green etc. that you would think you were in the mountains.  

It explains itself ~ "You Are Here" lol

That’s how much amazing beauty there is & all of Imperial Oil has all that land.  There are pipelines all over the place.  At one point, we stopped & there was a sign with map, in the middle of the bush, that told us, “you are here” & the wells are here.  We kind of laughed because, there are signs in the middle of the wilderness that tell us where we are just like you would see those maps in shopping malls.

Pakan picking muskeg

Pakan & John walking back from picking
kinnikinnik ~ see the one of many oil pipelines that
goes on for miles in the background

As we took a brief rest in the wilderness, our awesome Pakan, opened the dust filled back of the truck box & saved our yearning hunger by offering to share his afternoon snack (in a paper lunch bag) with us all; which, he just pulled out of his one rubber boot from the back of the truck.  We laughed when we say the rubber boots & bagged lunch covered in dust (we were on gravel roads).  I said, “well, they want to test how much soil we ingest, I guess this will be a good reading”, we all just laughed especially when I took a bite of a cookie & it tasted like dirt.  While we were eating all of Pakan's food, Jewel found out, Graham was having a hard time shipping our  precious & valuable samples to OTTAWA...we were so proud to send part of us to Ottawa & the darn Alberta Province won't let these Federal Treaty Indians scats out of the their so called jurisdiction ( how did the province get so much control over our "scat"? ~ my sarcastic satire for the day ;)) ...therefore, Graham came back & will try another day...oh well, we felt honored our adopted brother, Graham (University of Ottawa Master's student) escorted our valuable samples on a touring return trip from Edmonton to Cold Lake First Nations & back...I've never been in two places at once, now I can say I have (lol).

Yup, we are goooood Ginny Pigs, after all, we all want Graham to get his Masters Degree because this is his Thesis project for the University of Ottawa & Dr. Blais is his advising Professor.  We told Graham, around the camp fire this evening, in a teasing manner to lighten up his frustrating day in Edmonton, that 

“we got your back Graham, we are here for you”

…he just laughed & said, “just like you have Pakan’s back” (read on & the bunchline for that remark is in the end of this journal, so keep it in mind).

When we got back, our Outfitter & my other female peer had started supper & we chowed down.  We were so hungry.  Pakan had young visitors & got to meet more relatives who are working as Environmental Monitors, it was nice to see because when I was working on Traditional Land Use years ago, my contractors & I wanted to see trained Aboriginal Environmental Monitors.  It was nice to see these young people trained.

After they left, we had a few visitors, one was showing a few of my peers a game & the other shared some medicine teachings with me.  I felt so honored she was willing to share some of her teachings with me.  I am talking about a local Elder who was raised on knowing medicines & she was so willing to share some of her knowledge she learned from her grandmother.  I humbly thanked her as per our cultural protocol & we continued to talk over muskeg & tamarack tea.  Another blessing of the day!

The day ended with another healing blessing & one of the best medicines ~ laughter…I’m not talking about just any kind of laughter but the kind that lights your heart & soul so much you feel utter pleasure & joy…

Here is what happened:

Pakan (is in his 60s but a very active person you can tell worked hard labor all his life & he likes to tease a lot & joke around) comes out of his tent & he looks at Ryan (another Ginny Pig participant) & says all serious & confused, “what job, what are they talking about ~ job”.  Then he says, “who was messing around with my piss (our morning urine sample), I put that bottle up there on the cooler & it’s only half filled, I know I filled it”.  I know, I’m confused at this point & he’s all frantic, so he crawls back in his tent & comes out holding a half filled urine sample.  He then proceeds to say with frustration standing in front of all of us in lounge chairs, “look, I know I filled this thing & it’s half full, who was messing with my piss”?  Just as he was going to say something else, our Outfitter grabs the bottle & yells as though he is pissed off, “well forget it then” he opens the bottle & dumps the urine right in front of Pakan & all of us.  As Pakan is shocked & tries to save his sample & yells, “what the…”, I yell, “what the hell are you doing”.  I am mad & Pakan is in shock, we are all in shock, then a second passes & my female peer runs out of her tent & yells, “did he drink it?”.  All of a sudden I started to laugh so hard; as the others, who don’t know what’s happening, are sitting there in shock.  Then someone says to flabbergasted Pakan, it’s “only apple juice!”

We all laughed so hard, I felt to grateful for that Good Medicine, it sure healed the day & helped all of us release any frustrations or tension we might have felt within the day.

Then Pakan, goes back in his tent & shows all of us the note he found with the SUPPOSED IMPOSTER Urine Sample:

“Don’t worry Silas, we got your back ~ we did your job for you”


The joke was on Pakan…& no matter how many times we brought it up right until we all went to bed, we couldn’t stop laughing until tears were rolling own our faces & our stomach hurt…it was the ultimate classic prank ever… 

Day 7: Soil Ingestion Research Project ~ Cold Lake First Nations (English Bay)

Day 7:

Dr. Blais of the University of Ottawa

The morning was kind of slow, we apparently had a wicked storm with thunder, lightening, & heavy rain over us last night.  Jewel (Dr. Blais) was up during the storm & was sure we were all up too, that’s how loud & hard it was…but most of us slept through it (ha, ha, ha).  He was quite surprised we slept through it but, like I said, I love storms, they put me to sleep & keep me under (ha, ha, ha). 

I so wanted to sleep in this morning & laid in bed for an hour & listened to everyone talking, chatting, & our Outfitter getting breakfast ready.  I got up though when our Coordinator called for me.  Of course, every morning, when I exit my tent, our Muskrat Warrior says, “good morning Princess” lol.  I immediately give him the evil eye & he gets scared of me (laughing jokingly).  No, just joking, every morning I always get greeted with warm “good mornings” & the one cheerful “good morning princess” with a big smile from our awesome Muskrat Warrior (hee, hee).

God's Country (CLFNS 149C): the rich vegetation untouched
~ we call this spot the "Little People Auditorium" ~ the Chief
Elder stands on the rock & talks to his/her fellow little people
(Little People are the the Protectors of the Medicines).

After breakfast, four of us ~ Graham, my female peer, our Coordinator, & I went up to the Cold Lake First Nations reserve 149C.  This is the new reserve CLFNS acquired in their land claims in 2001.  Now, this is God’s country, it is so lush, beautiful, & you can tell in so many places how beautiful the land is.  We came up here to try & find berries & maybe get a rabbit or duck but no luck.  We stopped in four locations along the way but we could tell berries are poor in this area this year but at least I got one more braid of sweetgrass.  That’s the thing about berries, they rotate each year…one year Saskatoons will be good & then blueberries aren’t.  I guess they like to take turns each year to be the centre of attention (hee, hee).  We did however, get a sample of blueberries but none to eat today (with sad face).  I guess another day but I just found out Ken will bring some from Moose Mountain (near Kehewin) on Friday ~ woo hoo!  I gave him some sampling bags too because our researchers need samples of all we eat & even the soil from the area we picked the food, medicines etc..; therefore, Moose Mountain & Kehewin Lake area will be part of this study too.  I guess it helps Dr. Blais’s objective too because he wants different test samples from a wide range of areas for variety & comparable test sampling.

Anyways, back to our trip on the northern CLFNS reserve, the cool thing is we saw two black bears & we had to stop so Graham could get bear scat sample.  All this scat from the bears & us…if anything from this project the theme seems to be: “scat” & bull”shit” from all our joking, teasing, & horsing around (laugh out loud ~ lol)! 

After we returned to camp the others were resting, it has been quite a week & it’s understandable some need to rest.  After all, like Ken said to us, around the camp fire, “we all have been blessed with many gifts this week & we need to sit back & take a rest & soak it all in sometimes”. That is so so true ~ we have been blessed, even blessed to be together, all getting along, & enjoying this experience together.  We all have our roles within our little family & we all have our unique personalities to add to the richness of this whole project experience.  It’s funny, as we have been getting to know each other more each day, we are each getting a nickname or as, we tease each other ~ “getting Indian Names (jokes)”.  For instance, we have our “Muskrat Warrior”, then we have our “Pakan (in Cree this means “nut) because he is a descendent from Chief Pakan like I am.  We also have me as “Princess” lol & the others will soon inherit their strong names (hee, hee)…to be continued as each day unfolds…

An Elder's Bus, fully equipped to live out in the bush
~ home is where the heart is!

As for our visitors, we have a few regulars who stop in daily for tea, chat, stories, & of course, many belly laughs (good medicine)! Tonight we also had a visit from a famous Artist, Alex Janvier J ~ I always love our conversations, they are always so comical, we tease, harass, & bull%^$ each other & he always teases me when I talk or tell stories, that that’s just all Saddle Lake talk (just some good friendly teasing between nations).

It was nice also to get a visit from some other local ladies of the community.  I really enjoyed the evening.  As me & my other female peer shared conversation & laughs with all five Elders (three CLFNS Elders & our to Elders) I felt blessed to be in such great company.  As I sat there listening to them, I tried to engrave a picture in my mind of this moment with these Elders around the camp fire as I took turns serving them mint tea & seeing their happy proud faces just sitting around a fire like I used to see our Elders do in the old days.  I tell you, it was so peaceful & sacred!

Like Ken said tonight before, he kissed & hugged me good night before his hour trip back home ~ we are so blessed with so many gifts this week, we need to take the time to soak it all up!

We sure are blessed & that’s the thing about life, when we slow down enough to enjoy the simple things in life, we see the real joys & blessing we are given each day…

Day 6: Soil Ingestion Research Project ~ Cold Lake First Nations (English Bay)

Day 6:

Please forgive my spelling errors etc., I’ve usually had a long day by the time I get to typing my journal & just want to get in my warm bed by the time I’m finished posting.  Also, I want to share with you so you are aware that all I write is my personal perceptive experience.  I also want to keep my fellow First Nations peers anonymity &/or will only use first names throughout this project.  However, the researchers names etc. are public knowledge.  It isn’t my place to share their experiences or perceptions, only mine but at the same time, we are all part of this together. They are all aware of my journaling & actually quite enjoy me reading it to them, when ever I can.  It isn’t that this project is a secret, it’s just that I want to be respectful of the others involved in this project. 

Beautiful Lands...
an Industrial Plant is just a hop skip & a jump away

Well, we had another busy day collecting samples this time most of the day.  The researchers wanted to get sediment samples from Ethel Lake this time.  So they went out on the boat & my other female peer & I were pretty much little scientists for the day collecting medicine, food, bear scat, & soil samples east of Ethel Lake because our coordinator advised us not to eat any of the gathering foods in the area because we are so close to industry.  This lake is also where a Cold Lake band member had bought land around the lake, a few years back, & the soil & water was so contaminated, she had to sell her land & move elsewhere.  It's scary to think people are still living & building beautiful cottages & homes around the lake.  It would be interesting (interesting as in curiosity only) to have a longitudinal study of all the residents over 20 years & see how their health is over those years right next to an oil plant....hmmmm...after all we are part of the environment...

Muskeg ~ excellent tea to clean the blood

Therefore, us two woman worked as a team & collected samples for the researchers.  It was hard not to eat the berries though because they were nice & juicy looking.  We work well together & as we gather more & more, we are becoming more aware of the environment and noticing the differences in vegetation health.  For instance, we are starting to notice which areas are affected by industry & which aren’t so much just by the look of the trees, plants etc..  It’s actually really obvious after you spent days out there gathering like we have, in different areas.  Another instance, was we went near the Esso plant area to see what medicines were out there & it was quite obvious as we got closer the trees & vegetation looked more sickly the more north we drove.  There was one spot where we parked in the bush along the border of the Esso plant (we could hear the plant in the distance), we saw floating oil & other pollutants beside a abandoned beaver dam & slough.  I was taking a soil sample & later realized the polluted water & the remnant’s of a dead bear scattered all throughout the bush.  I warned our researchers not to be surprised if they have bear cells in their sample.  It was so evident of the damage because most of the willow trees were dead from some unknown reason.  I have to go back there though tomorrow, to get more soil samples because I ran out of sample bags.

As we drove back to base camp, we went to go visit the Cold Lake Peace Camp north of Sandy Beach to see what the camp looks like & see what the peacekeepers are wanting to preserve.  We had a good 30 minute visit & left.  As we were driving along the road, we saw a beaver house, so we stopped & we hit the jackpot ~ MINT woo hoo!  We had been looking for mint for a few days now but it was hard to find, a lot of beaver houses had been abandoned or destroyed.  As few days before, I made mint tea for all of us & the others shared how much they enjoyed the tea because they slept like babies & a few even said they slept in but felt great.  Mint is a great sleep aid, good for colds, for fatigue, & other remedies.  We picked enough to take back to camp & we had a great evening with mint tea & laughs around the camp fire.  I don’t think we can go a day without teasing, laughing but tonight we are all pretty tired & the evening was quiet.  I was glad Ken came to visit for a while & he’s supposed to come back tomorrow & bring a few guns so we can go out & hunt more north of our base camp.

Graham expressed how much he wishes we could find more blueberries because he’s hooked on our rubarb-blueberry, & honey dessert.  The group was all impressed how good the dessert was yesterday without sugar & only honey.  As a result, when Ken came to visit tonight, they told him how much they enjoyed the honey.  Therefore, he promised to bring a pail of it, instead of the teaser sized one we demolished lol.  The organic honey, we buy from the Brown family across Kehewin Lake ~ it’s a hit!  I like using honey in my cooking, coffee, teas etc. instead of sugar.  It’s better anyways, when you think about it.

Aboriginal Plant Use in Canada's Northwest Boreal Forest

I've been using a excellent book called Aboriginal Plant Use in Canada's Northwest Boreal Forest ( thank you my friend, Roger McDonnell for the gift), as a guide, for finding medicines.  It was done years ago with the participation of Aboriginal people.  It's been a great guide along with the Aboriginal knowledge shared by Elders & active grassroots people raised & living off the land.  I am still learning, I don't claim to know all, I am a humble student of the land & our people.  I believe it is my responsibility to learn as much as I can since I am going to be taking on a great responsibility as a teacher next year.  I can't not take this responsibility lightly & I humbly accept it but know the weight I must bare.

As I type, I just received a text from Ken letting me know a thunder storm is approaching us.  I can hear it off in the distance & It sounds beautiful & tranquil.  I love thunderstorms, the thunder & the rain are comforting to me, I will sleep like a baby tonight!

Downside, I’ve gotten so much sun that ~ I look like a red-nosed alcoholic raccoon when I remove my glasses (lol jks) ~ it’s quite funny…I so have to use more sunscreen lol…oh well, that’s life I guess but the upside is I’m getting my vitamin D (haa, haa).

Sweet dreams all.  I am grateful for this opportunity to learn so much from the people, the land, the Creator!  The gifts out here are so amazing…I have seen so much beauty, now this is living!

Day 5: Soil Ingestion Research Project ~ Cold Lake First Nations (English Bay)

Day 5:

It’s looking like we aren’t going to move camp.  This seems to be a good place to stay & we have access to the E-bay facilities like water, a shower etc… it would be nice to be next to the lake, especially since it’s so hot but, I think there is a reason (not revealed yet) our camp is where it is.  I m okay with that too because it we would waste a valuable day of testing, gathering, hunting etc. if we moved.  We are all pretty much settled here at E-bay. 

The day started off slow but we eventually got going once the researches set up their sentiment sampling machine & all local member allowed our researchers to use his boat.  Dr. Blais arrived yesterday, he is a soft spoken gentleman with a eager demeanor respectful to learn who we are and what we are all about.  You can tell he is quite interested in ensuring this project succeeds to prove the wholistic environment is being affected.  For example, today they went & did soil samples at the bottom of Hilda Lake & just by the sediment samples strong odor, there is evidence of effect; however all these samples will be tested in a laboratory like our precious waste (laughingly). 

The researchers getting prepared to do sediment sampling
at bottom of Hilda Lake

As the researchers did there biological & scientific testing, we continued to gather food & medicines at Hilda Lake Park area.  I was quite disgusted & got turned off by this camping area.  These are provincial park areas set up beside beautiful lakes for “the public” to enjoy but all I see is beautiful land being violated & disrespected.  What I mean by this is, there wasn’t any garbage cans or bathrooms available for the public to use, so you can guess the state of the area.  I felt disgusted when we went & tried to pick berries & I had a hard time finding a good clean spot because there was garbage all over, or there was evidence of human or pet waste all throughout the bushes.  We tried to pick berries but then I quit after an hour when I knelt down to pick some blueberries & I could smell human urine.  It was quite sad!

Therefore, I left & went to find my other peers & we left that area & went back to our base camp. 

It was a quite hot today, so me & my other female peer went to Cold Lake, picked up some supplies at Canadian Tire & brought everyone else back Timmy’s coffee.  I know we are supposed to live off the land.  We are but can only do it to a certain extent.  On some days we are limited with what we can harvest or hunt or fish.  Just like today, we had whitefish & potatoes for supper after our fishermen collected from the net they set the night before.  We also had muskeg tea with birch bark.  It’s quite good & tasty.

Later on my female peer & I went to Sandy beach & waded in the lake and enjoyed the refreshing lake.  I tell you, Cold Lake is the best lake EVER lol.  It has been my favorite since I was a child, when we would spend almost whole summers out here with family.  However, Sandy beach has changed too, it is quite polluted & dirty like Hilda Lake.  It also lacks the resources to keep it clean & there is garbage all over & even people relieving themselves in the bushes too.  Even when I was a child, it wasn’t so populated but now it seems everyone knows about it.  It just amazes me with all the international talks about being Environmentally Conscious & Friendly, there is such little regard for the environment in this area ~ yet, this is one of the most beautiful areas so rich in beauty, vegetation, animal life…this area is a living “medicine chest” & it’s being so abused & raped daily…such violations…Our Mother ~ Earth is a Rape Victim & we all sit back & let her being violated over & over again.

I know this entry is bleak & sad but this is what my day was about…I felt so ashamed to be human…we are the most ignorant & arrogant mammals & the stupidest!  We are such parasites!

Everyday, I pray humans will change TODAY not tomorrow…because with the current path we are on, we are sure to exterminate OURSELVES!

Day 4: Soil Ingestion Research Project ~ Cold Lake First Nations (English Bay)

Day 4:

I had a hard time getting up this morning, it was cold & too warm & comfortable in my bed, so I laid in bed and listened to my fellow Ginny Pigs lol talk about how well their sleep was & what they are planning to do for the day.  I laid there hoping for bacon, thinking it’s been a long time since I had bacon.  As the morning light was trying to get out of my tent, I forced myself up to challenge the new day.  I needed to wake up because we’ve been all getting up at around 6:00 AM to 6:30 AM each morning and going out gathering or hunting etc.. all day then I get to bed late around 11:00 PM to midnight.  So getting up this morning was a challenge; therefore, I washed my hair & face with cold water and left my tent to see what the rainy day had to bring.

University of Ottawa Masters student
making his observational notes.

Ahhhhh bacon….what a good way to start the day, so glad for our Outfitter, Gerald & Mouse (our Outfitter’s helper's nickname) & their awesome cooking.  Our researchers left to Edmonton in the wee hours of the morning so we were on our own besides, Brian, our helper.  Our Masters student, Graham, was taking Jaime (Doctor Doyle, one of the researchers) to the airport & he was going to pick up the other doctor, Dr. Blay.  We couldn’t do too much with the drizzling rain, so we sat around the fire, organized camp etc. all morning & I also read some of my journal entries for this project to the others.  They enjoyed that.  The rain also gave me the opportunity to post all my journal entries on this blog with pictures.

We teased each other throughout the morning too and since our researchers were gone, I had them all enter their food journal so we could give it to our researcher when they got back.  They also teased by saying since they were gone, we should all run to McDonalds lol (we can’t go eat elsewhere), this research required a “controlled environment”, meaning…all our food is monitored & recorded daily; therefore, we've dubbed this recording by Graham as “confession” or “confessing our sins”.  Usually around two times a day,

Graham sits at the picnic table and asks us questions one by one:

What did you eat & how much?

How many bowel movements?

Did you do a urine sample?

What exercise did you do?

& so forth…

Our responses:

I had 5 bacon, 2 eggs, 2 coffee with cream…

Yes, yes, 2 hours gathering…

Then, when we are done confession, we tell the next people, “it’s your turn to confess your sins & don’t be making them up” (laughing jokingly)…

Everyone finds so many things to tease each other about, you can’t go very long without laughing here…everyone is so comical, they find humor in everything…even the fact about foods we can’t eat like bannock, pancakes etc.  because certain foods mess up the researchers tested readings.  SO sometimes you’ll hear every so often, “ohhh I can’t wait to have bannock" lol or "right on, we are done when the E-bay Community Centre has their Wednesday Soup & Bannock".  It’s so funny to listen too, you’d think we were all in jail with restrictions lol!

Our "Afghanistan Muskrat Warrior's" tent
~ ALL ARE WELCOME

The first half of the day was pretty slow & a few of the others went to check the fish net they set the evening before.  While they were gone, we noticed our one hunter/fisherman had put a t-shirt  with the word “Afghanistan” across it at the entrance of our camp.  So as a joke, I wrote a sign, just below & adjacent to his tent, “Our Muskrat Warrior” ~ All Are Welcome”.  I like teasing our hunter/fisherman, he is a cool guy that makes us laugh & he doesn’t even know he has the gift of humor.  We enjoy his demeanor & his stories!  He is so dedicated to this project but I can’t help but tease him.   He gets himself into little predicaments that are comical at times like today.  Him & our other hunter/fisherman got stuck after they checked their nets, so since they couldn’t call us (no cell phone), they walked with their one whitefish & five sucker fish to the Cold Lake First Nations Peace Camp & visited there & cooked & shared their one whitefish with the camp.  When they got back, we teased them about them not sharing their one fish with us.  We all laughed because they noticed we didn’t save them any dry moose meat either, which our Project Helper, Brian brought us.  All I know is eating traditionally is like eating in heaven, my stomach loves all the moose meat, blueberries, fish, and even the few raspberries I found today. 

In the afternoon, the other female project participant (only two woman on project) out of our group came with me to find more sweetgrass about a kilometer from our camp.  When we arrived there, we tried to find ratroot around the creek & a local lady, Maryanne came out of the bushes with her sweetgrass & berries saying, “hey, aren’t you Alma’s daughter”?  We started to talk & together we tried to find the ratroot.  She remembers picking it when she was younger.  It’s just been so amazing these last few days, we have been meeting up with so many people out looking for medicines.  Some are old veterans & others are new to learning the medicines like myself and a few others of us in the project.  The amazing thing is everyone is so willing to share their knowledge & help each other out to find the medicines.  Even though we didn’t find the ratroot, I invited Maryanne to come to our camp later & I would take her to where we found ayîkicâs the day before.

When we got back to camp, Ken was there & our Outfitter fed him moose soup & berries.  Then, other Dene locals like Christine & her 94 year old mother came to visit & have some sucker fish with us.  The old lady was so cute.  She helped me braid the sweetgrass & she was really curious about what we were doing out here, so I trying to explain the best I could while Christine translated in Dene for me…so here is how I told it…

Well, we are out here trying to find out how oil companies, the jets, and all affect our medicines, the animals, the fish, and the food we pick & eat.  These people come from Ottawa from those big schools out there (University) & they study us & test us and our food, medicines, and all that to see if it’s getting poisoned.  They even test us because we eat all this food.  You know how they test us?  Well, we have to pee in a bottle and poop in a bag.  The old lady laughed & laughed as Christine translated.  Then I told the old lady, “we are so important that our poop even goes all the way on a plane to OTTAWA”…she laughed so hard.  “Yes”, I said, they don’t want us in Ottawa, just our poop” (laughing & joking).  She found it so funny & then I told her they even collect animal poop too & test it.  So I showed her some bear poop I collected (in a bag).  As I handed it to her, she was looking at it so curiously, then I told her what it was… she just about through it across the camp.  It wasn classic to see the expression on her face & we all had a hearty laugh about it.

Us out looking for berries, mint, & medicines by Marie Lake

Participation in this project has been so awesome that I keep thanking the Creator for allowing me to be part of this.  I have learned so much & felt so much Indigenous kindness in these four days than I have felt in a long time.  It’s so refreshing to go back to the land & learn from so many teachers.  I feel so blessed…even today, when Maryanne, Ken & I went and got more medicines & Ken went into the muskeg almost up to his waist.  We had so much fun out there searching for this plant, nothing could have been better.  We were out there for a few hours & if the sun hadn’t been going down, we wouldn’t have stopped.  Maryanne dropped us off at the camp, we said our grateful goodbyes & we walked away with a message for my mother in-law from her old Blue Quills Residential School mate, Maryanne.

Being with & part of the land is the best experience ever, I am trying my best to soak it all up.  I am so anxious to be a teacher, so I can have the opportunity to take my kids (students) out here to do what I am doing & experience the richness of our people, our culture, & our valuable knowledge…you can’t get this in any four walled classroom…our land is the greatest classroom ever.

As I sit on my bed & type here in my HUGE tent lol & I reflect on my day…I asked myself, “what was the highlight of the day?”.

Well…the highlight of my day was sitting braiding sweetgrass with the 94 yr old Elder, listening to her, & the icing on the cake was making her laugh & seeing the pure joy on her face! 

Life is about precious moments, especially the moments we spend with each other!