Books We Love Insider Blog: Spirits of the Northwest Territories

I have to define them as "spirits," because the Tlicho didn't have "ghosts" as the dominant culture imagines them, until after they made contact with Europeans. Digression: during the last 300 years, though, they've taken on some new religious beliefs, in their case, Roman Catholicism. Along with that, came the sort of 'ghosts' that I've read reported in books written by recent researchers into this culture. Those modern spirits are just like ours: restless, and sometimes violent, echoes of the bad, the mad, or the murdered.

Before the Europeans brought their sometimes sad, sometimes scary spooks, the Tlicho could hardly be called "spirit-poor." An almost endless number of supernatural beings inhabited their everyday world, but in ways it took me a while to understand. Mostly these spirit beings are not angry or bent on vengeance. They are simply part of the fabric of the world the Tlicho observed. Staying in right relationship with nature, staying in balance, was a central thought in this world view. A careful observation of the world around them led these First Nation's people to understand their position in relation to their environment. The People were a thread woven into the greater fabric, part of which was a vast host of unseen--but--undeniably present beings.

Pre-contact, the Tlicho were nomadic hunters whose survival depended upon the weather and the migrations of animals, so they paid close attention to every detail of their surroundings as they moved about the "dè"-- today's Canadian North West Territory.

Yearly, they traveled over an immense territory following the annual migrations of birds, fish, and caribou. Their prey, however, was not regarded as simply a "commodity." The animals, collectively and individually, had Spirit, just as the men who hunted them did. If a hunter disrespected the caribou, they might walk another path the following year and not come the expected way, leaving the tribe to starve.

It was believed that the caribou willingly gave their bodies to the hunters. As one should when given a gift, the giver should be gratefully and politely thanked. This was done with certain prescribed rituals (which the Tlicho saw simply as "rules of proper behavior") for the sacrifice of their living bodies. Those once gigantic herds were not just food animals, but fellow beings, in relationship with their Tlicho hunters, emanations of the "Great Spirit," all beings going about their business as instructed by the first great Tlicho magician, Yamǫǫ̀zha.*1

Over centuries, The Tlicho walked the same trails and canoed the intricate network of waterways. The landscape itself, from forest to tundra, was filled with a species of entity which I first learned about in long ago Latin class, supernatural beings which the Romans referred to as "Numen." These spirits of place might occupy rocks, trees, camping spots, waterfalls and lakes, all of which frequently had a "power" or "powers" associated with them.

Small tokens of respect are still left after camping near one of these places, or after fishing, or even while traveling past a sacred rock or waterfall. This is called "paying the land." According to Allice Legat: "People leave on site something they value and use, such as coinage, spruce boughs, or rosaries. A student gave a pencil because it was important to her success in school." Further, "...if human beings ignore rules and do not show respect, they will probably have a difficult time because these entities may withdraw their assistance."* (from Walking the Land, Feeding the Fire.) (*1)

Spirits could sometimes be malevolent. One kind, called "weyèedii or 'animal-beings' were "regarded as dangerous, and consequently, always avoided. Through dreaming and the acquisition of ı̨k’ǫǫ̀ or “medicine” (sometimes called “power,” “knowledge,” or “luck”,) a person could prepare to deal with the world," and the varied powers which inhabit it.

Spirits of earth and rock were not invulnerable. In order to explain the "continuing death and decay" in the toxic areas which continue to exist around the polluted Rayrock Uranium mine, Elder Romie Wetrade told a story.* Rayrock, he said, used to be called "The Happy Place," because hunters who traveled through the area felt liking singing. When the mine opened, however, in the 1950's, the happy spirits were driven away by blasting and other human industrial activities and spillages. The closing of the mine has not brought them back, either. Displaced by the tearing up of the earth and the breaking of rock, these once joyous spirits are now presumed to be fading, homeless wanderers. The very character of these spirits requires a "home place."

Spirits could be wind or water as well as rock. One modern story I read concerned a wind coming up so heavily that a gathering of elders and teenagers was trapped beside a lake when their float plane could not take off. While the campers waited it out, an elder told "stories about the wind, in the boreal forests and on the tundra and on large lakes." After these stories had been told, another elder "built a raft, and placed burning spruce boughs on it," and pushed it out onto the lake. As he did so, he asked for "calm winds and a safe journey. Two hours later, the wind died down..." so that their journey could safely continue.

~Juliet Waldron

http://www.julietwaldron.com/
Now mobile friendly!
See all my historical novels, Ricardian, Mozart Collection, American Revolution, Pennsylvania Victorian and historical fantasy @