As a wife of a hunter I had to learn to go out into the bush and learn the skills of being a hunter. To hunt for not just for rabbits, but for elk or moose.
On this one occasion, I was brought out into the bush and we had another gentlemen that came with us, his name was Alex.
We went hunting. We stayed overnight at a lodge in the bush, where we did our lodging. Then during the night Alex’s shoe went missing.
We looked high and low, in the back, everywhere. It was nowhere to be found. As we were going, as we got up in the morning and prepared ourselves, my partner, at that time, said to Alex, “Throw that other shoe away. You know, what’s the use in keeping one shoe? You might as well throw the other shoe away.”
So that’s what happened. So both shoes were gone. As we were driving up on the cutline we came upon the other shoe that was missing the night before. Well, like my partner said, “throw the other shoe, it’s no value, let the other guy have the other shoe”, so off the other shoe went from the vehicle.
As we were proceeding further up the cutline, we came upon two bull moose. Much to our surprise, but down they went. I guess there’s lot’s to be said about this, in the sense that you provided another shoe for somebody else. I guess what it came down to, as I see it, is that with the help of what I would call the little people, that’s what we call them – this is what happened. Maybe the little people needed the shoe and that was their reward for us by giving us two bull moose.
So that we could use these bull moose to feed our family, Also, we would with the moose, do dry meat. A Native person, of course, in the Native world loves that product because it’s a delicacy. At this point in time, not too many people know how to do dry meat.