Hunting caribou in Manitoba, 1951, Chippewa, Ojibway, Saulteaux

[Music] the barren lands and forests fringes of northern Canada are the feeding ground of large herds of caribou these roaming herds are still the mainstay of thousands of Canada's Indians and Eskimos in this film you will meet the craze and the Chippewa turns nomadic Indian hunters of northern Manitoba [Music] [Applause] [Music] lots of people in brochet church this Easter morning don't often see so many aren't enough of us Cree Indians here at the Trading Post to fill the church but at Easter time it's too early for hunting and the chipper ones are down from the barren lands to trade their furs so they come to church with us [Music] sometimes the white man brings influenza into the north and our people catch it among us it spreads very quickly and many die [Music] this poor one was just a baby only four months old his name was Peter Cook he will never see the chipper ones pitched their tents [Music] the chipper ones are always on the move they are hunters in the summer out on the Barrens of the Northwest Territories in the winter a bit farther south near us Crees that's at the north end of Manitoba about 300 miles from Hudson's Bay the chipper ones are strong people even their old women can travel John de neogan traps mink and trades the pelts at the post traveling over our trap lines is hard going and we have to have sled dogs when this puppy grows up he will have to work [Music] [Applause] I a beaver house still in good condition beaver are wintering inside George Michelle will trap good for here later in the season he will leave one pair alive for breeding some white men trap out a whole beaver house and then leave but Michelle is a Cree his home is here on the Sabine River near reindeer Lake he wants to be sure there will always be plenty of fur on his trap lines maybe you mink here ah bad luck is just a cheetah misread squirrel not worth much sometimes we get otter Herman or Fisher sometimes Fox or Martin ah ha ha ha this time he's a Nick his fur will bring a good price at the Trading Post [Music] at the end of George Michels trapline he gets to Salomon cooks trapping grounds sometimes they meet and make camp together for the night if they are lucky they might get a nice fat Partridge for supper before you put up the tent you have to pack down the snow so Solomon cook he goes for a little walk the camp is on the shore of a little lake but the ice is too thick to chop through there is no water anywhere for thirsty men so they will have to melt snow to make tea Solomon has brought in a young blossom he will cut branches from it and spread them in the tent to make a floor between the men and the snow they will sleep warm tonight we are hunters and we live mostly on meat the animal we depend on is the caribou the camp is always anxious for the caribou hunters to return [Music] [Applause] when there is extra meat left over we keep it high up so wandering dogs cannot reach it but mostly we keep the dogs tied up they're always hungry if we let them loose the strongest ones would get all the meat and they would eat anything in camp made of leather like their harness and Morrison's and snowshoe webbing they are hungry because they work hard pulling the sleds but we feed them enough to keep them strong we couldn't do without them [Music] besides meat and fur we get leather from the caribou find soft leather for moccasins and mitts and gloves and we need plenty of those in wintertime our women are very smart with their needles and thread they sew patterns of colored beads on the leather we like to wear these things ourselves men and women both sometimes we sell a few to the Hudson's Bay Company [Music] at brochet post the Hudson's Bay man is glad to see a fine catch of Beaver and otter he knows prime fur can fool him it is good to get credit at the store to buy flour salt ammunition and plenty of tea and tobacco so when we meet the other Indians in from their trap lines we all have a good time together [Music] [Music] [Music] most of the time though we stay out in the bush the caribou are always moving so we must be ready to move our camps to follow them but they are not always easy to find one time we have not seen a single caribou for many days we were getting weak with hunger then suddenly they came [Music] before we ever saw them the dogs had smelled them so we got ready to hunt in the morning [Music] [Music] but our luck was bad he waked in the north wind blew a storm upon us our women had to get more firewood to fight the cold we men kept hunting anyway because the people were starving but the storm grew worse and we began to freeze so we returned to camp with empty sleds [Music] for three whole days Keewatin kept blowing it was very cold 40 below zero we could not go out of the camp at all [Music] on the fourth day the Sun shone again already in the hague and the wolf was out hunting before us if he does not find the caribou he will starve like us but we forgot to be hungry now that there was work to do we prepared everything carefully it might be a long trip [Music] the lakes and rivers are always flat and smooth the easiest places for dogs and men to travel and for the caribou to [Music] [Applause] [Music] in the woods it is harder the snow is so soft and deep [Music] then we found what we were looking for fresh terrible tracks you Michel found a spot where they had poured through the snow to eat the must they live on we knew they could not be very far away [Music] we were running fast now to catch up with Eddie Coke that is our name for the caribou at the coke each of us wanted to be the first to kill meat uh-huh there would be a good bunch ahead there were many tracks [Music] [Applause] [Music] and then we saw them over there by the shore and the coke addict open [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and so our search for meat was finished we could fill our bellies and feed the dogs they too had worked hard for it the women would keep the skin for making a park or a blanket then we could keep us warm as the caribou Michelle Solomon all of us were anxious to get back to the main camp with our meet we would reach there next day and bring our women and children over to where there was plenty of caribou when we made camp that night we ate the heads of the caribou ourselves they are very good roasted over the fire we are hunters and this is our life for the rest of the winter we will follow the caribou to the northern edge of the forest and then the chipper ones will track them out onto the Barrens in the spring [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] up here the spring comes late but at last the strong Sun melts the snow and uncovers the brown earth and brown feathers grow in the white winter coat of the ptarmigan [Music] the caribou spread out over the Barrens again it is the same every year the herds spend the winter down in the edges of the forest in the spring they go north again to the Barrens the fawns are born there [Music] the caribou is restless he is a wanderer and so are we who hunt him so long as the great herds last we will follow them wherever the caribou go we go without them we could not stay in this land to us they are like life itself [Music]

Channel: Wood Ridge

Views: 190,469

Rating: 4.8165727 out of 5

Keywords: Chippewa, Ojibway, Saulteaux, Manitoba (Canadian Province), Ojibwe People (Ethnicity), Hunting caribou

Id: o8O3j58KOoE

Length: 17min 28sec (1048 seconds)

Published: Wed May 29 2013