Fanny Charlie’s story of a time when the Fort McPherson people came to Kâachik
When I had only two children we lived way up at Kâachik . Victoria was born up there, you know and Ben, that was two. There was lots of work to do with meat. In the springtime, we dried meat, and then we got ready to go to Old Crow.
[One winter], lots of people came over from Fort McPherson before Christmas. They came over for meat. But they had no meat with them so some of them lost their dogs. Somehow, two young men arrived at Kâachik . They said they had no meat. There was lots of meat around [ Kâachik ] then, so we went to them with meat – Charlie [Peter Charlie] and my brother-in-law Lazarus, all of them. Where they were staying, they went to them with meat. A long time before Christmas, some of them lost their dogs. Some of the dogs that were okay, they revived them with meat.
Then at Christmas time, up at Kâachik , they came to us ... and stayed there. At Christmas, we had a big dance. They danced, then after that, all of them stayed there in tents until New Year. After New Year, we were going to move, along with the Fort McPherson people. Now who I’m speaking about, they’re all dead now. Only their children are living. So we moved. They said, “We’re going to move camp, towards Zhoh Drin Choo.” Boy, there were lots of people!
We travelled after the [Fort McPherson people] to Zhoh Drin Choo. ... I mean, there were lots of people, the Fort McPherson people. We dried meat and stayed there a long time. Then in the springtime they went back over [the mountains to Fort McPherson]. Us too, we stayed at Kâachik for spring time. In spring time, we dried meat. After that, they pushed out with the big boats. They all had boats, too, the three brothers there. That’s how the Fort McPherson people arrived around there. ...
Zhoh Drin Choo, lots of times I went there with a dog team. It’s the main trail [from Kâachik ] to Old Crow over it, you know, the winter trail. When Victoria was small, she was going to get baptized so we went down [to Old Crow] for that. Then too, some of the McPherson people came with us. ... Ah, it was so nice, on the trail going down [to Old Crow].
Now I see [Zhoh Drin Choo], I have memories from back then. In those days we did lots of work. We had two dog teams, five dogs each. The dogs used to sling me around; even so I never fell off. [Laughter] Now, I’m so poor. Then, ... lots of Fort McPherson people stayed with us and we dried meat. From there, we went down to Old Crow. We just camped once going down and then we got to Old Crow.