week 10
week 9
week 8
week 7
week 6
week 5
week 4
week 3
week 2
week 1
|
Polar Bears, Bigfoot and a Human Skull!
Date: 03.02.03
Position: 55.59N 87.38W Fort Severn, NAN
Weather Conditions: COLD, clear and very crisp,
-53 F/-45C. Wind speed: 0. We finally made Fort Severn. A small community located on the banks of the large Severn River and the coast of Hudson Bay, Fort Severn is the most northern community in Ontario as well as the Nishnawbee Aski Nation.The only way to get to the outside world when you are in Fort Severn is by airplane, by boat in the summer or, for about 4 weeks a year, via a 15 hour drive down the winter road. For such a remote location completely surrounded by wilderness and just 460 people living here, you would probably think this is a pretty quite place without much happening. But as we quickly learned when we pulled into town Tuesday night, Fort Severn is a place of action, legends and quite a few mysteries! |
|
| There had been a lot of action in the days before we arrived. Two days earlier a polar bear was hunted and shot just outside of town. Unfortunately it turned out it was a polar bear mother with two small cubs that were probably about three months old. The cubs were too young to know how to hunt for themselves and would not be able to survive on their own, so they were brought into town where it was decided to try and find them new home. One of the cubs did not make it, but the other one was kept overnight and then shipped out the next day to the zoo in Toronto, where we have heard he is now doing well! When we arrived there was quite the uproar in town over the whole happening. But, it is important to remember hunting polar bear is part of the traditional way of living - and Fort Severn is without doubt a town rooted in hunting and trapping. |
|
 |
An aerial view of Fort Severn on the Severn River. |
The Fort Severn we see today was founded by the Hudson Bay Company in 1685 as a fur trading post. The Severn River - or Waseho as it is called in Oji-Cree - rises from Lake Winnipeg then runs about 200 miles to the coast of Hudson Bay. When the white English and French fur traders found their way up the river they met the native people who lived by hunting caribou, waterfowl, beaver, ptarmigan; grouse or by fishing for trout, whitefish, suckers and sturgeons. As they began conducting "business", paying the Oji-Cree people for bringing in furs became quite lucrative. In the period from 1686 to 1683 it is recorded that more than 20,000 pelts were traded in the area. |
|
Geese, often depicted in legends and art work, have always been, and still are, very important to the people of the Severn area. |
Today the biggest hunting event of the year here in Ft. Severn is the "Spring Goose Hunt". In mid-April school closes down for a week when the Canadian and Snow Geese return from their winter migration to the south, flying up along the coast of Hudson Bay in the hundred of thousands. They say it is like a dark cloud moves in and the air is thick with wings flapping and goose noises; families venture out to their favorite spots and hunt, stocking their freezers with goose meat supplies for the year to come! |
|
 |
The human skull of Fort Severn! |
It is believed that where Fort Severn is placed has been a gathering point for people - especially for the annual Spring Goose Hunt - since long before Fort Severn as it exists today was developed. A couple of years ago when they were digging with big machinery around the school, a human skull was found. The University of Manitoba sent a small sample of the skull to Florida for radon carbon dating and it was determined that the skull, which is in excellent shape, is somewhere between 350 and 650 years old! |
|
Our new friend Mel Orecklin has been a great help to us here in Fort Severn. Here he is with the prehistoric horse bone. |
At one point they even thought a Dinosaur bone was found here. That was quite a mystery because Dinosaur remains had never been found in either Ontario or the neighboring Province Manitoba before. The bone, which is about 5 inches long, was found in an esker right outside of town. When it was studied closely it was determined that it is actually a bone from a pre-historic horse estimated to be anywhere from 50,000 - 100,000 years old!!!The most recent mystery is the apparent visit by Bigfoot - or Sasquatch as he is sometimes known. The legendary Sasquatch is thought to be a fixture of the West Coast where the most famous Bigfoot movie was shot and where most of the big footprints have been found. In the summer of 2001 some mysterious HUGE foot prints were found right outside of Fort Severn in the mud along the coastline. The prints look like elongated human feet and were 16 inches long. Each print was separated by six feet; meaning whatever left them had quite a lope. |
|
 |
Mel was one of the first ones "at the scene" after the find, and this is one of his pictures showing a 16 inch humanlike footprint. Was Bigfoot here? |
The first thought was that they were distorted polar bear prints but the head of Ontario Polar Bear research, Professor M.E.Obbard, along with many others, stated there is no way that could be the case. After seeing pictures of the print we had to agree with that conclusion! We do not believe the prints were made by the legendary Big Foot but we have to admit that it is a true mystery.It is not only legends and mysteries that have a strong hold here in Fort Severn; so does the native Cree and Oji-Cree language. When you walk on the street or go into a store you hear the locals switching back and forth between speaking English and native. Although students are taught both English and native language in school, within many communities the native language is disappearing as the Elders pass away because the youth tend to use English for their everyday language. Imagine if you could not speak with your parents or grandparents because you could not speak the same language! |
|
Teaching the native phrases for "kinship" such as aunt, uncle and cousin the teacher, Shirley, writes the native translation in Oji-Cree syllabics on the blackboard. |
On Friday Mille joined the 7th and 8th grade in their "Traditional Culture Class" language session. Mille sat with very BIG ears trying to get down some of the word pronunciation but she admits she doesn't think she caught a whole lot.
"It is difficult to ‘hear’ a new language. It brought me right back to going to school in Denmark, where I am from, and struggling with English classes for 8 years. I loved school, but I was simply terrified of speaking English." remembers Mille. "And, guess what? Today I live, speak; even dream in American English. It is still very important for me to use my own language - Danish - but I really appreciate the power of being able to speak more than one language and having had to learn and understand another culture."
Even though Fort Severn is a very remote community it is extremely wired! We have enjoyed visiting the E-center which is like a community computer lab with high speed satellite connections. From here we were able to video conference with classrooms in Tennessee and Wisconsin.
Because of all the opportunity we have to "communicate" today, cultures and ways of life - not to mention languages - are being shared around the world. We think growing to understand and appreciate the cultural diversity of our world is a good thing.
On Friday we had a fun video conference with the South Polk Elementary in Old Fort, Tennessee; Audubon Elementary in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the 7th and 8th graders here from Fort Severn. We had a great exchange about everything from milk prices ($2.25 in Milwaukee, $3 in Old Fort and $14 in Fort Severn) to music, favorite foods, local sports and what to do after school! A big thank-you goes to REMC10 and Tim Von Hoff as well as Barney and the E-Center here in Fort Severn for making this video conference possible.
 
The 7th & 8th graders say, "Hi from Fort Severn!" |
|
 |
Christmas lights and Santa Claus' reindeer are examples of local traditions going global. But not many other places can you find real frozen "reindeer" as Christmas decorations! |
The unfortunate result of today's ease in the ability and opportunity to communicate may be that as cultures and languages are blending together, some simply disappear. The challenge is how to live in a global community while attempting to strengthen and keep the many cultures found inside of it - Oji-Cree, Danish, and Hispanic to name a few. Join this week’s chat on "Globalization" Tuesday March 4th. Share your thoughts about how globalization affects our world, YOU and your country by visiting this week's discussion boards. |
|
This week’s Polar Husky Superstar Lipton did an excellent job visiting with all the students at the Wasaho Elementary School here in Fort Severn. |
A loud BRAVO goes out to this week’s Polar Husky Superstars Lipton and Nazca. Lipton earns his Polar Husky Superstar status for a job very well done when he went along with us on Thursday to visit with the 130 students at the Wasaho Elementary School here in Fort Severn. A true gentle giant, Lipton was well behaved, calm and affectionate as we visited every classroom. He actually managed to fall asleep, snoring loudly, while Paul and Mille answered questions from the 4th and 5th graders! In the K-1 room he gave them quite the scare though, suddenly sneezing while everybody was gathered around him. |
|
 |
This week’s other Polar Husky Superstar Nazca is becoming a good leader that likes to go fast! |
Lipton's mother Nazca is this week’s other Polar Husky Superstar because of her great performance when we had to travel right through town upon arrival in Fort Severn. Nazca is incredibly loving and gentle but very quiet and at times a shy dog. Because she is also very smart and probably the fastest dog in the Polar Husky kennel these days, Mille has been working with Nazca on becoming a lead dog. She already did a good job leading Mille's team for a couple of days last week and the night we arrived in Fort Severn she had been leading since lunch. When we realized that we had to dogsled right through town, Mille, thinking that Nazca might get nervous with all the cars, snow mobiles, people and loose dogs, decided to put her in point and move Choko to lead as he had been in that position many times before. When Choko was not doing such a great job, running from one side of the street to the other; chasing dogs and saying hi to people, Nazca simply took charge leading the team and was very focused all the way to the river where we staked out the dogs for our stay here in Fort Severn. Tomorrow it is time to hitch the dogs again - and finally head out onto Hudson Bay. But before we hit the trail, a grand MIGWEETCH (Thank-you) for a wonderful visit to all our new friends here in Fort Severn! A special thank-you also goes to Mel Orecklin and Roger Levesque for their permission to use some of their pictures in this report. |
|
|
|