The Camp of the Crees
The Meewasins, father and son, were frequent visitors to
the Macnair cabin, but this morning they had come for a
special reason. Alphonse had long suspected that the
nearest fur trader, two hundred miles south, was cheating
the Crees. He had spoken of his suspicions to Angus, and
at last Angus had suggested that Alphonse should go with
him on the long trip south to The Pas, where there was an
honest market. After conference with the hunters of his
band, Alphonse had decided to take his friend's advice.
Alphonse's decision meant that Angus's original plans
for the journey south now had to be altered. He had
intended to take Jack barwer with him, but even his big freight
canoe would not carry all the Cree furs, the two men, and
Jack. So it was arranged that Jack would remain with
Alphonse's family at the Cree camp on nearby Thanout
Lake until the two men returned, six or eight weeks later.
"I hope you'll not mind missing the trip, Jack," Angus
said,
Jack shook his head emphatically. "Awasin and I will
have a better time right here."
Angus was well pleased at Jack willingness to stay inthe forests rather than visit civilization again.
"Good lad!" he said. "Ill not forget ye when I do the
shopping in The Pas. There'll be a brand-new hunting rifle
for ye in my pack when I get home and in the meantime
you can use my thirty-thirty, for a woodsman should have
a real rifle of his own."
Jack Barwer straightened his shoulders with pride, for this
loan of a heavy-caliber rifle meant that Angus considered
him to be almost a man.
You'll do well enough when I'm gone," Angus cor
tinued, "but remember one thing. Alexander knows more
about the north than you'll ever know. He'll be the boss,
and if ye forget it, Ill remind you with the flat of my
paddle when I get back again!" Alexander took immediate advantage of Angus's co
mand.
That's right!" he said. "I'm boss. So you go down to
the canoe and clean those fish we brought for supper!"
"Hey!" Jack cried indignantly. That's not what my
uncle meant! Last one to the canoe cleans the fish
himself!"
The boys raced down the slope, collided near the canoe
and fell together in a rough-and-tumble wrestling match.
Alphonse watched with a smile. "When the dog pup and
the fox cub play together, the gods are pleased," he said.
"Those two will come to no harm. But in any case, my
brother Solomon will watch them, and my wife will see to
it that they lack for nothing."
Three days later the big canoe pulled away from the
shores of Thanout Lake, loaded to the gunwales with bales
of fur. Alexander and Jack barwer watched it out of sight, in
Company with the men and women of the Cree camp. Thendozen log cabins
they turned up the shady slope where the
of the Crees nestled against the dark green forests.
Jack had looked forward to a summer of fishing,
hunting and exploring with Alexander, but soon he found that
plans were being made for him by other people. Marie
Meewasin, Alphonse's fat and jovial wife, kept the two
boys busy from dawn till dusk. Fish nets had to be tended.
wood gathered, dogs fed. A dozen other tasks filled the
daylight hours.
In exchange for all this, Marie fed the boys hot
bannocks made from flour, baking powder, water and
sugar; roast lake trout and whitefish: fried deer-meat or
spruce grouse; and gallons of the hot, sweet tea the Indians
love so well.
It was a good life, but such a busy one that Jack's
dreams of an exploring expedition seemed doomed. Always
there was work to be done. Three weeks passed and it was
well into July. Then one evening Alexander Uncle Solomon
appeared unexpectedly in the cabin door.
Solomon spoke abruptly. "There are visitors upon the
lake." he said. Three canoes of the Deer Eaters comne
from the north. They will land in an hour's time and you,
Alexander, must greet them on the shore, for you are the
Chief's son,"
He vanished and Jack asked, Who are the Deer
Eaters, Alexander?"
Alexander was frowning. They are the Idthen Eldeli, a
band of Chipeweyans who live about a hundred miles
north of us. In the old days we used to fight them. But
Alphonse made friends with them a long time back, and
now they sometimes pay us a visit. Usually when
something's wrong." Alexander bolted down the rest of his supper and started
for the door. "You stay here!" he said over his shoulder to
Jack, and his words were an order.
Jack muttered rebelliously, but did as he had been
told. He stood in the doorway and watched three birchbark
canoes paddle leisurely out of the evening mist toward the
shore. Two men were in each canoe, small men dressed
entirely in deerskin clothing instead of in blue jeans an
bright cotton shirts like the Crees who waited on the
beach.
When they were a few feet from land the visitors let
their canoes drift. One of them called out a greeting in a
deep, guttural voice. Instantly Alexander answered in the
same strange language. The canoes landed and the six
Idthen Eldeli hunters climbed out and stood facing the
group of waiting Crees.
A number of Cree women now hurried down to the
shore carrying fish, flour and tea. The Chipeweyans
started a fire and in a short time they were eating
ravenously while their leader stood apart with Alexander and
Samuel. The strange chief, Denikazi, was a powerful,
squat man of middle age with very dark skin that had been
pitted by smallpox.
At last he and Alexander, with Samuel following, came
up the slope and entered the cabin. Denikazi's jet-black
eyes flickered over Jack briefly, then ignored him. Jack
sat quietly in a corner while Marie made tea and the men
talked in the Chipeweyan tongue.
An hour later, when Denikazi had gone back to his own
men, Alexander satisfied Jack curiosity about the visit.
Denikazi was chief of the Kasmere Lake band of
Chipeweyans who lived on the edge of the Barrenlandplains. They were called Deer Eaters because their whole
lives were dependent on the caribou a kind of reindeer
found in the high arctic in immense herds.
The caribou spend the summers out on the plains, but in
the fall they migrate by the tens of thousands into the
forests, where they spend the winter. The Chipeweyans eat
almost nothing but deermeat and bannocks. The only
trapping they do is to kill enough white foxes to trade for
ammunition and a little flour and tea.
The preceding winter had been a bad one for foxes, and
as a result, Denikazi's band had no pelts to trade for
ammunition. The fur trader refused to give them credit, so
that spring the Deer Eaters had been unable to kill enough
caribou to last through the summer. Now famine was upon
them and already the dogs were starving to death. The
people would soon starve too and so Denikazi had come to
his ancient enemies, the Crees, for help.
"They need food to last a month, and shells as well,"
Alexander continued. "Denikazi plans to take a hunting party
right out into the Barrenlands to find the deer on the
summer range and bring home enough dried meat to last
till fall. He must be really desperate to risk going into the
plains. That's Eskimo country. Once, a long time ago, the
Chips used to hunt out there regularly, but they used to
fight the Eskimos whenever they met. In those days the
Chips had rifles and the Eskimos didn't. Then the Eskimos
got rifles and fought back. The Idthen Eldeli haven't dared
go far out in the plains since,"
Are you going to help them?"" Jack wanted to know.
Awasin's mouth set stubbornly. Yes." he replied.
Uncle Samuel doesn't think we should. He says it
probably just a trick to get things from us. But my father
Myhas never turned a hungry man away.
Marie came to Alexander's side. She put her hand on his
shoulder and spoke softly to him. "You are your mother's
son as well, she said, "and no one of our race has ever
refused food to those who starve!""
Alexander smiled up at her. I'm sure it's no trick,
Mother," he said, "but if it is - I know a way to find out.
I could go back with the Chips to Kasmere Lake and see
how bad things are. I'd carry the ammunition in my own
canoe, and if Denikazi really needs it, then I can hand it
Over."
Jack jumped to his feet. *You mean we'll
shouted. *You don't leave me behind!r"
"Then we can go?"" Alexander cried.
go!"
Marie laughed. "I think my son thought of this plan just
to get out of work," she said. "But it is a good plan for it
will settle Samuel's doubts. Also it will get you two out
from under my feet for a few days. Denikazi will let no
harm come to a son of Alphonse Alexander."
His mother nodded her head.
he
Fairly stuttering with excitement, the two boys raced
out of the cabin to spread the news. Marie watched them
from the doorway, with a broad smile.The sun was still below the horizon when Alexander shook his
friend Joseph. Marie had tea and a big pan of fried fish all
ready on the table. The boys wolfed down the food, picked
up their packsacks, and hurried out into the gray light to
where the canoes lay drawn up on the sandy shore.
The Chipeweyans were busy loading their own canoes
with sacks of dried deermeat, flour and fish all gifts
from the Cree band. A few yards to one side the Crees
were grouped about a slender seventeen-foot canvas-cov-
ered cedar canoe which the boys were to use. Marie,
Alexander, and his Uncle Samuel had been up half the night
Carefully stowed in the canoe's bottom were two
bedrolls of heavy woolen blankets, a short length of gill net
for fishing in deep water, a hand line and spare hooks, a
small ax, a canvas tarpaulin to cover the load or to be used
as a tent, and a fifty-foot length of half-inch rope for use
in "tracking" the canoe up rapids.
Marie had arranged the food with a generous hand, for
the boys were to travel into a starvation area and they
would need to carry all their supplies with them. In the
preparing and loading it.wooden "grub box" Marie had packed salt, sugar, baking
powder, lard, flour, tea and a can of honey, in addition to a
big sack of dry meat.
In their packsacks they had spare socks, three extra
pairs of moose-hide moccasins apiece, sweaters, spare
shirts, six boxes of .40/40 shells each and a sewing kit. The
twenty extra boxes of ammunition for Denikazi were
packed in the bow.
For cooking equipment the boys carried an iron frying
pan and an old syrup can, blackened by many fires, which
could be used either as a tea can or "teabilly," as a
stewpot, or as a water pail. Matches were stored in three
little glass bottles.
Even in midsummer, mornings in the northern forests
can be cold, and so the boys were dressed in heavy canvas
trousers, thick woolen shirts, and windbreakers of light
canvas. On their feet they wore thick socks, rolled up over
their trouser cuffs, and moose-hide moccasins slipped into
ordinary black rubbers such as city dwellers wear over
their shoes on rainy days.
The first yellow light of dawn was breaking as the boys
and Denikazi's men climbed silently into their canoes and
the Crees pushed them away from shore. Despite the quiet,
Jack felt a thrill of anticipation as he took his place in the
bow of the cedar canoe.
Marie called out some last-minute advice. Some of the
Crees made joking remarks about the boys' canoemanship.
Then the Chipeweyans were leaning forward, their power-
ful arms driving their paddles deep into the still waters.
Hurriedly Jack and Alexander picked up the rhythm, and in
a few moments the four canoes were slipping into the
misty distances that stretched toward the north.