032 Nyman E - The First Wedded Year - Translation.txt

{Number = 032}
{Type = Translation}
{Title = Yîs Wùsh Dashây Dàt Sh Kałnìk / The First Wedded Year}
{Author = Seidayaa / Elizabeth Nyman}
{Clan = Yanyeidí; Ḵaach.ádi yádi}
{Source = Nyman & Leer 1993: 169–213}
{Translator =  Weihá / Jeff Leer}
{Page = 169}
1	As for what you asked me about, when I was first married to
2	my husband–
3	as yet I had no children–
4	at that time we were told to leave the trapping grounds
5	and come back over this way.
6	They had those moose forearm skin sleds.
7	They are as long as over to there,
8	and have pieces of skin sewn around the edge.
9	We packed up our things inside it.
10	My husband was leading the dogs on snowshoes;
11	I [was walking] behind him.
12	He had a rope fastened to [the sled];
13	“Hold on to this;” he told me,
14	“you'll get tired.”
15	We went a long way.
16	It was already evening,
17	and even the dogs were tired.
18	So he limbed a tree.
19	We quickly built a fire; I cooked dinner
20	and he brought over loads of firewood for the night.
21	We spent the night there.
22	The first thing in the morning we got up.
23	My, the surface of the trail was as smooth as if it had been plowed
24	and the moose forearm skin sled was slippery.
25	Besides,
26	you don't dare sit on one unless you know how to [ride on it];
27	if you don't know how you won't be able to manage it.
28	It slides every which way,
29	as if it were [a bird] swooping about.
30	“Sit down on it,” he told me.
31	I thought it was just like a sled, so [I sat] on it
32	and it immediately slid out from under me
33	leaving me sitting on the snow.
34	I jumped up and started to chase [my husband].
35	Then I hopped on it again.
36	Again it zipped away with me, this time way off the trail.
37	My! the dogs
{Page = 171}
38	were turned around backwards;
39	[the sled had swung around] with them.
40	As for me, there I was sitting on the snow again.
41	Gee! by this time my husband was holding his stomach
42	from laughing.
{Comment = In line 43, the word “told” was originally “sold”, but this seems to be a typo and has been corrected.}
43	“Try it; it will help,” he told me.
44	“Try lying on your belly,” he told me.
45	Finally [I lay] belly-down on top of a pair of snowshoes.
46	The [sled] had lacing on it like this,
47	and I held on to it on this side and on the other side.
48	It did not take us long to go to town;
49	[the area at the foot of] the hills was low-lying.
50	It was extremely slippery
51	so that that [sled] kept sliding out past the dogs.
52	It seems the fur [on the underside of the sled] was wearing out;
53	the rocks abraded it [until it was smooth and slippery].
54	Before long we came into town.
55	We stayed there two nights;
56	we bought everything we were sent there to get,
57	the food
58	to take back.
59	Gee, it started snowing again.
60	The mailman–
61	there were no airplanes then,
62	nor [was there a road passable by car]–
63	it was by dogsled
64	that they brought the mail to Telegraph Creek;
65	they say it's a long way.
66	So we met up with the mailman
67	and we went back with him.
68	Part of the time that white man led the way;
69	I took up the rear.
70	I don't know how many nights we camped along the way.
71	We were taken to the Hot Springs
72	by truck,
73	and from there we went on foot again.
74	So then
75	we stayed over on the shore of Dixie Lake; it's called Dashdané Âyi.
76	Then the next morning we left again.
77	The fresh snow was soft and yielding
{Page = 173}
78	so [the men] led the way.
79	There again was a little lake and a hut;
80	the mailman's hut was there; again we spent the night.
81	While they were getting firewood I was cooking for them.
82	What is more, that man was drinking.
83	At that time I didn't know anything about drinking.
84	I finished cooking for them
85	and we ate.
86	They also fed the dogs.
87	Then we slept.
88	It seems it didn't matter what kind of place I slept in;
89	I never complained about it.
90	The next day in the morning
91	they left.
92	They broke trail for a long way
93	and then came back retracing their tracks,
94	so their trail became hard.
95	After that the dogs went along it.
96	Eventually we reached home
97	and brought in the things we had been sent to get.
98	Then again
99	we left, this time for the Taku;
100	the whole extended family moved.
101	My, I don't know how many sleds there were–
102	my mother-in-law could not walk,
103	so she [took up] one sled,
104	the others were for our belongings, a tent, a stove,
105	and so on: our blankets, our food, the dog food–
106	there were many sleds.
107	We didn't go very far [each day];
108	what is more, my husband's brother
109	had many children,
110	and they were small,
111	so our progress was slow.
112	Finally
113	we arrived at Ghat.âyi (Kuthai Lake);
114	it was cold, too.
115	I was young; that must have been why nothing ever
116	got the best of me.
117	Even the cold didn't bother me; I was oblivious to it;
118	and my husband [and I]
119	[used to work] side by side;
120	he would split wood
121	and I would cut it.
{Page = 175}
122	Sometimes I would take a turn splitting wood alongside him.
123	We worked by moonlight [at Kuthai Lake,] where we had arrived.
124	Our firewood kept piling up.
125	We were [only] going to spend two nights there
126	but still [we put up quite a supply].
127	Then
128	we stayed at the place called Chùkán Tlèn (grassy plain);
129	gee, the north wind,
130	the north wind stopped blowing.
131	That was the first time I saw,
132	I saw for the first time that
133	smoked hide;
134	that's what they were cutting into babiche
135	for foot filling, it seems.
136	I would hold it while my aunt worked on it, like this;
137	she was cutting it into babiche.
138	When we had finished making babiche out of it she said,
139	“Come on, now, Tàkwkʼwátʼi (Frank),
140	our meat is all gone,
141	both ours and the dogs', so
142	you must go hunting, over there
143	is [babiche] you can use for foot filling;
144	foot filling made with smoked moose hide does not squeak,”
145	they said.
146	We quickly proceeded to take the old filling out of his snowshoes–
147	me, that is,
148	I took it out.
149	When I had taken out the foot filling I gave [the snowshoe] to him
150	and he put [the new filling] in.
151	He finished putting the filling in,
152	then I took the old filling out of the other one too
153	and gave it to him.
154	In the same way [he used] smoked moose hide
155	[for] the foot straps and the toe harness;
156	then we set them aside.
157	“In the morning you are to leave,”
158	his father told him,
159	“Be confident;
160	don't shoot it until you have crept all the way up to it.
161	If the footprints [look like] those of a cow moose,
162	you must shoot the calf too;
163	[the calf meat] will be for the dogs,” he said.
164	It was calm and as quiet as it is in this room
165	when he left;
166	day was still breaking.
167	So, just as [he was told], I guess, he crept up on it;
{Page = 177}
168	the snowshoes did not creak,
169	the ones with tanned moose hide–
170	[you see] how much they knew about things long ago.
171	He shot it and the calf too.
172	And what do you know, [he saw] a bull moose too,
173	so he went ahead and shot it as well.
174	He dragged the meat back.
175	[He used] half [the skin]–
176	he must have skinned the cow moose,
177	cut [the skin] in half,
178	and then stowed [the meat] inside it.
179	That skin just slides along.
180	You don't have to pull it;
181	wherever you want it to go, that's the way [it goes];
182	it starts sliding [with just a tug].
183	So what do you know, he appeared dragging it.
184	“[I killed] a cow moose and its calf and a bull moose
185	for the dogs;
186	I shot three of them,” he said.
187	My, everyone got their strength back,
188	as well as the dogs.
189	The next day they went there and brought [all the meat] back.
190	We stayed there I don't know how long,
191	maybe four nights we stayed there,
192	and then we started off again.
193	They didn't go very far [each day];
194	they were pulling along the children and my mother-in-law.
195	We would make perhaps about fifteen miles a day.
196	This was the first time I went
197	to the Taku.
198	On this side, gee!
199	it was a long way down!
200	And I kept looking across to the other side.
201	It was like this;
202	there was a river flowing along here.
203	Now how were they going to get down the side [of the gorge]?
204	My husband's older brother Łxhùda.ànyádi (Frank Williams)
205	[spoke up];
206	“I gonna fix 'em,” he said.
207	There was a tree standing here like this;
208	he felled it, like this,
209	and it broke off like this.
210	Then [he felled another] one further down,
211	like this,
{Page = 179}
212	and [they took] snow from above
213	[and] scooped it onto [the trees] with their snowshoes like this.
214	It formed a sort of ramp running down toward the river, like this.
215	On the other side, too, they did the same;
216	[he made] a way to pull up his mother and his children by sled.
217	I don't know how many nights we spent there, perhaps three nights,
218	and then they left again.
219	The sleds [went smoothly], just like sliding down along a ramp,
220	and on the other side
221	[they made it] up to the top:
222	that was Tʼùchʼ Shakî (Charcoal Peak).
223	Finally–
224	from the top looking downhill one can see the Nakina–
225	[we went] that way.
226	Then again we camped there;
227	we had gotten into moose country.
228	They broke trail,
229	although [it was hardly necessary, because]
230	the moose had already trampled down the snow, there were so many of them.
231	We could hear the gunshots of
232	my husband and his brother.
233	Gee, there was [one after] another lying there;
234	they were lying here and there, like this,
235	nothing but cow moose.
236	So now this was where
237	[they decided] we should make a permanent residence;
238	it was to be the base camp.
239	So they did a good job
240	of shoveling the snow off the ground [for] the large tent;
241	it was large, the tent we stayed in.
242	As for the meat,
243	they made a platform so that the dogs couldn't eat it
244	[and put the meat up] on the platform.
245	At that time I first saw
246	what they call a log ladder.
247	[They take a] cottonwood [log]
248	[and set it] up like this;
249	along here they cut [out the steps] with a saw,
250	and it's a ladder.
251	By means of it they carried up moose hindquarters
252	and ribs and frontquarters,
253	the back, the belly, and so forth;
254	they put them up there.
{Page = 181}
255	Then they took canvas and spread it over [the meat]
256	to keep the grey jays from eating it–
257	those grey jays love to eat fat–
258	to keep them from eating it.
259	Then they left us [there]
260	[and went to] where Yayuwà (Luwa Ridge) is,
261	to trap.
262	We [women and children stayed] there.
263	Before they left,
264	my father-in-law said,
265	“I'm going to go to Tʼùchʼ Hîni (Tʼùchʼ creek).
266	I'll look for something there,” he said.
267	That's in
268	January that we were there.
269	So apparently,
270	wouldn't you know, some bear had gone up through there
271	ahead of him,
272	and he tracked them.
273	They went up onto the mountainside
274	so he tracked them up to where they were sitting in their den.
275	Then he left and went back.
276	Then Tàkwkʼwátʼi (Frank Williams) and my husband
277	Khusʼèxh (Steve Williams)
278	and [their father] went there the next day.
279	Then he saw their den
280	and they walked up above [the entrance to the den].
281	They say it was steep.
282	Then he made a snowball like this.
283	“You fellows rub [some snow] on your hands too,” [he said],
284	so they rubbed it on their hands;
285	he had it all over his hands like that.
286	After he had carefully packed it into a ball he rolled it down;
287	that snowball rolled on down the hill.
288	The den was like this,
289	and [the snowball] landed at the entrance, like that.
290	Before long they could hear a loud commotion from there.
291	The mother stormed out,
292	as well as her cubs, almost as big as she was, two of them.
293	She reared up at the entrance [to the den], like this,
294	up [on her hind legs],
295	and opened her mouth.
296	Right here,
297	right
{Page = 183}
298	in the windpipe
299	the bullet struck,
300	and she tumbled head over heels downhill, [landing on her face].
301	And after her stormed out the cubs,
302	both of them stood there, they said.
303	One of them Tàkwkʼwátʼi (Frank Williams) shot,
304	and the other my husband shot.
305	All three of them rolled down.
306	They were fat ones, eh?
307	They skinned them right there.
308	I used to watch my father-in-law work;
309	he would flay off the fat like this.
310	Just the fat
311	and the ribs–
312	whichever parts they thought people would eat
313	they prepared.
314	What do you know, they came back up;
315	they had killed all three bears.
316	Again they brought them up to the camp.
317	Our [camp] was full of meat.
318	Then they left us.
319	Then we [women]
320	diced up
321	all that fat;
322	we cut it all up into little pieces,
323	and boiled it.
324	[We ended up with] coal oil cans full of it.
325	“I wonder what that could be for?” I thought to myself.
326	From my earliest awareness
327	my father used to tell me,
328	“Don't ask questions of people.
329	Sometimes they think you're criticizing them indirectly,” he told me.
330	To this very day I am [the way he told me to be];
331	I simply wait and watch.
332	I don't ask them questions.
333	Finally
334	in April the meat was beginning to thaw out.
335	“Well, we'd better make a drying rack,” they said;
336	only we women were there.
337	I quickly ran to get some thin poles,
{Page = 185}
338	chopped them to size and dragged them over to them.
339	And we set up a drying rack.
340	It was as big as from here to there
341	[with] canvas over it, too.
342	Then we took the meat from the cache and let it thaw
343	and sliced it thin [for drying].
344	Then [we treated it] with salt–
345	we rubbed salt on it.
346	Then we hung it up to dry;
347	the rack was completely full;
348	we couldn't throw any more over it.
349	That was a lot of moose.
350	They wanted to pound the bones [in order to extract the marrow].
351	So we chopped them open them for them
352	and then they pounded them.
353	They would put it on a coal oil can and set it by the fire.
354	Then I would build a fire around it.
355	From far off, from all over, I would bring loads of firewood.
356	I didn't know what being tired was in those days.
357	Before long the meat was getting dry.
358	The meat along the backbone got tender.
359	“That [meat] in particular,
360	take special care of it,
361	keep turning it over all the time,” they told me.
362	[I did] just what they told me to.
363	Eventually [the meat] was all dry;
364	it turned out that it was for the marrow grease
365	that they had [pounded] the bones.
366	The [marrow] grease would rise to the surface;
367	it would get this deep on top.
368	They would skim it off, like this,
369	with a sheepshorn spoon
370	into a big [bowl].
371	It was nearly full
372	of marrow grease.
373	Then [they said],
374	“Now take the meat along the backbone
375	and break off pieces and give them to us;
376	it's probably dry enough
377	for us to pound it.”
378	So I did what they said and broke off pieces and gave them to them.
379	“Oh, yes, it's dry; it's fine,” they said.
380	Then they pounded it, like this.
{Page = 187}
381	Then
382	when they pounded it
383	they laid it on the marrow grease, like this,
384	and pressed it down with their hands.
385	Then again they poured on another [layer of marrow grease].
386	[Eventually] it was full of
387	dried backbone meat.
388	Then they did the same with another [can],
389	they filled them both.
390	Then as it happened,
391	after so many days
392	they said to us,
393	“That dried meat that we made with marrow grease,
394	we'll eat some of it.”
395	They put so much on [each] dish for us
396	and rice on the side.
397	We made a good meal of that, just that little bit.
398	We were full.
399	That's how they used to prepare food long ago.
400	We cut the rib bones out of the rib meat
401	and that, too, was dried.
402	They would boil it,
403	and then we would eat it with bear grease.
404	[They had] all kinds [of ways to prepare food].
405	At this point
406	the beaver had already gone up.
407	“Why don't you go up to the Nakina?” [they said to us].
408	[My cousin], the one who has had a headstone put on her grave,
409	at that time was carrying about her first child; it was a baby.
410	I used to carry it around on my back.
411	Wherever we camped I would put up a hammock for [the baby]
412	and rock it.
413	I myself had no children
414	as yet.
415	When we were about to leave I would put it on my back.
416	We would go looking for beaver,
417	my cousin and I.
418	Sometimes we spent three nights out on the river;
419	it's a wonder
420	we never ran into any wild animals.
421	There are a lot of bear;
422	they walk about [eating] spawned-out salmon
423	during the spring thaw.
{Page = 189}
424	When we came back
425	we would also go to the Nakina.
426	We had quite a system of trails.
427	[I wanted to go] with her;
428	I wanted her to kill a beaver
429	for herself;
430	she was a single woman
431	but had a child.
432	Her mother wasn't happy about that.
433	We would often leave to avoid [her mother's] complaints.
434	One time we went to the Nakina.
435	I tossed out a fishhook–
436	[that place] was named Tʼèxh Xhʼa.ìtí (fishhook site).
437	What do you know, I pulled up a cutthroat trout.
438	My, but I loved to fish.
439	Anything,
440	cutthroat and trout–
441	just plain trout–
442	we pulled them out [of the water].
443	We spent the night there and half-dried them
444	and then started off with them in our packs.
445	What is more, I was carrying the little girl on my back.
446	We came up [to the camp] where they were.
447	“Well, I'll be!” my mother-in-law said,
448	“Now you've brought us something special: fish;
449	that's what I was really getting hungry for, that fish,” she said.
450	They quickly cooked it.
451	In May,
452	maybe on the fifteenth or the eighteenth, [the men] came back.
453	They killed what is called beaver.
454	They brought them [to the camp] and dried.
455	At that time we were ready to start off again.
456	What could they do with my mother-in-law?
457	She was fat,
458	and she couldn't stand up.
459	So Łxhùda.ànyádi (Frank Williams)–
460	he wasn't very big; he wasn't a very big man–
461	he had a backpacking harness like this.
462	It went under him like this, here,
463	and along here, the tumpline went here,
464	over his forehead, like this.
465	Now at the Sloko,
{Page = 191}
466	it was Tʼùchʼ Yayá (side of Tʼùchʼ),
467	a steep slope, that he packed his mother [Łànàtk] up.
468	And then again [down] the ravine, a place like this,
469	he broke off [a stick to use as] a cane.
470	Then he carried her down there, supporting himself with the cane.
471	A tree had been felled across the creek–
472	it is called Xhʼàk Tlèn Hîni (big ravine creek)–
473	on the other side of it.
474	Without even resting
475	he packed her up to the top;
476	he packed her all the way.
477	I guess we went to O'Donnel [River].
478	It's certainly a long way from Warm Bay.
479	I don't think we went there.
480	That's as far as you can go.
481	After that — they would wire to town
482	[asking them to send] a car or a truck–
483	after that they brought us to town by truck.
484	Then those dogs and the dog packs–
485	that, too,
486	I was going to sew,
487	dog packs-
488	[we] should have had two more dogs.
489	Long ago, the way things were,
490	four-wheel-drive was unknown in the old days;
491	dogs [were used to] pack things about for people.
492	They would tie them by the neck to a guide pole
493	and use the pole to lead them.
494	So I wanted [to make] dog packs,
495	so two days before I had bought canvas from there.
496	In those days they had moose hide dog packs,
497	[made] of tanned hide,
498	smoked tanned moose hide.
499	and the bags that women would pack along,
500	bags,
501	those too were [made of] moose hide.
502	My grandfather, Doctor Jackson,
503	when he was going to go to down he would start off packing
504	his moose hide bag.
505	There was no canvas long ago.
506	It was long after that
507	that we went up to the end of [Atlin Lake].
508	At that time my mother-in-law Łànàtk (Anna)
{Page = 193}
509	and my father-in-law Yaxhgûsʼ (Billie Williams)
510	and my father Nêxhʼw (Tom Williams)
511	and aunt Dàxhlâ (Anna),
512	they asked me to come see them.
513	I didn't even know that I was married,
514	I didn't know anything about it.
515	They just told me,
516	“You [and Steve] are to be married in church.
517	Your life will be set on a firm foundation.
518	You are doing well; you are not having problems.”
519	I didn't know what they meant by “married.”
520	Then they ordered all my [wedding] clothes
521	from the catalog,
522	as well as a veil.
523	Now that priest,
524	the priest spoke Tlingit;
525	I wonder how he knew it–
526	who taught him?
527	He spoke just as well as I do.
528	He would ask us to come over regularly
529	and taught us from the catechism.
530	Toward the very first part of July,
531	on the third of the month,
532	they asked me to come see them,
533	those two white [women],
534	Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. Conrad.
535	“They are going to dress you up,” [I was told].
536	“Now what?” [I wondered.]
537	The priest explained it to us.
538	Then the white women
539	got me ready
540	for church.
541	After the priest had finished [praying] over us
542	[we left and went] outside;
543	my! the church was full.
544	At that time
545	my father
546	and my aunt and my father-in-law
547	and my mother-in-law
548	used to drink.
549	I really hated
550	to see them drink like that.
551	My!
552	in the white folks' village
553	and in the Indian village they put on dances.
{Page = 195}
554	Yayuwà Hít was just full.
555	White men and white women were mingling there.
556	Then my husband-
557	you see, the priest had told us,
558	“You must not touch a knife for four days;
559	don't touch any sharp-edged object,”
560	he told us.
561	Now that fellow whose name was Khènałjîxw (Henry Taku),
562	Taku Jack's son,
563	and Ishkhúxh (Johnny Taku)
564	and Ł.atguda.ìn (Leo Taku)
565	and Khànêlkʼi Îsh (Edward Taku)
566	and
567	my husband Khusʼèxh (Steve Williams)
568	and my eider sister
569	Xhàstìn (Lucy),
570	I guess they went to the top of a little cliff and [were drinking] there.
571	Now a white man used to make home brew, malt beer.
572	Apparently they bought a big supply of it.
573	I myself
574	was at the dance.
575	It was packed with white people;
576	everyone
577	was dancing with me.
578	I couldn't leave.
579	and I didn't know where everyone had gone;
580	my husband had run off.
581	I guess it was in order to open a bottle
582	that he took up a knife,
583	and here
584	it slipped and cut his hand.
585	Then the priest said,
586	“I told you beforehand, ‘Don't touch a knife.’
587	You yourself will bring trouble into
588	your life.
589	Your wife Elizabeth is all right, though.”
590	It seems they have a rule against touching a knife right away.
591	Well, they got really drunk,
592	[even though] my aunt and the others slowed down drinking.
593	I didn't like it when they drank;
594	it would make me cry when I would see them
595	drunk.
{Page = 197}
596	They stopped.
597	At dawn the dance ended
598	and I went to bed;
599	I was tired, so I went to sleep.
600	I had no idea where they had gone.
601	They were drunk.
602	After that
603	we must have spent at least four days there
604	in town.
605	From here I kept after them to take me up the lake.
606	So [we went to what] they now call Elizabeth Wedding Island–
607	that's what they call it;
608	it is Sʼìk Xʼâtʼi, (Griffith Island);
609	we moved there.
610	All summer I was there;
611	I didn't go to town even once,
612	even after July,
613	[when] the leaves were falling.
614	Then
615	they brought [the food we had prepared] from there:
616	dried fish, dried meat,
617	bear and other things,
618	mountain goat,
619	everything that we dried there
620	on the island-
621	I liked it [there].
622	Then they ferried [what we had put up] to town in several trips,
623	and I went on the last [trip].
624	That time
625	I went to town with them.
626	I had spent all summer there.
627	At this time
628	my mother-in-law and her husband would go
629	to Atlin.
630	After they had spent so many days over there they would
631	come back,
632	and when they killed a moose
633	my husband would go with them on the next trip; they would go there [to work on the moose].
634	After they had spent a number of nights there they would come back.
635	When they would ask me to go along I didn't want to.
636	After we came here
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637	I had had enough of that, too.
638	When we went to Atlin
639	they went up onto At Chʼîni Shà (“Sawtooth Mountain”)
640	and brought back mountain sheep.
641	There didn't use to be game wardens like there are now.
642	They brought back hides too.
643	Now
644	to this day I keep recalling [how]
645	my mother-in-law said to me,
646	“Remove the hair from a hide [so we can make] fine filling.
647	We'll make fine filling for the snowshoes.”
648	[Moose] fur is thick, you know,
649	the fur is long.
650	“Set it up on the dehairing frame
651	and then take the fur off.”
652	So [I did] just what she said to do.
653	It was falling off in big clumps-
654	the fur is extremely thick.
655	For the space of perhaps two days
656	I had it on the [dehairing frame], removing the fur like this.
657	Eventually there was getting to be quite a bit–
658	the epidermis and the hair was coming off.
659	After a time they said to me,
660	“put it in water
661	so the fur will get wet.”
662	So [I did] just what they said.
663	The next day I put it back up [on the frame].
664	Oh, the water [had gotten into it];
665	the fur was sopping wet,
666	it was soaked.
667	It wasn't bulky like.
668	Then
669	what do you know, [the fur came off like] it was slipping off.
670	Before long I had finished dehairing it, and
671	the epidermis came off too.
672	“Wash it well,” she told me,
673	so I washed it well.
674	Then [she said], “Wring it out,”
675	so I wrung it out.
676	Then we cut it into babiche:
677	held it for her
678	and she cut it.
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679	When we were done I strung it out on the ground outside
680	so it would dry.
681	Eventually it dried.
682	After it dried I coiled it up:
683	it was to be used for fine filling in snowshoes.
684	From here we left again to the Hot Springs
685	and then again down toward the lakeshore.
686	At that time
687	they hadn't even told me [what happens]
688	if you're pregnant, you know,
689	nobody had even told me.
690	My aunt and my mother-in-law were probably
691	beginning to suspect [that I was pregnant].
692	I wasn't the same, and besides
693	I kept getting sleepy.
694	One day they asked me-
695	to this very day
696	I'm the same way, you know,
697	[I don't like] to speak in front of people;
698	I'm really shy to say anything–
699	“What is happening to you? Are you still having your periods?”
700	I didn't know what they meant by that.
701	[I just said,] “Yes.”
702	So they didn't ask me anything else.
703	They thought I knew what it was.
704	After that they went down toward the lake.
705	Perhaps one month later they asked me again.
706	“I don't know what you are asking me about,”
707	I told them.
708	Then they explained it to me;
709	they explained it to me.
710	“No,
711	not since this summer I haven't,”
712	1 said.
713	From that they calculated how many months it was.
714	Again
715	we stayed at Tʼùchʼ Yayá (side of Tʼùchʼ)
716	in May.
717	For some reason
718	my mother-in-law was always repeating what I said.
719	I was going to tan a moose hide.
720	As I was scraping it
721	a button came off
722	my slacks.
723	So I went to my mother-in-law;
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724	she was always sitting there.
725	“What is happening to me,
726	auntie?” I asked her,
727	“All my clothing is getting too tight for me.
728	For example, [I] just [got these slacks];
729	they're new,
730	and yet the button came off here.
731	I'll sew it back on, and when I return [from doing that]
732	I'll go back to scraping [the hide],” I told her.
733	It turned out, in fact, that
734	the buttonhole had ripped open as well.
735	I mended it and sewed the button back on.
736	I ran over to them.
737	“[You see] how fat I'm getting:
738	even the buttonhole ripped open.”
739	See, I didn't know I was pregnant.
740	She laughed; she kept going into fits of laughter,
741	[but] she said nothing more to me and that was the end of it.
742	Then one day
743	Agnes' mother, whose name was Sàtlèndu.ù (Clara Johnson),
744	said to me “Come here; let's go somewhere else.”
745	I went along with her, following her.
746	We sat on top of the hill,
747	looking off into the distance.
748	She simply said to me, “Look here,
749	you can't [be expected to] know this, [but]
750	you are eight months along.
751	Don't you know you are with child?”
752	Gee,
753	it was as if someone had taken first hot water and then cold water
754	and dumped them over my head — that is how I felt.
755	“Now what is to become of me?” I wondered.
756	Then she told me,
757	“When you are nine months along
758	you will feel
759	the first labor pains.
760	That's why they are always telling you not to lift heavy things,
761	and not to scrape skins too much.
762	[The baby] will get irritated and be born right away.
763	You and your husband are always rassling around;
764	you must stop that,” she told me.
765	So [I did] what she told me to.
766	The next thing
767	I didn't want to tell my husband, you know;
768	I was embarrassed.
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769	One day they left again and headed back again to Atlin;
770	they had gotten back from hunting beaver.
771	Then they told us,
772	“You and your brother go by yourselves,
773	quickly.
774	Don't worry about us,” they told us.
775	I went along with my brother and my husband.
776	We walked across Xhʼàk Tlèn (big ravine)
777	and stayed the night at Chùkán Tlèn (great grassland).
778	After that we camped on the shore of Ghat.âyi (Kuthai Lake);
779	they killed a moose there.
780	We spent two nights there, and from here we made it to O'Donnel [River],
781	and a car took us to town from there.
782	I forgot the advice Sàtlèndu.ù gave me.
783	Gee, we were at the [Yayuwà] site.
784	We set out a fishnet.
785	After we had returned [the men] got back.
786	Then we caught some fish in the net
787	and cooked some.
788	I guess it was in the evening again;
789	everyone was already asleep.
790	In the middle of the night I woke with a start.
791	“What could it have been that I ate? My belly hurts,” I said-
792	it's a wonder we didn't kill Jackie, the baby I was carrying!-
793	when [my husband] put his weight on me
794	I felt better.
795	I laid a pillow on top of myself
796	and said [to my husband], “Sit on me.”
797	But even though [it helped temporarily] I was getting worse.
798	I didn't know [what was going on].
799	Day was breaking and still
800	I couldn't get to sleep.
801	I must have totally forgotten
802	what they had told me.
803	They just called their son.
804	The rooms were like this:
805	here was ours, and they [stayed] in that one.
806	“What's the matter with her?” he said.
807	“Her belly hurts
808	and she hasn't slept a wink,” they said.
809	My, in a jiffy everyone was out of bed.
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810	My mother and my aunt,
811	my elder sister Xhàstìn (Lucy),
812	my father,
813	my father-in-law,
814	Sàtlèndu.ù (Clara Johnson), and Tàkwkʼwatʼi (Frank Williams).
815	Before long
816	they had set up the tent outside.
817	I didn't know anything at all about drinking.
818	Now
819	when some women went into labor,
820	they would fill a glass up to here [with whiskey]
821	[and mix it] with hot water and sugar
822	and [the women] would drink it.
823	[If they do that], it doesnʼt take long for [the child] to be born,
824	they say.
825	That must have been what they fixed for me to drink.
826	I tried to refuse, but in vain;
827	[they said,] “It will help you,”
828	and so I [gave up and] drank it like they told me to.
829	I guess that just made me worse;
830	that's what I figure, anyway.
831	Then [they decided to get me] to the hospital–
832	my father was getting pretty anxious–
833	Before you know it, a car came to get me
834	and they quickly got me into it.
835	Before long he was born;
836	my son was delivered by a doctor
837	and a nurse.
838	I felt better now.
839	The next day
840	they gave him to me.
841	His grandparents were sitting there.
842	I stayed in the hospital with him for eleven days;
843	nowadays
844	as soon as they have their babies
845	they tell them to leave.
846	At that time it was not like that.
847	When I came home with him
848	my father-in-law said,
849	“[Let us give him] a name that we had left in disuse,
850	my older brother [Taku Jack]'s name,
851	Jigê, and Xûts;
852	and let us give him the same English name as well: Jackie,” he said.
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853	“Where is his aunt?
854	Let his aunt bestow the name on him, [his aunt] Àntsíxht (Mary Anderson).”
855	They went to get her and she came.
856	She is the one that bestowed on him [the names]
857	Jigê and Xûts,
858	Jackie.
859	After that
860	we stayed there,
861	before the week was up we left to go from here
862	to Carcross.
863	Awêxh (Billie Williams) and Yadułtín (Jessie)
864	went with me [in order to attend] school there,
865	and we left them there.
866	Then in Skagway
867	we waited many days for a ferry.
868	Finally we boarded it.
869	I would have liked [to stay] on the [Taku] River for good;
870	I was there for more than twenty years.
871	My children grew up right there.
872	So
873	I got used to [living on] the river.
874	I didnʼt want
875	for us to come back here.
876	Because my husband developed a chest ailment we moved here from there;
{Comment = In line 877, the word “is” was originally “it”, but this seems to be a typo and has been corrected.}
877	that is how I came to live here.
878	I was comfortable on the Taku.
879	My husband used to work at the mine,
880	and I
881	[stayed] with my aunt and my mother-in-law;
882	I would help them;
883	I would run from one to the other.
884	As for my children, I [made halters and] tethered them
885	for fear that one of them would fall in the water.
886	What do you think about this: for five years [while] the mine
887	was running
888	I didn't see [the town] once.
889	When my older sister Xhàstìn (Lucy Jack) and her husband
890	came here,
891	and Henry,
892	they asked me to come along.
893	Then my aunt said,
894	“Xhàstìn,
895	there is your sister Elizabeth;
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896	ask her what the town looks like.
897	She acts like an old lady.
898	She hasn't asked to go there once
899	in the five years we have been there.
900	She doesn't even ask to go across to where the white women
901	live.
902	I don't know what's wrong with her;
903	she's always over there
904	with her children.
905	I guess I was just used to it.
906	Sometimes I liked to cut wood.
907	They were big in girth,
908	[some of] the trees were as big around as this.
909	I would stand on one side and [my husband] on the other.
910	One day [I saw the sawmill].
911	The saw was not like [the ones we have] today:
912	they poured water inside and it ran on gas.
913	Now what on earth was the water for?-
914	there was a square [hopper]
915	that they poured [water] and snow into.
916	My, I was fascinated by it.
917	And then when my father
918	and the others brought home [blocks of wood],
919	half [a block]
920	took up a whole sled.
921	When they brought them inside
922	they would split them with axes
923	or split them with wedges.
924	I wished I had it for kindling.
925	My father would stand there
926	and tell me to go home.
927	That's all I know [about that].
928	I went with my older sister.
929	My goodness, men
930	and women...
931	[After that] I didn't come over here any more;
932	I didn't want to.
933	I must have gotten used to [living in] the woods.
934	In the middle of summer
935	we would move in alongside the white people's village.
936	They lived above us,
937	the white people's village and the customs office.
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938	There was no reason for me to go there;
939	a store also stood there, and
940	there was no reason for me to go there, either.
941	Taking care of my children was the only thing worthwhile for me to do.
942	Sometimes we would go to Juneau;
943	after two nights there [we would come] back here.
944	That was my holiday, those two days.
945	After that
946	at the very end of October
947	my husband would quit working [at the mine]
948	and [we would go] to our trapping ground.
949	It was a long way, about forty-five miles, I guess, they reckon
950	[the distance] from the Tulsequah to our trapping ground.
951	Then we would stay there.
952	In March
953	we would get ready [to go] to the Tulsequah.
954	On our way there we would go to Juneau.
955	Sometimes we would stay there one week.
956	From here [we would go] back,
957	and [my husband] would go back to his job.
958	I [would stay behind] to look after the children and the dogs.
959	Now
960	[young people come] here from Atlin,
961	[and carry on] without their husbands here.
962	There are many dance halls here in this town [of Whitehorse],
963	and the young women and young men [carry on]-
964	who knows where their husbands are.
965	Eventually they separate-
966	there are so many of them that have separated-
967	their poor children!
968	[My elders] held me back from such a fate.
969	I was not perturbed by anything.
970	When my father-in-law told stories I would sit down,
971	listen to his words and watch his face.
972	That is why I know what he used to tell me about.
973	My father-in-law used to tell me as much;
974	“It seems like you will know the stories,” he used to tell me.
975	Well, that's all.
976	I've done all the talking.