Mountain Voices: A’ä˛y Chù’: By Itself Mountain DEC
A’ä˛y Chù’: By Itself Mountain DEC
Written by Gùdia (Mary Jane) Johnson
This story comes to us from the book Mountain Voices. Paired with photos from the Mountain Legacy Project, Mountain Voices is a collection of unique short essays from alpinists, activists, artists, and mountain researchers as they share their unique and fascinating perspectives. The ACC is pleased to feature this new monthly series, highlighting a few of the incredible stories from Mountain Voices over the coming year.
To learn more about the book Mountain Voices, or to order a hard copy, visit their website.
In the ’A’ä˛y Chù’ area, that mountain up there, I have known it as ’A’ä˛y (By Itself Mountain). I have known stories from around that area. Á ma—my mother—was thirteen years when she and her family travelled from K’ùa Mân’ (Kloo Lake) down the Jarvis River to the Kaskawulsh River. Á ma talks of walking up the Kaskawulsh River to the toe of the glacier and crossing over the glacier to go around ’A’ä˛y Chù’. They had a nàánnji—a temporary camp—at Thechàl Chù’ (Sheep Creek); later they followed it all the way up. When they walked over the headwaters of Khàr Shan Nji Chù’ (Congdon Creek) through to Nines Creek, they were astonished to see the Alaska Highway was already being built, for they had heard about a road from Frank Sketch, the trading post man at K’ùa. When they had left down the Jarvis, there was no sign of a highway being built.
There are other stories. Á sųą Shuquaya, Grandma Sophie, talked about going up Shar Tǎgà’ (Grizzly Creek) and leaving her traps on a tree the left side of the creek going up. Our Á sųą shaw (Great Grandmother) left her twins buried up at Shar Tǎgà’. Gramma Jessie Joe told us when we go to Mäy Jè Mân (Big Horn Lake), it is important to go there with a clear head and good thoughts. On Lhù’ààn Mân’ (Kluane Lake), we know the winds are going to pick up on the lake when clouds start coming over Nàday Gän (Dried Lynx Mountain, Mount Decoeli). So, we have about two hours to cross the lake or get to land. When you see rain clouds coming over Tasàn Zhat Chù’ (Copper Joe Creek), this means the rains are coming soon. Some of this I learned while fishing with Grandma Grace Chambers.
When I finally did get a job with Parks Canada, I was able to tell these stories to the superintendent. He and I were able to get Grandma Jessie Joe, Little Grace, and Grandma Grace Chambers up Thechàl Chù’. This was the first time two of the Elders were back into this area of their homeland for over fifty years. They pointed out people’s trails and the old camps.
When people look at these historic photos, they don’t know these stories. When scientists look at these photos, their scientific way of analyzing the change is very different from someone who feels immense sorrow from looking at the same photos. It is important to carry the stories of our grandmothers and grandfathers to the next generations.
It is now eighty years and the community still does not travel across those lands like they did before they were expelled with the creation of the Kluane Wildlife Sanctuary. My mother is now ninety-three. She has never been back to do that journey past the Kaskawulsh Glacier to Thechàl Chù’ since she was thirteen. We must make every opportunity to take Elders and young people out on the land to regenerate knowledge. Today’s youth will soon be the decision makers. Research on the stream capture is proceeding, excluding us just like my Ancestors were excluded from their land. My community needs to be involved in the new understanding of how the land is responding to the stream capture of ’A’ä˛y Chù’ by the Kaskawulsh—for example, will the lake we depend on flow the other way to the Gulf of Alaska instead of the Bering Sea one day?
Mountain Voices
Discover Canada’s mountains as you’ve never seen them before with gorgeous photography from the Mountain Legacy Project accompanied by gripping essays from mountaineers, artists, and mountain researchers.
Mountain Voices features a diverse array of voices, including Indigenous activists, employees of Canada’s national parks, interdisciplinary scientists dedicated to mountains, alpine adventurers, and historians captivated by tales of mountain pasts. Mountain Voices brings the landscape to life through the passion and devotion of those who love it deeply.
“The stories are personal and universal. The paired images are humbling. Together they make a profound case for stewardship of these alpine environments.” -Carine Salvy, Executive Director, The Alpine Club of Canada
Mountain Voices was published with support from The Alpine Club of Canada’s Environment Grant.
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