"Growing Up Native": A Descriptive Essay

Words and phrases from Growing Up Native that fall under each category.

Who?

          Carol Geddes, about 40 people living there—including 25 kids, eight of them my brothers and sisters, one of the people in my village, my father and uncles who were young men at the time, the Tlingit Nation, the middlemen and women, the Russian traders, the Yukon inland Indians, my grandparents, a baby, native people, aunts, uncles and grandparents would try to fill those roles, travelling missionaries, white people who didn’t have any children, my brothers and sisters, older boys, my very large teenage cousins, the teacher, white teachers, Indians, the principal, my partner at the time, a number of native women, the world, the elders, smart, talented, and moral Indian people

What?

          People were taking turns carrying me, problems native people face, unimaginable racism, the sting of humiliation and the boot of discrimination, enviable security of an extended family, richness of the heritage and traditions, its own timber plank house, one large common kitchen area, cook meals together, built-in playmates, picking berries, building rafts, tells a story about the day the old lifestyle began to change, saw a bulldozer, the Alaska Highway, employment opportunities, metal goods and cloth for the rich and varied furs, controlled Yukon trading, raising wild mink in cages, very strong sense of family, read the Bible to us and lecture us about how we had to live a Christian life, the residential schools, their hair cut off, sexual abuse, clash of native and white values, insensitive and ignorant of cultural complexities, wet my pants, being rejected, pretty little pencil box, smoking a cigarette, reading list, bachelor of arts in English and philosophy, Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief, renewed interest in native dancing, acting and singing, self-government, the renaissance, the importance of knowing your place in your nation

Where?

          Walking through a swamp near our home in the Yukon bush, moved out of the bush, first to Teslin, then to Whitehorse, moved to Ottawa and Montreal, area was known as 12-mile, on the lake, in abandoned mink cages, from far away, the crest of a hill, through the wilderness, in the Yukon from the Alaskan coast, in a transitional period, in the residential school system, a big town, to the circus, school in Whitehorse, in our community, all in one classroom, into little desks, in the wood stove, to university, McGill

When?

          It was fall and moose hunting season, I was about four years old at the time, I was six years old, on his way back, around the turn of the century, when I was a little girl, throughout a time of tremendous problems, by the time I was 15 years old, seven years later

Why?

          The muskeg was too springy to walk on, for sleeping, to smoke fish and tan moose hides, as a defence against a presumed Japanese invasion during the Second World War, they controlled the trading routes through the high mountain passes, trading ceased to be an effective means of survival, in case they were carrying head lice, I was put off by the condition and treatment of the animals, the Indian culture was evil, that Indian people were bad, they had to trap beaver in the spring and hunt moose in the fall, to show up an older boy is wrong and totally contrary to native cultural values, because of our second hand clothes and moose meat sandwiches, we were too stupid, we didn’t have the kind of mind it took to do those things.