ALESTINE ANDRE, GSCI
Dry fish on dried spruce poles, August 2013
So I cut out a little bit of canvas, thick canvas, and
I put the gum on top of it. I left it close to the stove and
then it melted slowly, you see. Everything was melted.
In the meantime Jimmy came; we washed his head
and then cut his hair right around the wound. Really
cleaned it real good and then there were two officers
there. I told them: “Hold that, hold it together while
I put that gum on top.’ So they held it flush like that,
real hard and then I put that gum right on top of the
wound. Patted it down. Not even a week later, about
three or four days, I told him, ‘We’re not taking this off.
It’s g oing to come out itself. When it heals up, it’s going
to come out itself. Don’t bother it.’
So one day [the officers] came; they always sat with
us, those boys. One day they came and they were having
tea with us, and Jimmy was playing around and Jimmy
said, ‘Mom, that thing came off my head.’ It dropped,
you see, came off and dropped on the floor. He came
over and we looked at it: Just healed up like nothing!
They just both looked at me for a long time. ‘Now we
know what you’re talking about.’ — See, it heals up
something, even big cuts, like nothing, you know.”
— Joan Nazon (Gwichya Gwich’in Place Names
Project 1992).
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Traditional Uses of Spruce
In addition to making medicines to treat internal
and external ailments, the Gwich’in used parts of the
spruce tree in almost every aspect of life.
Tree roots were used for string, rope, and sewing
the rims of baskets and birch bark canoes. Straight
grain roots found on riverbanks after the spring
ice breakup were split and used to make fish nets,
which were stored in water when not in use so they
did not dry up.
Outer spruce bark was used for the construction of fish smokehouses. Large pieces of bark were
peeled from trees in the spring and used as shingles
and siding for smokehouses. Smokehouses made with
bark were preferred because it was easier to maintain
a constant inside temperature than in structures sided
with plastic tarps.
Spruce wood, including green wood, dry standing
wood, and driftwood could be used for fuel, making
tools and for building log houses, smokehouses,
caches, and stages. Axes and ice chisel handles, snow
shovels, and sleds were also made from spruce, as
were candlesticks. Dried branches, found at the base
of spruce trees, continue to be used for starting fires.
People carry dried branches and birch bark with them