INGRID KRITSCH, GSCI
Spruce bark smoke house, September 1997
while travelling to start a quick fire if needed. Spruce
boughs, changed weekly throughout the year, are still
used for flooring in tents, which makes for a warm
floor when combined with caribou skins. Many people
believe that the aroma of the boughs inside a tent keeps
people healthy, which is why small young spruce trees
are considered particularly therapeutic.
Trappers found many uses for spruce trees: young
spruce trees, which are strong and flexible, could be used
for snowshoe frames and for beaver pelt stretchers. Long
spruce poles (about 16 feet long) with the bark removed
are still used to set fish nets under the ice in the fall.
be safe-guarded and made available for their future
grandchildren and the general public.
To learn more about the Gwich’in of the Northwest Territories and the work of the Gwich’in Social
and Cultural Institute, including our plant database,
we invite you to visit our website at www.gwichin.ca
and our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/
user/GwichinNWT).
Conclusion
Alestine Andre, Gwichya Gwich’in woman, is Heritage Researcher for the Gwich’in Social and Cultural
Institute. In 2007 she was awarded a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the Culture, Heritage, and
Spirituality category. Every August, she and her husband
return to their Tree River fish camp on the Mackenzie
River.
Ruth Welsh believed that was why the use of traditional medicine survived. “It’s really come back now,
which is good. Because [in]… seeing how the medical
system is working now, it’s not going to be long [before
we] have to depend on [traditional medicine] again.”
The information provided by Welsh (who sadly passed
away in 2011) and many other Gwich’in elders on their
traditional use of plants is a precious gift that Gwich’in
elders have left for future generations.
Acknowledgements
Ingrid Kritsch has worked as an Anthropologist in the
Canadian North since 1977. She was the founding
Executive Director of the Gwich’in Social and Cultural
Institute in 1993 and has been its Research Director since
1998. In 2008 she was named an honorary Gwich’in by
the Gwich’in Tribal Council Assembly.
We acknowledge and thank all Gwich’in elders who
have shared their Traditional Knowledge with the
GSCI and for having the foresight that this knowledge
Forager 2 Fall 2015
55