McCormack, Patricia A.

English

University of Calgary Journal Hosting

reports and technical discussions of artifact analyses. It  is also noteworthy  that  approximately  half of the papers (and virtually all of the analyses) deal directly or indirectly with the iron blooms. This will appeal to those with  an interest in archaeometry or archaeometallurgy,  but  the  fact  that  other analyses are  either not completed or presented limits the usefulness of the book for some readers. Minor criticisms aside, Archeology of the  Frobisher Voyages succeeds  in providing for the reader a framework for the project  and in defining problem areas and avenues for  future  research.  That  the  papers  raise  more  questions than they  answer  should  not be considered a deficiency  but  simply a reflection of the fact that the book is intended to be a progress report rather than a definitive account. For an interim report, however, the book is overpriced. As the  principal  investigator,  Fitzhugh  is  to be commended for assembling  teams of specialists who bring a wealth of expertise to  the project. The research completed  thus far has been  successful on  many fronts and has generated  numerous testable  hypotheses for future investigations.  This  book  will appeal  to a wide  audience of professionals and laypersons alike, and I recommend it to anyone interested in arctic anthropology or the history of European exploration in  the New World. REFERENCES HALL, C.F. 1865.  Arctic  researches  and life among  the  Esquimaux:  Being the narrative of an  expedition  in  search of Sir John Franklin  in  the  years 1860, 1861, and 1862. New York: Harper and Brothers. STEFANSSON, V., and  McCASKILL, E., eds. 1938. The  three  voyages of Martin  Frobisher  in  search of a  passage  to  Cathay  and  India  by  the North-West, A.D. 1576-8.  From  the  original  1578  text of George  Best. 2 vols. London: The Argonaut Press. Douglas R. Stenton Arctic College Nunatta Campus Iqaluit, Northwest Territories, Canada XOA OH0 BUSH  LAND PEOPLE. By TERRY GARvIN. Calgary: The Arctic Institute of North America, 1992. 186 p., maps, colour  plates,  glossary.  Hardbound, CdnW.00; softbound, Cdn$30.00. This visually appealing book is an Arctic Institute best seller. It  is  printed  on  high  quality  paper  and Nled with  Terry Garvin’s coloured photographs, shot in the communities where  Garvin  worked  in  various jobs from  the  1950s  through the 1980s. Intended to supplement the grades 7-9 social studies curriculum, it  contains a text  about  what  Garvin  calls the “bush culture” and presents a picture of northern aboriginal  (Native) culture, history, and lifeways, especially in the 1950s  and later. The text is  placed  on  the  pages  to the left, faced  on  the  right by the  photos,  an  effective format, The  book  is also being  marketed  to the public as a reader- friendly, general-interest  publication  about  northern  Canada. Such books, if well written, appeal to  both the scholar and the general reader. Academic  works are typically unnecessarily dense  and  often obscure - heavy  going  even REVIEWS / 367 for the trained specialist and  virtually  inaccessible  to others. The  problem  with  books  written by people  without  scholarly training is that while  they may  be readable, they are often plagued  by fuzzy concepts,  incorrect  information,  unfortunate interpretations, and  sometimes  even  bad  writing (to which scholars are not immune, but in theory the referee system is  supposed  to prevent such problems). However, the public wants  to  read  about  such  topics  as  Indians  and the fur trade, accounting for the  success of  works  such  as  Peter  Newman’s highly successful, but criticized,  series about the Hudson’s Bay Company. Clearly, this book is accessible. This  review  will  consider how northern Native life  is represented and the accuracy of this representation. Bush Land People is of special interest because  the  author is  typical  of  the  non-Native  “outsider”  who  works  in  northern communities, often for many years, and  becomes familiar with local people and customs. Such individuals often  have a wealth  of information that they rarely share with others, unless  they write narratives about their experiences in the North, a recognized genre of northern writing. The book is  a very personal work, indeed  an  act  of love for Garvin, but there  is  little in the book  to explain how or why.  It does not contain his memoirs, nor does he frame the narrative he has constructed by  any description of his own experiences. For instance, one can infer from dates in some  of  the  photo captions that in the mid-1950s  he was in Fort Rae, but  he does not explain what  he  was  doing there. Similarly,  he  has a long-term  and  close  relationship  with  Katy Sanderson  and  some of her relatives, who appear in  many of  his  photographs,  but we do not  know  how this came  about or what  he  did  with  them.  While  it  contains a curious  mixing of Garvin’s voice and various Native voices, the text is rendered  as an authoritative  text  about the North, rather  than one  man’s  recollection  of  things  he  saw  and  stories  he  heard. The  book  is  divided  into  chapters  loosely  organized  around themes. Two chapters focus on  persons, “Granny Powder” and  her daughter Katy Sanderson, a well-known  resident of Fort  McMurray.  There are chapters on  bush  life,  bush  foods, caribou  hunting,  transportation,  communities, arts and crafts, and the future of a bush-based way  of life. The  book  is  strongest  when  Garvin  recounts s ories he  has heard. For instance, he describes how  Katy Sanderson shot a moose  along  the  edge  of  the  Athabasca  River  and  recovered the  meat,  and  he  explains  how  her  husband,  George,  managed to  hunt  and trap on crutches after losing a leg in a hunting accident. Similarly, his descriptions of  scenes  he  obviously has  witnessed firsthand, such as the Dogrib caribou hunt, are rich and  immediate,  especially  when  juxtaposed  with  his photos. They convey strong images to the reader. Many  of  the  photos are historically  important.  For  instance, in Fort Chipewyan, Archie Cardinal was  known  as a skilled boat builder in  the  old style; the book contains one  photo of  his  board  skiff (p. 197),  a second of Archie fishing from the skiff (p. 1 12), and a third of Archie helping his neighbour build a skiff (p. 1 10-1  11 ;the man  in  the  photo  with  Archie is Daniel Marcel, not Desjarlais Marcel). Garvin’s text is weak in two  major areas.  First, it betrays a poor understanding of the structural divisions among 368 / REVIEWS northern  aboriginal  peoples.  The  people  of  his  book are Cree, Chipewyan,  Dogrib,  and  Mbtis,  but  aside  from  some  captions that identify certain individuals, they are presented as a relatively undifferentiated “Native,” which glosses over considerable  variation  in culture, language,  and  place.  In  the glossary, the Athapaskan language is subsumed  under the entry  for  “Algonquian,”  and  elsewhere he implies  that  their respective  languages  derived  simply from community separation and the consequent development of language variations (p. 146). In fact, Algonquian and Athapaskan languages are members  of  entirely  different  language  families. Similarly, his understanding  of  the  impacts  of  the  European fur trade on aboriginal culture is flawed, and a reader unfamiliar with northern history  might  think that before the arrival of  Europeans  and the development of the fur trade economy, aboriginal peoples lived in log houses (in this region, the winter use of log houses began in the late 19th  century)  and  used  dog  teams  (considered  a  post-contact development). There is no  evidence  that the fur trade put aboriginal people  under pressure to read or write English or French or even, really, to speak it (p. 146), or that  people living in the bush  were pressured to move into local trading communities (p. 154). On the contrary, the traders wanted their  trappers  to  remain  in  the  bush  and,  when  people  lingered at the posts, were often  concerned  about encouraging them to  leave. In some instances, it is not obvious whether  terminology is Garvin’s or that of the people. Garvin refers to “curing” fish, which is technically correct but  a  usage I have  rarely heard from Native people I know, who  talk  instead  about drying or smoking. It was particularly disconcerting to see the term “flesher” rendered  consistently as “flusher” (p. 48-50, glossary p. 185). A flesher is a  hide-working  tool used to remove the fat and other particles, or flesh, from the inner side of  a  hide. A specialized tool, it is distinct  from a scraper, or grainer, which is used to remove the hair from a skin. These are not  distinguished in the text. There are errors that  should  have  been  caught  in  the  editing process. For example,  Roddy  Fraser  is  a  descendent  of  Colin Fraser, not Simon Fraser (p. 114-5). There are suitable microclimates for gardens  in  the  North @. 93);  the  long  hours of  daylight  compensate for the short growing  season. A lake skiff is not just a  smaller  version  of  a  scow;  these are distinct boat types. The skiff may more properly be seen as a descendent  of  the York boat.  Fort  Chipewyan  was  constructed in 1788 at its first location, on the south shore of Lake Athabasca, and did not move to the north shore near its present location until c. 1800 (see p. 162, 164). Diesel- powered  boats  were  introduced  in  the  North  in  the  late  1 %Os, not the 1950s (p. 149). Despite  such historical irregularities, I particularly liked the  positive  manner  in  which  Garvin  portrays  the  integration of  imported  commodities into a  bush-focused  way  of life. I was especially taken with the photo of dog teams in a “dog-team  parking lot” in downtown  Yellowknife,  waiting for their drivers who were shopping at the nearby  shopping center (the modern equivalent of the local trading post). Garvin does  not characterize this as some unfortunate corruption of  a “real” Indian life; this was modern Indian life of the 1950s. Today, of course, such a scene would feature snowmachines, which have largely replaced dog teams. It is clear from both text and photos that Garvin realizes that people are already incorporated into an industrialized economy, though  in his writing he seeks to distinguish  between the “bush  economy” - the  focus  of  this book - and  what  he terms an “industrialized culture. ” Teachers, students,  and  general  readers  will  find  this  book an enjoyable read, and it may pique their interest in the subject. Northerners may see old friends in  the photos, and scholars will  find  much  of historical interest. As a source of information, the book  conveys  a  nostalgic  and  somewhat impressionist,  broad-brushed portrait of a  land-based  mixed economy  and  way  of life  whose  existence  today  is  threatened by its disappearance. Patricia A .  McCormack Curator of Ethnology Provincial Museum of Alberta 12845 - 102nd  Avenue Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5N OM6 A FRENCHMAN IN SEARCH OF FRANKLIN: DE BRAY’S  ARCTIC JOURNAL, 1852-1  854.  Translated  and edited  by WILLIAM BARR. Toronto:  University  of Toronto Press, 1992. xxii + 329  p., 8  maps, 20  illus., index, bib. Hardbound. Cdn$35.00. The  North West Passage needs no more searching and for  lack of anything better to  do waiting the plane’s departure north from  Frobisher I lounge  on the bed  poring  over  place-names on maps and baby it’s  cold  outside is found . . .  The  North West Passage is found and poor  old Lady Franklin well she  doesn’t  answer the phone tho  once  she traded her tears for  ships to  scour the Arctic  seas  for her husband but the Terror and Erebus sank long  ago and it’s  still  half an  hour before dinner and there isn’t  much to do but write  letters and I can’t think of anything  more to say about the North West Passage but I’ll think of something maybe a break-thru to strawberries and ice cream for dinner [A1 Purdy, “The North West Passage,” 19671 Why do journals about the 19th-century  British  search  for a Northwest Passage or about the search for the missing Franklin expedition continue to be published, some for the first  time? Surely, some  reasons are their  subject  matter.  For one, such  remarkable  northern travel is no  longer  attempted by white  men. For another, the fate of Franklin remains  a mystery, and, as long as it does, the mystique of the North can never  be entirely shed, as A1 Purdy’s poem  shows  by 

Bush Land People, by Terry Garvin

https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/download/64897/48811

Bush Land People, by Terry Garvin

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

University of Calgary Journal Hosting