Fonds 154 - Norm Simmons fonds

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Norm Simmons fonds

General material designation

  • Cartographic material
  • Graphic material
  • Textual record

Parallel title

Other title information

Title statements of responsibility

Title notes

Level of description

Fonds

Reference code

154

Edition area

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

Class of material specific details area

Statement of scale (cartographic)

Statement of projection (cartographic)

Statement of coordinates (cartographic)

Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • 1960 - 1980 (Creation)
    Creator
    Simmons, Norm, 1934-2016

Physical description area

Physical description

20 cm of textual material
163 photographs : 47 col. & 11 b&w negatives; 105 col. Transparencies
111 maps

Publisher's series area

Title proper of publisher's series

Parallel titles of publisher's series

Other title information of publisher's series

Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series

Numbering within publisher's series

Note on publisher's series

Archival description area

Name of creator

Biographical history

Dr. Norman Simmons was born in 1934 in the present Republic of the Philippines. He lived there until World War II, when he, his mother and brother moved to California. His father spent the war years in Japanese internment camps in the Philippines. The family reunited in the Philippines after the war, and Norman continued his schooling there until graduation from high school in 1952. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration in California. After graduation in 1956, he served in the U. S. Army Ordinance Corps in the Republic of Korea. He spent much of his time there touring the country with the Army’s blessing shooting Korean archery in local, regional, and national competitions. In 1958, he returned to California and married Hilah Lende, whom he had met two years earlier. He then obtained his MSc degree in wildlife biology at Colorado State University. In 1961, he began working for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service as manager of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Arizona. There he conducted his PhD field research on desert bighorn sheep with the University of Arizona. He obtained his Doctorate in 1969. By then, he and his family, increased by children Deborah and David, were living in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. He had responded to an advertisement in a professional journal offering travel and wilderness adventure. He worked for the Canadian Wildlife Service in the Mackenzie Mountains, conducting research on Dall’s sheep and woodland caribou with Mountain Dene people, and designing a sport hunting management program for these species for the Northwest Territories (NWT) Wildlife Service. He also advised the NWT Wildlife Service on management of muskoxen on Banks Island. In 1975, he and his family moved to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, where he accepted the position of Director of the NWT Wildlife Service. The Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographical Names often used Simmons as a contact to determine local place names in the Mackenzie Mountains. In 1982, Simmons, then Assistant Deputy Minister of the NWT Department of Renewable Resources, left with his family, now increased by two more children, Daniel and Sarah, to move to a ranch he had purchased in 1975 west of Pincher Creek, southwest Alberta. Simmons raised internationally-certified organic beef cattle as a founding member of Producers of the Diamond Willow Range. He was also a founding member of the Alberta Land Trust Society and the Waterton Biosphere Reserve. As a volunteer he worked with indigenous peoples in Bolivia, Taiwan, Tibet and Panama. He brought his family to Peru for two years, establishing a research program at the University of La Molina. He returned to Peru regularly every year to continue his work with conservation education for about 25 years. Norm Simmons passed away May 24, 2016.

Custodial history

Scope and content

This fonds consists of 163 photographs (47 colour and 11 black and white copy negatives and 105 copy colour transparencies), 111 maps and map fragments and 20 cm of textual material. The 58 copy negatives and Simmons's journal document the construction of a mooseskin boat and its use. The boat was constructed between May 22 and 28, 1968, on the Gravel (Keele) River and taken down to Fort Norman (Tulita). People identified in the images include George and Vivian Pelissey, Gabe Etchinelle, Madeline Karcaji, Fred Andrew, and Jonas McCauley. The 105 colour transparencies date from 1967 through 1980 and depicts aboriginal life in the Mackenzie Mountain region including: caribou hunting, work on a moose hide boat, drying meat, fishing, camps, and Simmons's work with Dall's Sheep. The images includes views of the Moose Horn (Mountain) River, Caribou Flats by the Gravel River, Drum (Wrigley) Lake, and Punk Mountain. Included in the images are views of Gabriel Etchinelle, Jonas McCauley, Vivian McCauley, George Pelissey, Perry Linton, Leon Andrew, Jimmy Mendo, Maurice Mento, Cecile Hatchelle, Madeline Karkagie, Stella Mendo, Joe Blondin, David Yallee, Alfred Lennie and Gordon Yakelaya.

Also included in this fonds are a handwritten and typed English translation of the French article "Les Chitra-Gottineke" by Jean Michea, published in the National Museum of Canada Bulletin No. 190, "Contributions to Anthropology, Part II", 1960. Muriel Cooper, wife of Steve Cooper, Park Warden at Nahanni Butte, did the translation. The 111 maps and map fragments feature communities, lakes, rivers, canyons and mountain ranges from Fort Simpson up to the Mackenzie Delta region, and including the Yukon - NWT border. The field notes that accompany the maps include a 32 page typewritten gazetteer, as well as the handwritten notes for the gazetteer. There are also handwritten lists recording information about traditional place names of features in the Mackenzie Mountains. Simmons informants included Gabriel Etchinelle, Madeline Karkagie, George Pellissey, Vivian McCauley,and Maurice and Stella Mendo. The place names were written in a 'folk' phonetic form but a few are written by the elders are in syllabics. Files include research notes, field notes, drafts of papers and correspondence related to his studies of Dall's sheep in the Mackenzie Mountains in the 1970s, and correspondence with anthropologists such as Beryl Gillespie.

Notes area

Physical condition

Arrangement

Language of material

    Script of material

      Location of originals

      Availability of other formats

      Restrictions on access

      No access restrictions.

      Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

      Finding aids

      AIMS records, Excel map listing and other

      Associated materials

      Additional copies held in the Education section of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. Copy of the French version of Jean Michea's article is available in the Heritage Culture Division Library.

      Related materials

      Accruals

      Rights

      Possible copyright restrictions.

      Alternative identifier(s)

      Standard number

      Standard number

      Access points

      Place access points

      Name access points

      Genre access points

      Control area

      Description record identifier

      Institution identifier

      Rules or conventions

      Language of description

        Script of description

          Sources

          Acquisition area