The name Gwich’in means “people of the land.” The Gwich’in are the northernmost First Nations people, who currently live in small villages extending across vast areas including northeast Alaska, the northern Yukon, and the northwest corner of the Canadian Northwest Territories. Oral tradition suggests that the Gwich’in have lived in these areas for millennia. Gwich’in belongs to the Athapaskan language group, one of the main language groups of indigenous peoples of North America (for a language map, see  http://www.ynlc.ca/languages/index.html#ynlmap). The people of the Yukon Gwich’in community of Old Crow call themselves the Van Tat Gwich’in, or “people who live among the lakes,” in reference to the lakes of the Crow Flats area. This wetland area, 6170 square km in size (2382 square miles), was designated a wetland of international importance by the Ramsar Convention in 19821. The Old Crow Flats area is also an exceptionally rich archaeological site.

The book, People of the Lakes, arose out of a project to preserve the oral tales of the Gwich’in peoples. In January 1999, a community meeting was held in Old Crow, Yukon. Present that evening were Van Tat Gwich’in elders, community members, Vuntut Gwich’in First Nation (VGFN), Heritage Manager Megan Williams, and anthropologists Shirleen Smith and Muriel Nagy. It was agreed that stories should be preserved from all of the Gwich’in territories; that records that had been gathered in the past should be brought back to Old Crow; and that current elders should be interviewed as soon as possible. The primary goal of this exercise was to preserve the history and knowledge of the elders for future generations. The current generation of elders was the last to live entirely off the land, and they wanted their experiences to be passed down to the youth. Furthermore, the elders had known adversity in the past, and they were sure that difficult times would come again. The young people could learn from the knowledge and experience of the elders. With regard to this project, the Van Tat Gwich’in were also adamant that they would conduct and take part in as much of the project as they could themselves; it was primarily for their own benefit rather than for the benefit of outside researchers.

In order to further these aims, the Van Tat Gwich’in Oral History Project was conducted by community members from Old Crow from 1999 to 2004, followed by the Van Tat Gwich’in Cultural Geography Project (2004–2007). The collection of stories that has resulted is extremely valuable, and may be termed a cultural treasure. The stories are drawn from several generations of Van Tat Gwich’in who were born between the 1880s and the 1980s. The histories they relate reflect not only their own experiences, but also those of their own elders, and thus span almost the entirety of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In addition to simply documenting events, in particular the changes that occurred after the coming of the white settlers, the stories also reflect the perspectives of the Gwich’in peoples with regard to these comparatively recent events. The histories also encompass mythological and supernatural tales of “long ago.”

The book begins with an introduction to Gwich’in oral history, which provides an illuminating context for the rest of the book. It also contains several examples of what are perhaps little-known facts in the history of indigenous-white relations. One such account illustrates the kindness and generosity of the Gwich’in peoples. The years around the Second World War were times of prosperity in the Crow Flats area due primarily to the high value of furs (e.g., muskrat, marten, mink, lynx, and fox). Subsequently, a Gwich’in chief named Peter Moses collected a sizeable donation to assist children in England who had become orphans as a result of the war. He later received a British Empire medal in recognition of this altruistic act.

As new interviews were being conducted for the Oral History and Cultural Geography projects, and previously recorded interviews assembled, a number of themes and a chronological framework were identified. After the Introduction, four main time periods are represented, and these form the background to the four main chapters of the book. They are: (1) “Long-ago” Stories; (2) The First Generation—The 19th Century; (3) The Second Generation—The Early 20th Century; and (4) The Oral History of Today.

The stories in the “Long-ago” chapter reflect explanations of the natural and social worlds, as well as exploits of legendary heroes and ancestors, both couched in a supernatural framework, in addition to general myths, sacred narratives, and secular folktales. The time period covers ancient times up to the time of early contact with Europeans at the beginning of the 19th century. The different sections are entitled: The Natural World; Supernatural Exploits; Legendary Figures; Stories of Heroic Roles and Archetypes; and Long-ago History.

Stories of early encounters with Europeans are included in the category of long-ago stories. The story of Tl'oo Thał or “Grass Pants” is a humorous story of such an encounter, and illustrates the confusion that may be engendered by different culinary practices.

The second chapter of the book, “The First Generation—The 19th Century,” describes a time when, although radical change was beginning, there was a backdrop of continuity as life was still lived primarily according to the old ways. The stories in this chapter are grouped around two main sections. The first is entitled: “Life Lived from the Land,” and encompasses such topics as travel, hunting, and fishing; caribou; the seasons; tools and techniques; values; relations with neighbors; leaders; and celebration and music. The second is: “Newcomers and New Things” and includes topics such as Gwich’in long distance traders; the Hudson’s Bay Company; new tools; private traders; beliefs and missionaries; education and schools; and the settlement of Old Crow. The emphasis in this chapter is on how people made a living without recourse to goods bought from a store. It highlights the ingenuity of people who lived in the past and describes, among other things, the techniques for boiling meat without kettles; washing without soap and cloths; making drinking vessels; preserving food; making fire with flint; making clothing and tents with skins; making snares and fishhooks; making knives of caribou bone or stone; and making birchbark canoes. The accounts also emphasize the fact that, although times were hard, people helped each other, and that enabled them to survive. Paradoxically, while life was more difficult in many ways before the arrival of Europeans, it was also easier in others, not least because there were also many more people before the Europeans brought unfamiliar and devastating diseases.

Stories in the third chapter, “The Second Generation—The Early 20^th Century,” come from people who were born primarily in the early 1900s. They were interviewed from the 1980s up to the time of the compilation of this book. The main sections in this chapter are: “Hard Work and Prosperity;” “Neighbours, Newcomers and Visitors;” and “Events and Trends.” The topics covered in the first section are hunting, trapping, and trading; the Crow Flats area as it used to be; and the nearby mountains and other features of the landscape. The second section focuses on the Inuvaluit people in the Crow Flats area, white trappers and other visitors, and ministers and the Church. The third section focuses on the effects of the border with Alaska, some specific anecdotes, and endurance and change.

Most of the people belonging to the generation represented in this chapter spoke Van Tat Gwich’in as their first language. In their lifetimes they saw tremendous changes. In the early part of their lives people still made their living primarily from hunting and trapping, and most of their food (meat, fish, berries, plants) and their heat (firewood) was acquired by their own efforts. They were still traveling across the breadth of the traditional lands. Towards the latter part of their lives much food came from the store rather than from hunting, and they remained in one place for the greater part of the year. There were similar changes all over Canada as, in the 1950s, the government introduced a number of social programs and benefits which required First Nations people to give up their nomadic way of life and to move to permanent settled communities. Part of the rationale for this was the idea that children must attend school, and hence their families must be living in one place. There was also a drive to consolidate smaller communities with larger ones. Consequently, a recurring theme of the accounts given by this generation is the difference in the way people live in the present, compared to the way they lived in the past (p. 161). However, they also emphasized that, until relatively recently, there was not much food to be had at the trading posts, so people were still very dependent on the traditional activities of hunting, fishing, gathering, and trapping. The major changes seem to have come around the middle of the 20th century. Up until that time, drying meat and fish was a major economic activity.

The relationship between the Gwich’in people and the European trappers and settlers and later the Canadian government appears to have been more harmonious than many other meetings of different cultures in Canada and in the United States. However, that there was some resentment on the part of the Gwich’in is clear.

However, there were also many white trappers who married into the community, and who were well regarded by the Gwich’in. One trapper named Schaeffer is described thus:

This third chapter of the book also contains an interesting reference to the arctic explorer, Vilhjálmur Stefánsson (1879–1963). He was born in Manitoba of Icelandic immigrant parents. The family later moved to North Dakota. Stefánsson is known for his prolific writings and for his suggestion, unusual for the time, that the Arctic was not a desolate wasteland but, with the right attitude and a willingness to learn from local people, could be seen as a friendly environment2.

The reference to Stefánsson is found in the following account from a white Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer who had become part of the Gwich’in community.

The fourth and final chapter of the book is entitled “The Oral History of Today: Van Tat Gwich’in Commentary on the Past, Present and Future.” The two main sections in this chapter are: “The Present and Future” and “Oral History from Ancestors to Youth.” Topics covered include stories and relationships between people; relationships in the future; attitudes to the future among the youth; collecting and communicating oral history; and other, non-historical elements of the Van Tat Gwich’on oral tradition. While most material in the Gwich’in Oral History collection reflects information from elders, in this last chapter there is also information based on interviews from people who were in their forties and fifties at the time the book was compiled, as well as even younger people. They comment on the more recent way of life of the Van Tat Gwich’in, and also suggest values and directions for the future.

The present-day Van Tat Gwich’in may be said to inhabit two worlds. One is the modern world of computers, satellite television, politics, and the popular culture of the day. The other is the remembered world of caribou migrations, salmon runs, dog teams, and a life of hardship mitigated by a close-knit social framework based on cooperation. It is emphasized several times in the book that the primary reason for assembling this history of Van Tat Gwich’in is for the benefit of future generations. The young people appear to be well aware of the importance of remembering the past and learning from it.

Many of the stories in the book reflect the seasonal round and fluctuations in the diversity of natural resources, as well as how people in the past coped with the challenges of climate, geography, and biology. “The way people moved on the land in response to fluctuating resources and times of shortages was an important theme, emphasized repeatedly by warnings of the return of hard times in the future” (p. 306). At a time when there is considerable concern regarding changing seasonality in the Arctic, and elsewhere, this book will be of interest, not just to linguists and anthropologists interested in First Nations languages or cultures, but also to scholars from a wide range of disciplines. The way the book is arranged is pleasing to the eye, with narratives from the stories interspersed with explanatory texts. The book also contains many excellent black and white and color photographs, from both the present and the recent past, which greatly enhance the text. At a time when languages and stories are being lost all over the Arctic, and around the world, as rapid change occurs, this book is an inspiring example of what may be done to preserve such treasures before they are gone forever.