Item N-2001-016: CN-85A - Alex Lafferty Tape 1 Copy

• Sound recording

1 audio cassette (31 min.)

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.