This item is the first part of a four-part interview of Frank Laviolette (age 66) at Fort Smith, recorded on March 18, 1992 by Sister Agnes Sutherland as part of the 1992 Metis Heritage Project. The interview is in English. The original source item is side A of a 90 minute audio cassette. The interview also includes items CN-32B, CN-33A, and CN-33B. Frank provides details of his family history and origins. Frank's mother was from Salt River and his father from Fort Chipewyan. His father's family had come from Winnipeg. Frank was born close to Fort Smith and has lived there his whole life. He has 13 children, including two adopted and two deceased. Both of his parents died of tuberculosis before World War II while Frank was quite young. He was taken in by Chief Squirrel's wife, then Bill Lyall, where he stayed until he was an adult. Frank was educated up to about grade 2. Frank became a catskinner and travelled up the Mackenzie to work in Tuktoyaktuk for a couple of seasons. More recently, he ran Bison Big Game Outfitting. Additional topics covered include housing, fishing, cemeteries, role of husbands, wives and children, trapping, relationships between groups and families, marriage customs, naming customs, adoption and orphans, and celebrations. The recording ends abruptly.
This item is the second part of a four-part interview of Marie Anne McDonald (born October 21, 1915) at Fort Smith, recorded on March 17, 1992 by Sister Agnes Sutherland as part of the 1992 Metis Heritage Project. The interview is in English. The original source item is side B of a 90 minute audio cassette. The interview also includes items CN-30A, CN-31A, and CN-31B. Marie tells portions of the story of her life and background interspersed with more general responses to the interviewer's questions of what life used to be like. Marie shares that she sewed to support her children and husband. When she and her husband separated, she put her kids in the Convent and went to work as a housekeeper in Fort Chipewyan for the RCMP. She also worked for the Wylies before moving to Fort Smith in 1946, where she made a living by sewing. In 1951 she moved to Yellowknife for five years, before returning to Fort Smith, where she has lived since then. Additional topics covered include marriage, childbirth, appropriate behaviour for women, retirement, hunting customs, tools, supplies and rules, animals hunted by seasons, trapping, dog teams, traders, fishing, dryfish, employment, roles for men and women, food gathering, preservation and preparation, and various kinds of food.
This item is the first part of a four-part interview of Marie Anne McDonald (born October 21, 1915) at Fort Smith, recorded on March 17, 1992 by Sister Agnes Sutherland as part of the 1992 Metis Heritage Project. The interview is in English. The original source item is side A of a 90 minute audio cassette. The interview also includes items CN-30B, CN-31A, and CN-31B. Marie tells portions of the story of her life and background interspersed with more general responses to the interviewer's questions of what life used to be like. Marie shares that her ancestors were from Winnipegosis and she and her parents, Pierre Tourangeau and Mary Rose Mercredi were from Fort Chipewyan. When her mother became ill when she was about 5 years old, she was taken by her father to live at the Convent and remained there until she was about 9. Marie's father remarried and she lived with him and her step-mother until her marriage as a teenager to ___ Daniel. They lived with her in-laws at first. Marriage was hard for Marie and after 12 years and 6 children, she and her husband broke up. She supported herself and her family by sewing. Additional topics covered include summer fish camp at Quatre Fourches, winter trap lines, shelters, special places, family relationships, employment, duties of men and women, family history, sewing (clothing, materials, prices), relationships between groups of people, marriage and family life, pregnancy and childbirth, adoption, parental expectations for children, punishments, and education (formal and by observation).
This item is the first part of a two-part interview of Elizabeth Bourke at Fort Smith, recorded on March 16, 1992 by Sister Agnes Sutherland as part of the 1992 Metis Heritage Project. The interview is in English. The original source item is side A of a 90 minute audio cassette. The interview also includes item CN-29B. Elizabeth grew up in Fort Chipewyan and Peace Point and after her marriage, she with her husband and children, moved to the Gros Cap commercial fishing camp, Hay River, and Fort Smith. Elizabeth provides information about her family background and history. The interviewer also guides the discussion to cover the topics of marriage, naming of children, orphans and adoption, expectations for children, what her children are doing now, education, elders, pensions and welfare, childbirth, behavioural expectations and roles for women, hunting customs and tools, animals hunted and trapped by season, fishing, dog teams and sleds, trapping, fur trade, relationship between Metis and traders and Hudson's Bay Company and community, commercial fishing, employment, men's work, and gathering and preparing food. An unidentified male voice chimes in occasionally to add supplementary information. The recording also includes a lot of background noise.
This item is the second part of a two-part interview of Helena Mandeville (age 80) at Fort Smith, recorded on March 12, 1992 by Sister Agnes Sutherland as part of the 1992 Metis Heritage Project. The interview is in English. The original source item is side B of a 90 minute audio cassette. The interview also includes item CN-28A. Helena grew up in Fort Chipewyan. Topics covered include employment (mail, missions, and sewing), food gathering, preservation and preparation, caribou, fish, wild plant use, gardening, clothing for men, women and children, sewing tools and materials, footwear, hide preparation, decorations, treatment of sickness and medicines, diseases and epidemics, changes in the community from when she first came, hopes for all the young people, and her relationship with her grandchildren. After the interview is over, Helena and the interviewer continue a casual conversation about Helena's children and where they are living now. Finally, Helena gives the Metis Association permission to use material from her interview.
This item is the first part of a two-part interview of Helena Mandeville (age 80) at Fort Smith, recorded on March 12, 1992 by by Sister Agnes Sutherland as part of the 1992 Metis Heritage Project. The interview is in English. The original source item is side A of a 90 minute audio cassette. The interview also includes item CN-28B. Helena grew up in Fort Chipewyan and she and her husband and children also lived in Fort Smith, Wood Buffalo National Park (Rocky Point and Fifth Meridian), and Fort Resolution. Topics covered include family background and origin, family members, housing, difference between immediate family and relatives, duties of husband, wife and children, marriage, naming children, adoption and orphans, death, expectations for children, education, extended family (including grandparents), relationships between groups, wedding customs, childbirth, expectations and roles of women, retirement and pensions, hunting customs and activities by season, wood cutting, clothing, housing, staying warm, dog teams and sleds, animals trapped for fur, goods exchanged for fur, traders and trading posts (Hudson's Bay Company and independent traders such as Hamdan and Ali and Colin Fraser), and employment (fishing and mail). Helena also tells some remembered stories from her childhood. The recording ends abruptly.
This item is an interview of Pat LaFleur, recorded in Hay River, likely early in 1994 by Margaret Bearard. The interview is in English. The original source item is side A of a 90 minute audio cassette. Pat is 70 years old and was born in Fort Vermilion in 1922 to parents Auguste (Augie) LaFleur and Flora Chalifoux. Pat had several siblings and children of his own. Pat grew up on a quarter section of land with cattle and horses, living in a log house and speaking Cree. His father was a trapper. Pat attended school for about 2 years when he was 12 and lived at the Mission in Fort Vermilion for part of that time. He quit school to come home and help his mother. Pat left Fort Vermilion in 1945 and worked for two years for the railroad in summer and at a sawmill skidding logs in the winter. He also spent some years trapping. In 1947, he spent a fall as a thresher, then came to Hay River, where he got a job at Menzies Fishing packing fish. Pat later worked on the survey for the highway to the border and in 1948, he started driving truck and later also worked as a cat skinner and grader operator. Pat recalls diseases affecting his family, including smallpox, from which his father died, and tuberculosis. When questioned about traditional medicines, Pat mentions that he uses rat root. Pat describes his time at the Mission in Fort Vermilion, speaking of topics including food, segregation of boys and girls, chores, hygiene, punishment, languages, and entertainment. Pat speaks of his enjoyment of dancing and how people used to go visiting on Sundays. He expresses disappointment in how young people today use their time. The interview concludes with a couple of stories and discussion of prices and how to keep meat from spoiling. Background white noise makes it difficult to hear some of Pat's responses.
This item is the first part of a four-part recording of Alexis Lafferty, recorded in Hay River around 1996 by an unidentified male interviewer. The interview is in English. The original source item is side A of a 60 minute audio cassette. The interview also includes items CN-85B, CN-86A, and CN-86B. Alex Lafferty was born in Fort Resolution on June 8, 1928 and is 67 years old at the time of the interview. He started school at the Roman Catholic Mission when he was about 7 years old. It was not a good experience for him and after a couple of years he begged his father to take him to the bush instead. Alex describes the seasonal cycle of bush life, including returning to Fort Resolution in the Spring to put up a garden, fish and make dryfish, then leaving for hunting camps after Treaty was paid in July, returning to Fort Resolution in September for fall fishing after putting meat away in a cache, taking the scow up to the camp at Hook Lake for fall hunting, and then trapping all winter. Alex names several of the people who operated in the same area. Alex worked with his father from about age 11 to about age 23 when he went out on his own. Alex specifically recalls hunting marten in 1949 near Pine Point and returning to the area many years later. He also recalls a 1946 hunting trip for muskrats to Trout Rock, returning via Yellowknife. Alex speaks of the four traders who used to operate in Fort Resolution (Alec Loutitt, George and William Pinsky, Northern Traders, and Hudson's Bay Company) and contrasts modern fur buying. He also talks about how life and the country has changed, getting drier and with more fires. He describes the only fire he recalls, one in 1948 in the Slave River-Rat River-Taltson River area. Alex also talks about the changes in young people now from when he was growing up, including behaviour, curfews, and respect for elders. Alex mentions the changes brought by the Pine Point mine, particularly to Fort Resolution, as alcohol and drugs were brought in and suicide and murder rates increased. He moved to Hay River in 1980 as a result. The recording concludes with Alex discussing different hunting grounds for different animals.
This item is the second part of a four-part interview of Stan Larocque at Yellowknife, likely recorded in 1995, possibly by Gordon Lennie. The interview is in English. The original source item is side B of a 60 minute audio cassette. The interview also includes items CN-70A, CN-71A, and CN-71B. This part of the interview focuses on the predicted environmental and socio-economic impacts of the proposed BHP Diamonds Inc. operation in the Lac de Gras area. The interviewer finishes going through a series of questions on various topics including effects on the watershed, wildlife (especially caribou and fish), and local hunters and trappers, resulting from mine operations, including waste management, fuel and antifreeze leaks and spills, and mine operations. Mine reclamation, employing Indigenous people to do environmental monitoring, and use of traditional and scientific knowledge are also discussed. Stan's biggest concern is with pollution. The interviewer then goes through a set of questions discussing the socio-economic impacts of the mine including effects on people, families, their lifestyle, and traditional values caused by people leaving communities to work in the mines, shift work, and wage labour. Stan doesn't see shift work as an issue and feels it would be a good thing for young people to have work. The interviewer provides lots of additional commentary, which has the result of leading the interviewee.
This recording includes sides A and B of the tape.
This item is the first part of a two-part interview of Hughie Arden at Yellowknife, likely in 1995, recorded by Gordon (Lennie?). The interview is in English. The original source item is side A of a 90 minute audio cassette. The interview also includes item CN-47B. This part of the interview focuses on the predicted environmental and socio-economic impacts of diamond mines in the NWT, in particular, the proposed BHP Diamonds Inc. operation. The interviewer goes through a series of questions on various topics including effects on the terrain, watershed, permafrost, wildlife (especially caribou, bears, wolves, and fish), and local hunters, trappers, and fishermen resulting from mine operations, including construction and use of roads and airstrips, draining of lakes, stream diversion, dams, mine site construction, open pit operations, processing operations, disposal of tailings, use of diesel generators for power, waste management, and use of wildlife by mine employees. Mine reclamation and employing Indigenous people are also discussed. Another set of questions discuss the socio-economic impacts of the mine including effects on people, families, and their lifestyle caused by shift work and tensions between southerners and Indigenous northerners. The interviewer introduces the concerns already raised by others and solicits Hughie's opinions as to effects he feels the mine will have, whether he shares the concerns of others, and any other concerns he has. Hughie often draws on his experience with other mines to make comparisons. The interviewer spends a lot of time talking through the questions and concerns, with the result that he frequently puts words in mouth of the interviewee. The recording ends abruptly.
This item is an interview of Beatrice Daniels at Yellowknife, recorded on March 25, 1992 at 2:30 pm, by Jeanette Mandeville, as part of the 1992 Metis Heritage Project. The interview is in English. The original source item is side A of a 90 minute audio cassette. Beatrice shares many biographical details of her life as well as answering the interviewer's questions. She was born in 1912 in Fort Resolution. Her father worked for the Hudson's Bay Company and they lived among Chipewyan-speaking people. Her first language was French, but she also learned Chipewyan and English. The family split their time between Fort Resolution and Rocher River. Beatrice and her sister, Florence, were educated at the mission school in Fort Resolution and were also taught from books by their mother, who had gone to school at Fort Providence. Beatrice recalls learning to sew, shooting muskrats, moving to their new house in 1926, and the death of her of father in the 1928 flu epidemic. After her marriage, she and her husband lived at Bobby Porritt's sawmill with three other married couples. Topics covered include relationships between groups of people, languages, education, religion, respect for others, sewing and materials, women hunting, trapping, and fishing, dances and fiddlers (including George Norn, Pat Burke, Johnny Beaulieu, and her sister Florence), Rocher River, traditional medicine, the 1928 flu epidemic, and marriage.
This item is an interview of Mary Louise Wabesca at Fort Smith, recorded on March 23, 1992 by Sister Agnes Sutherland as part of the 1992 Metis Heritage Project. The interview is in French with a few English statements and words. The original source item is side A of a 90 minute audio cassette. Topics covered include family history, marriage, hunting, dogs, fishing, food gathering and preservation, water, use of plants, sickness and death, medicine men, dances, visiting, education, languages, interactions with soldiers from World War II, and children. Parts of the recording are of poor quality with audio blips and background noise. One of Mary Louise's sons and an unidentified female voice also provide additional information, primarily in English.
This item includes an interview of Mike Ross, recorded on February 4, 1994 in Hay River by Margaret Bearard. The interview is in English. The original source item is side B of a 90 minute audio cassette. Mike Ross was born on September 25, 1925 to parents William Ross and [Madeline] Laboucan. He grew up on his family's farm at Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan. His paternal grandparents, Corbat Ross and Virginia Parenteau?, lived a few miles away. Mike had several siblings and the first six of them, including him, did not attend school. After the family moved north in 1949, the younger siblings were able to go to school. He advises children today to attend school and go right to the very top. Mike recalls working hard on the farm, hauling wood and water, hunting, and fishing. His first language was French and he also knows Cree and English. When Mike left home, he worked for farmers and for a cattle operation, then he went to Alberta and worked in sawmills in Edson before returning to Saskatchewan. About six months later, he returned to Alberta and worked for farmers and cutting in the bush, before coming to the Northwest Territories to fish in the 1940s. Mike also worked for YT, NT, Caps Transport, and Highways. Mike was married and had four kids. Mike also speaks about diseases, including his experiences with tuberculosis and liver cirrhosis, traditional medicines, trade and credit, clothing, Indigenous groups around Meadow Lake, his father's experience being at a Mission, and entertainment. Many of Mike's responses are unclear due to background white noise.
This item consists of an interview conducted by Tom Kakfwi in Fort Good Hope as part of the 1992 Metis Heritage Project. The original source item is side B of a 60 minute audio cassette. The interview is with Joseph Masuzumi, born September 17, 1917. His father was George Masuzumi, who had immigrated from Japan. Joe's mother was Lucy Charlie from Fort Good Hope. Joe's parents were married and Joe was born in Dawson Creek. His sister is Alice Masuzumi and he also had brothers who died. The family moved to Fort Good Hope when Joe was age 3. He was baptized and grew up there. His family moved around a lot to where they could find fish and rabbits. Joe went to school in Aklavik for three years, leaving at grade 6. His instructors there were nuns. Joe worked for the RCMP a few times, as well as trapping. The interviewer asks Joe about how things were in the old days in contrast to the present day, in particular about groceries and food, employment, light sources, stoves, entertainment, drinking, and travel.
The interview starts mid-way through this recording.
This item is the second part of a two-part interview of Ernest (Ernie) Joseph Camsell on the Norweta (boat on the Mackenzie River), recorded in July 1996 by an unidentified female interviewer. The interview is in English. The original source item is side B of a 60 minute audio cassette. The interview also includes item CN-53A. The interview focuses on gathering biographical details about Ernie. Ernie speaks about fishing, the reasons why Fort Rae moved to its current location, and the opening up of Edzo (Behchoko). Ernie also relates a story about caribou and reminisces about some old people he knows of or used to know. Ernie speaks a little about being a person of mixed heritage. When he was at school he was offered the opportunity to become a priest, which he declined. Ernie tells more about his job at Con Mine and his work as a government game warden and welfare officer. He quit his job in December 1986 and started receiving his pension the following March, when he turned 65. Ernie talks about struggles with alcohol and how he had quit drinking and smoking a few years before. He reminisces about some of his school friends and his siblings. The recording ends abruptly as the Norweta passes Little Chicago.
This recording includes sides A and B of the tape.
This item is an interview of Cam Jordheim recorded ca. 1986 by Sandra Dolan, likely as part of Operation Fox Moth. The interview is in English. The original source item is side A of a 90 minute audio cassette. Cam speaks about working as an aircraft maintenance engineer in the north since 1970. He describes his training, tasks (including favourite and least favourite), changes in the job over time, working with regulatory agencies, changes in airplanes, and busy seasons. He emphasizes the shift in aircraft maintenance from panic maintenance to preventative maintenance. Cam also talks about Ptarmigan Airways, including its history and a hangar fire that had occurred three years before the interview, charter start-ups, overloading, and competition.
This item is an interview of Mark Dodd recorded ca. 1986 by Sandra Dolan likely as part of Operation Fox Moth. The interview is in English. The original source item was side B of a 90 minute audio cassette. Mark first came north in 1959 and is the former Commander Northern Region. He discusses the history of military flying in the North, where planes were based, and activities, including Hudson’s Strait Operation, establishing LORAN navigational stations, mapping and charting, aerial photography, weather observation station resupply, radar site locations, the DEW line, Christmas supply, airfield construction, and military exercises and training. Mark also talks about types of aircraft used, flying in the arctic, and the role of the US Air Force during WWII and into the 1960s. There is also some discussion of how he would like to see the military presented in the PWNHC’s aviation display and Mark provides names of additional people for Sandra to contact.
This item is an interview of Denny May recorded ca. 1986 by Sandra Dolan, likely for Operation Fox Moth. The interview is in English. Denny’s wife Margaret also speaks occasionally during the recording. The original source item was side A of a 60 minute audio cassette. Denny May is the son of renowned pilot Wop May. He discusses writing a book about his father with his sister-in-law Sheila Reid and provides some biographical details about his father’s life and experiences as a pilot before his death in 1952 when Denny was 17 years old. The interview mentions Wop May’s time in the Royal Flying Corps during WWI, barnstorming, flying out of Fort McMurray and around the Northwest Territories, medivacs (including the trip to Fort Vermillion), the first airmail run to Aklavik, secondment during WWII, time as Chief Pilot of Canadian Airways, his tenure as Director of Northern Development for Canadian Pacific Airways, and loss of his pilot’s license due to a missing eye. The interview also discusses other early pilots, engineers, various planes and companies, styles of planes and controls, and flight clothing. The recording ends abruptly.
[This item is primarily a practice recording of Universal Music Machine (UM2) recorded at YK Radio. The last few minutes include various items.]
[This item is the second of a two-part recording of performers at the Centennial Talent Show, hosted by Pat Reilly in the auditorium of Yellowknife Public School. The Nomads perform and awards are presented.]