Harbingers of warmth
I
Northerners anticipate the end of\\~nter \\~th bated breath. Then one day the bleak, white landscape transform into a miraculous tapestry of floral colour. It's no wonder every No rthern territory chose an early spting bloomer as its floral emblem. Nunavut's territorial flower is the purple saxifrage ( Saxifmga opj1mitijolia- above left) which carpets the High Arctic \\~th low, woody branches and lilac petals. It blooms while snow lingers on the ground, and its Inuktitut name - aujJilailtunng7.tal- roughly translates as "blood spots." Popular in alpine gardens, the hardy flowe r is also edible and reputed to relieve stomach pain . Pick the petals through july or August for the finest flavour.
The NvVT chose mount.>in avens ( DI)YIS ortojJflala - above middle) as its floral mascot. A distinguished bomnist and Arctic explorer, A. E. Porsild, recommended the choice in 1957 because of the flowers' abundance and name recognition. A member of the rose famil y, the cream-coloured flowe r blanke ts the Barrens with eightpemlled wonders. Even in \\~nter, its leaves st.>)' green . The Yukon 's emblematic fireweed (1:./Ji/obium rmgustiJolium- above right) is named for its habit of moving into burnt-out woods after wildfires. Its red stems support magenm flowers , and the plant spreads through a network of underground roots. Its flowers' nectar has a spicy flavour - ideal for honey.
~How To: Kill the rabbit Trapping rabbits and other small critters with cordage is an ancient technique that's slowly becoming a lost art, even in the North. If you spend much time on the land, though, rabbit-snaring should have a place in your skill set. You '11 need a wire or cable - and lots of patience. 1. Find a path through thick brush or a log that crosses a stream - any trail that seems to have animal traffic. Study pawprints to determine if rabbits have been using it. 18 up here
Apr I · May 2 00 8
2. Make a slipknot so your cord will tighten around the rabbit's neck when it passes
through. The loop should be slightly bigger than its head. Use surrounding branches to suspend the loop in the middle of the trail, with the lower end slightly above the ground.
3. Attach the free end of the cord to a solid anchor. Expect the rabbit to have the
strength of an before you release elephant as it it- you may have fights for free dom only stunned it. - secure the snare accordingly. ...-------..... Retreat. / ~ ·"""'4. Che ck your snare at dawn or dusk. Be prepared to dispatch a live rabbit humanely by a swift blow to the head. Ensure the anlmal is dead
6. Skin it, butcher it, b oil it up. Mmmm-mmm, rabbit stew! _ _ / ILLUSTRAliO"•"S GREG Hft.l
) PORTRAIT
BY WAYNE POTOROKA
The Keeper of
Klondike History Dick North s obsessive curiosity dxove hun to the Yukon ahnost half a century ago. Since then he s brought the territory s past to life.
D
ick North has beat plenty of tales Black metal shelving units, some four layers high, line the room's walls. Each is from the Yukon bush, but there's one mystery he hasn't flushed loaded with boxes brimming with decades out: who nominated him to the Order of of interview transcripts and research he Canada. "People call me but I say, 'I don't collected for his books: one fiction and know,"' he says, holding out the recent six non-fiction works covering Yukon hisletter from Governor General Michaelle tory. His first volume, in 1969, was The Jean's office that lauds his commitment to Mad Tmpper of Rat River, still the definitive preserving Yukon history. "Pretty neat, eh, story of the crazed cop-killer who spurred to get that? That's the biggest thing I ever Canada's biggest manhunt. His most regot in my lifetime- and ever will get." cent book, Sailor on Snowshoes, was pubNorth slowly reaches up with thin finlished two years ago and chronicles jack gers to adjust his hearing aid. "I'll have to London's time in the Klondike, as well as sit with this ear toward you," he says, his North's triumphant discovery of the legvoice hoarse after 79 years. He lives alone endary author's goldrush-era cabin near in a one-bedroom Dawson City apartment, Dawson. "That was the greatest find I've amid the remnants of a writing career that made," says North. "It sort of put jack Lonspanned seven decades and took him to don in his place in the Yukon." way-out comers of the territory. His living room is 路'These things, you just get into them. Not with more office than lounge, that pmvose in mind but your cmiosity gets free of embellishments . ou into that, and you end up being a "\\7Jiter. "'' except for an unframed print by acclaimed Yukon artist jim Robb Born in New Jersey in 1929, North got and a decorative wood sign etched with the his first taste of the writing life in 1946. He words "Dick & Andree North"- his wife was stationed with the U.S. army in Italy, of27 years. (Andree lives in the big city of where he transcribed army-radio broadWhitehorse, explains North, "but we're casts for his battalion's bulletin board. His still married. Everybody says 'How do you first real writingjob, though, came on the do that?' It works pretty good for us.") left side of the Atlantic, in Virginia City, Curulor or lluwsou Cily's luck London lnlerprelhe Ceulre, Dick Norllt
22
up here Apr il 路 May 2008
keep~
\'ukon
his lor~
in bloom.
Nevada as a free lancer for the same paper where Mark Twain got his start almost 100 years earlier. "The Territorial Enterprise!" North exclaims, finally recalling the paper's name after a thoughtful moment. ''You know, with old age and everything else, you forget some details." From there North took a job with the Las Vegas]oumal Review. Between pounding out articles for the paper he indulged a
fascination in the literature of Canada's farflung Yukon Territory. He gobbled up classic texts by the likes of Pierre Berton and Jack London, and became preoccupied by the possibility that London's cabin still existed somewhere up in the Yukon wilds. Then one day, North recalls, the Review's editor came to him , saying, "'How would you like to go to Alaska?' And I said, 'What did I do wrong?'"
Defining the Kitikmeot Region through Strong Professional Partnerships
Kitikmeot Corporation is a 100% Inuit owned company. Through diverse partnerships, like our joint venture with Nunasi Corporation, we are able to provide you with the most professional services - from cat trains and earthworks to fuel and supplies. Together we are capable of fulfilling all your mining needs.
867.983.2200 www.kitikmeotcorp.ca
Kitikmeot Corporation 'f'n·r~' d<l> ..."' L
- Kitikmeot Corporation's Mining Group of Companies Toromont Arct1c Caterpillar· K1t1kmeot Caterers· K1tnuna Corporation· Nuna Group of Compames K1t1kmeot CementatiOn· K1t1kmeot Explosives· Rylan Nunavut • Med1c North Nunavut 24
up here Apr I · Ma y 2008
It turned out North was needed to replace the legislative reporter at the Review's sister publication up in Juneau . "I said, 'Well geez, I can ' t believe you 're sending me up there.' And they said, 'Yeah, you're going tomorrow." Despite the short notice, though, North was happy for the opportunity. After being sent to cover a conference in vVhitehorse he spent a few restful days floating down the Yukon River, keen to explore the country of his writing idols. Still stuck on thoughts about London's cabin, he stopped at a homestead on Stewart Island, roughly 100 kilometres upriver from Dawson. He offhandedly asked Yvonne Burian, the woman who lived there, if she'd ever seen or heard of a cabin Jack London might have lived in. To North's surprise, Burian had recently run into a trapper who'd stumbled on the cabin. "I just about freaked out," North says. His interest was stirred, and within months he'd quit his job in juneau so he could return to the Yukon and search for the cabin. And in 1965 he found it- on Henderson Creek, just where Burian had suggested. The cabin was eventually dismantled; half the logs went to London's hometown of Oakland, California, and the other half were moved into Dawson, where they were reassembled at the Jack London Interpretive Centre. North now spends his summers working at the small log-museum, regaling visitors with his uncanny knowledge of London's life, as well as accounts of his own Yukon adventures. North admits he doesn't write more than a few daily em ails these days, but says he's thinking about penning an autobiography. Before that happens, though, he needs to catalogue the reams of paper with which he shares his apartment. And to fly to Ottawa, to accept his award from the Governor General. North pauses to consider how he stacks up against his Klondike literary heroes, and where his books rank in the Yukon canon. "I'd like to be thought of as an important Yukon historian," says North. After a long pause he offers the ultimate understatement about his vocation. "These things, you just get into them. Not with that purpose in mind, but your curiosity gets you into that, and you end up being a writer." ~ Wa;,ne Potoroka is a writer and photographer living in Dawson City, Yukon. His most recent story f or Up Here was "Keeping Moosehide Memories Alive" in ow·Apri/2007 issue.