1 Wa~laee Dane.a eor-n Januarl' Ll., ~92~ Miriam Danes Born Sep1i.embe-~ ~Q", l.92:8 What about, your mother and fa.ther,,) we were just talking about that? Well. I don't know when they were born. No, I meant to say who was your ~othe~ and father? You were talking about the:cannery •. We~l yeah " we" my f.ather, like I say my father is tToseph Danes and mw ~~ther is Harriet Danes. Her maiden name is Muldoe) the daughter of'Tommy Muldoe, and Esther Muldoe. And each year we go down to the cannery, everybody goes to the cannery. Not like now a days)you see all the wanders of the houses, nobody around. Jus t maybe, .wer-e I c.an ' t say it. Not to many people stay home anyway and mos t of the people go down to the cannery" The cannery were we go is the Be-more Cannery. That's still there now? No most of t.hose cenner-i ee,down the. coas t are extinguished" ther"s; nothing t.hez-enow. Belmore cannery is in Oxtail, tha t s.in the moutlh of the Skeena river. What about your> ~oth~ and father Miriam? Wel1 my dads name is James Morrison and my mothe~s name is Birtha Wilson, thata her maiden name. My dad died while he was fishing down the coast, my mother is st111 alive, Birtha she is ~I~~seventy years old now. Have hoth of ~ou ~n Hazelton through out youvlife? No I~ T was born in ffazelton, but my parents lived in Kispiox W"allac:e. Yeah I was; horn, born in Hazelton here.. Wbat abQut stories and_expiriences that have happened in the earJLy year&?' Wel~ I t "ink that was the expirience. that.have happened. Fishing. d the sailboat went down at the Belmar. uit an expirience. T don't think there's to many people thats around here that'fishes. And that sailboat T just managed to make it myself Do you have any stories or expiriences Miriam? I don't, I just forget, I have lots of stories I guess. Well I go to school in Kispiox and since I was a little girl I helped my mother after my dad died. I remember that when I was going to school my dad used to get up with mother. My dad, they get up and they would dress us like ••• they doa't have those woolen socks. They have those cut blankets they wrap around ••• What would you call them? Then you would have your moccasins like you have your socks~d they wrap those wool over again and they put your moccasins on thats really cold and thats my dads job to do that while mother is getting breakfast ready. have baccon and eggs. We don't Maybe she has that fish, those salt fish and I remember she used to make that fried potatos besides that porridge. That was for breakfast? Yeah, thats it. We hardly see baccon and eggs like we do now. What about stories that were handed down from your ancestors? (Miriam)Yeah my grandmother, thats my dads mother always tells us stories but I never remember those. Yeah there's alot that can't remember them, t.he r-e ' s so many. \t-- I was so ema l.Lcand. used to stay over like when my parents COIl)! into azelton ~ get some groceries. We stay over with her. I love staying with her cause she tells us stories and she cooks, I like her cooking. All grandmothers are like that. I love staying with them. My mother and them would stay a couple of nights here and then, I don't know what they'd USe I think they walk. N t many cars in those days I remember that ~rosby used to have Thats not to long ago h~y? before. Model T. I think they have cars So is the radios because when my dad was alive he used to go down to Robert Wilson used to own a store. Wilsons dad, grandfather. Thats where And they have a store and they have a radio there thats were they all the people that there past time was to go to the place and listen to the radio. have radios. We don't \ Did you have any stories past down to ou Walace? lots 0: stories, but I don't remember. Alot of people say that they heard so many and they like to ~ ~reah ~ remember, but nobody asked them. I know a story about Gitanmaax. It's pretty hard to remember it now. Gou'ems and his brother that's uh, I don't know what you call it in umpsiwa but Sooget hooksten. \V1'l.at does that mean? That's dog turne into a human being. And Co'us visited this chiefs daughter that princess I guess and the chief was really strict. heir house and their every day shift just what they think of it. This man decided to go into this women it's not really a man because a dog, their own pet dog. This girl OObin(pregnant) and the c~ief put a matt when the baby is born they were dogs hey. This women had babies and they were dogs? Yes, that how Gitanmaax had started. And the chie: would come and shake them off the blanket go outside and hollar to tell the peoDle to move. He was the boss of the villiage. never left the girl behind. Ah thats interesting. eah, I coulrtt remember one male is Gou'ems . exact how many of them, female, but What does that mean? It's the name o~ t~e girl, Gou'ems. I don't know what it means. So in order for them to survive they go out and fish1 they ~'sh with a torch light it was, ~eah that lady, the mother and then every time they heard kids p ay'ng , so he take his torch and go home and here the dogs were laying by the :ire they seen their mother com'ng with a torch. Vou know what I mean by a torch hey. A light. And been doing that for quit sometime in order for her to catch fish and she would catch fish cause the light would draw fish. Make a pail of cedar bark and catches them at night. And every time when she's out by the water you heard kids are playing so she's smart and left the torc-h by the river and everyone would sneak up on her and here those kids are human and just the dogs disapear. mhat's Gou'ems. ~hose boys they take their clothes right off and they were plain, they were human. ~heir mother just dived right in there and grabbed and seen their coat or belt or whatever you would call it. Threw it in the fire. Just Gou'ems the one that's still a dog. T think there was three of them. ~hey would survive that way and they grew up to be strong young boys and real good hunters, to eat. the best hunters and go hunting and have plenty ~hey get meat and dry it and store houses just full o~ food as those young people bring in food. Here the people that moved away there starving so T think one person come back to see whats happened to this girl T just sort of forget this story, but I just remember it here and there. One person come back to visit us so this women gave her something to eat and they take her to her ~amily. The people start moving back. ~hat's why these young hunters had lots to eat So thats how qazelton started. Gitanmaax means fishing by the river with a torch and a light. Thats were we got the namp Gitanmaax. ~his is a long story~ if it was told properly I c~nnot forget. So thats how we started. I think one person, maybe the same person that came back hid a light cause they put out a]l the fire to. them going. ~hat keep Yeah this girl was an outcast as far as their concern. ~hat's the thing I forget about that, somebody pittied them, pittied this girl. ~~at about schooling? Wallace, we had one school here and the old lady that was tea~hing us named [rs. Dongate was very old. T con't go to school very much myself because my ~ather was a trapper and he always take me out of school and we go trapping. r,!y schooling , I jus't finished to grade six and started on grade seven when I ~inished school. And the education is not wide open like it is now. Your lucky to even finish grades eight and that's it. We don't go to high sctaol~ when they brought building. ogistra it to high school when the school was Like I sa~ alot of changes and we start eight o'clock on time, everybody finished christiananity in the and the people is really We were Thats when we finished. in the mourning No eight o'clock are playing was on time in those days. at twelve o'clock. Eight o'clock Just recently at night. to twelve noon? It was really strict cause was going strong and nobody goes one min- ute after twelve and they don't dance on sunday. person comes in drunk, we usually drunks aloud. escorted And a them out. No Not to man~ drunks will make us disapointed onoe in awhile. Nowa days it!s more drunks but it's different days that people it looks awful in those days. I think in the early are mo~e civilized than that nowadays. What about dancing? Was there dancing then? Yeah you see them all the peQP~e Rnd ehe young people there they don't waste the music out. and they don't put the lights You don't see American women go to the dance to watch the band. How was your school Miriam? I think I just went as far as grade seven. ways babysit then sometimes alot of school too. kind of stayed out late. that's were they do their fish. That's Cannery to baby- Then in the fall we We go down and my mother my dad and my uncle and my aunt. were they dried fish. I al- my aunt Kate used to take me out and take me down to North Pacific sit so I missed Like, and They go down to ... Yeah Carniby, that's We spent a whole month there. after we come back from the cannery they dried their fish and salt fish and they last for the winter months. So I don't, I missed some of my days in school. And when my dad died I tried to work when I was only thirteen. Worked in a cannery. do lots of babysitting have these welfare I was filling to help my mother. cans. When I They don't in those days, even the Indian depart- ment don't even help us through my uncle Peter and my uncle Bob that help us by groceries. Like flour, sugar, and milk whatever we use all the time and they'd help us out on that. There's do now. no help from any, like they All kinds of help, but my mother up things. I really Like food, have a big garden thank mother can really put to survive. for being such a good mother So to us cause she's a single parent and brought forgot how many of us, there's lots of us and she never would, like some of our relatives of us and she wouldn't. would She wouldn't us all up like to take some let go of us. they just want to help us, she wouldn't. I really glad and proud of her for doing that. Okay there are other topics like floods, bridges, thing to do with the Hospital, graph line and fishing. Packing, mining, some- tele- Do you guys know any of these topics here? Yeah the time the bridge was washed here. away in the bulkley I think it's 1936, I'm not to sure. We went around on a train to go fishing traveling together. and I think there were two trains It was quit an expirience elton had one of the finest ogistras when Haz- and they make good use of them on the train when we travel and the train would stop at Prince George on this train. saxophone. There's William Arthur Mowatt, on the trombone and each drive an Qqual way Wale and Pete George and quit an expirience. reason they side tracked upset. We stayed at Kamloops. in Kamloops And all this canneries, That's B.A, there's Casear, not to much of Casear other canneries H-sport, that I didn't see, but then we stayed days in Hazelton days, like those people I think. there used to be lots Like I say, there's Carlile, left. Sunny Side, just There's remember in Sunny Side. and Kispiox really an It was quit an expir- down there at the coast. Belmore, We, for some of the boats Can't get us all on on the boat. of canneries Peter Brown for two days cause I think it was on count of the schedule ience. Simpson, from the lots of or didn't even When the sports are the finalists are more civilized in those than us in 1 the olden days. And one time the Babine play ball here and I remember they were here about three or four days ahead of time and Hazelton concert come down to had a real good band then and I think there was thirty of them. They had a banquet banquet for them, the babines, just a welcome for them and the band played for them. the first time the babines like that. ever expirienced any thing It was a real treat for everybody. ine plays ball they bought It was When bab- a big bat from Mr. Dawson, the only place the only place where you could buy a bat I don't know what they used before that. They just bought a bat, the heaviest They are good ball players. bat they could use. I remember call him he's a little ber Dicky Cowboy. one of them Dicky Cowboy short. Maybe they I don't know why I remem- just his hc.rr.e I guess and every- body calls him, I don't know his right name but they call him Dicky Cowboy and that's what they use in the line up, Dicky Cowboys as Hazelton I remember up to bat. Maybe there not as good at the time but they were good ball players we go to sports we had no cars, maybe in Kispiox here and we walk somebody will have a team of horses but we walk to have dinner, maybe halfways about to Glenvowel creek. Just before we get to Glen- vowel turn off. They would keep it going and they would keep it going and they would have another spent over night where in Kispiox. sports. turn. They the place where they are the sports They don't come back at the night after the One time we used the buggy into Glenvowel. Jimmy Danes borrowed someones run away on us in Glenvowel horse and buggy and they and smash up the buggy so we walk home. The horse ran away on us so were pretty fast runners, took us awhile Interesting. What about tracking, to catch up with the horse mining,or those are the other topics we haven't Wallace) r up maybe just get. talked about? I trapped with my father his name is Gelo- It is the top man of the cuI doe villiage, used to be a villiage nother the Hospital villiage, north of here. I can't remember. the top man of culdoe. And there was a My father The villiage there is the chief they have one of the richest trapping the name now. grounds which this Mary M4Kenzie I remember is using we used to trap every day, we go out in the fall, come home just for Christmas and then go out again then we would come home in the middle of march What was the entertainment in those days, like games,movies sports? ~ Not to man~ movies no television, movies here, not to many entertainment. there's no radio. they were silent movies There's And when they do have in black and white. Not to much of that. What about games? or sports? There was softball then wasn't there? There's no softball, there was baseball. and for some reason Hazelton team they were strictly There was soccer never used to have a soccer baseball. And they do have ice hockey. So we talked about commercial fishing and canneries. there anything to include about that? else you wanted Yeah the canneries and then, like Miriam Fish here when my grandfather Is said we fish. and grandmother used to have a smoke house right at the point down here were the skeena and bulkley met. One of the very finest it is a natural smoke house I guess because right beside swimming pool, the slew. Not like it is right now it's different grass it used to be, I mean the sand used to be really It's a real, everybody is used of it. clean there. They don't go to Seely lake or Ross lake, they come to the slew. They don't alow us to go on the river side, but some people Burt Chaples do like son was swift away by the river there and drown and Eidith M~ougals son named nammy. That was a Indian name? No, It was just a nic name. There was a Charlie Miers that was swept down that river. He's lucky he got shore at the river side and it was way late at night when he come home his parents and his grandparents still crying it's ah Miers son the one that used to own a sbo~e at ... but he's lucky to have survived and he walked in while they were crying. It must have been quit an expirience What about railroads, Would you happen Churches or World war 1 or II? to know anything about the world war 1 or II? Yeah, i was, I joined the army. the army. Salomon and myself we joined and Buster Smith from New Hazelton. Jack, Jimmy Danes Archie Willan from New Hazelton There was five of us Get on the train here, you should see all the people that seen us off. seen off. I think we were the only ones they Lot's of people from Hazelton joined the army. For some reason kind of excited when we passed Kitwaga there the whole village was there. go over sea, I just spent six months. little bone that broken me especially bothered with those army boots they had it realJy so I got discharged, Jimmy and Salomon went over seas. But there's but lots more that went. Was there logging Mostly I got a small on my right and that it bothered me when were marching from Hazelton I didn't then? pole camps they call it, that's the name. This one around here are poles and fishing. Either you go fishing in the winter There's you go to the pole camps. alot of pole camps that's were you make your livelyhood really next to nothing but something What about the railroad, I missed to do anyway. was there one in town here? No, the roads were across I guess it's south Hazelton out on those days thats, road come through Hazelton according and New Hazelton I think the rail- to what I heard 1914 and those river boats there that the same thing as, I guess there out of buisiness buisiness as soon as there railroad and we don't know nothing and pack trains. I barely remember is in about the river boats that. A bunch of hor- ses used to come through here they used to deliver supplies to another place. the telegraph lines Would you like to include other things that happened while I Especially the guess. growing up? They were pretty was another strong and church giong people and that thing that was very strong and all the villages I guess you hardly that we used to go and visit each others and see any persons either there in church there's all the time. Like in Hazelton a church army and Salvation Army. If your late going into either one of them you have to stand cause it's packed all the time almost every night. The food that was eaten was mainly from the garden, you guys went hunting etc. ? Yes, the people moose mman they don't realize got just sugar and flour, rice. etables. plus that the store's only But you grow your own veg- They use canned meat, dry meat, salt fish. your were an Indian you would be starving. If They make you eat your plate pretty well off. What about feasts, how did that begin? I don't know how it started but it must have started in the early days we just go on into it and take it for granted. The people that put up the feasts had to provide the foodp' Yes Like right now does anything change from the way they used to run the feasts? Yes there is a change, use money they use money now. in those days. They didn't They used moose hide. That's one of the bad things about the feasts put in to much money. A feast is for funeral paid for the expense. Thars what a feast is for, but some people is when some people expenses just go over board and there is no need for that. What kind of gifts were used at the feasts? The gifts were anything like blankets, socks, shirts, some of them but I was given a riffle at one time. depends just It on what you do. like helping out and that? Yes, if you do the work right, that's what they do right now. What you see happening there's Where alot of changes. in the feasts. Our peoples It's like down fall is liquor. there farms back then? Yeah there's farm and oh Mickolinco, John Mickolinco. That's down here where Neil John is staying now. What kind of animals? There's cows and horses. John is married Russian guy married to, John is a to this black lady and next to that is Donald Mackintosh, ner and I forgot next farm the person How did you travel, Well people, if the people travel, TOW but no people is Johnny that stays down did the people wAlk Mackintosh, Helen Beck- there. travel? have horse they, that's the way or canoe. That's if they go down y they this way they use the canoe. In the winter, do they have Yes and a tobbogan Okay rwe talked our clothes usually makes special occasions clothes earlier" are handmade me little cotton I mean dog sleigh. what were like my sister dresses they like then? Dorothy, to school and just put on our old clothes. We donLt just wear .: church like I just keep my good clothes for going work Like my mothe~I clothes around the house. thats why I remember it. It's made out of flour really nicely It.'s a under about three inches wide, wear this all the time just when best dress. at home, think occasions I know but when Same with sack. it It's slip wi th a wreal the top and she doesn't she's going out like dancing it on I noticed that she just dressed o'A remem- I guess I just admire slip, half she puts our clothes. always under, lace. and we out and put on I('D'" ber she has this special made. well she and I just use these for like going and all special that and her in her old clothes she goes out these special slip of hers. I she still kept it for a long time I don't know if she still has it. I don't just on special ~ and a team of horses, about Mostly sleighs? know. Cause she doesn't about houses, Well our house was a log house floor. as a storage just built really this all the time occasions. What a wooden wear what were they made of? How did they look? and just a one room place Well we have another area and it's made room~but and they just use that out of lumber and probably they that, but we just have a one rJom. I remember she kept the house clean. scrubbed all the time. houses, nicely built The floor was nlce and white, In those days I seen they have wooden houses in Kispiox in my days, but I think \d-- the house we stayed in belonged to my dads parents. So you stayed out Kispiox then when you wer~ small? ~ Yeah then I was married then I moved here. How far did you have to walk to get into town? Was it a long ways? Did you guys go by horses? ~ We usually walk into town that's when I was a little bit olde ~ Not to often though hey? No, like I remember one time, I think my dad always goes trap~ ping and he goes for along time. I don't know cause I remem- ber they t~ied to come back before our sports day on the of May and he tries to come back before that I know. my mother maybe wants to visit with my uncle lOTI Sometimes eob Pierre he works in the store, Sargents store and we all walk down from Kispiox to hereI think she have a child on her back the smallest one. Can't r member the smallest one at that time. pack one of the child. We'd walk. Used to Like I say we'd maybe spent couple of days wi th him and were ready to go backvaga i,n What kind of work did you have to do then to earn money? ~~ Well I usually babysit and then when we go down the canneries I babysit with my own brothers and sister~. died I started working in the cannery. Then after my dad My mother works in the cannery filling cans. Where there any other relatives living in Hazelton or ln Kispiox?., Yeah. You guys were always from Kispiox and ln Hazelton? Y' Yeah we have our uncle Peter here and Emilia stays ln Hazelton and Dacy Olson and my aunt kay Sterritt. Yeah we have lots of relatives in Hazelton and also Kispiox. For storing food, would you have it in one storage place or in your own house? Yes my mother have her own storage place like that little thing they built out and they have this seller. the potatos and vegetables. That's were they keepS And their fruit, their jarred fruit. Where there feasts for weddings too? Yes they have feasts for weddings. Our mother said that, 1 never been to the weddings when I was a little girl, but my mother said they served soup in those days just like a feast they put up. They didn't have gifts then? Oh, I don't know mAybe Mary MCKenzie would know that. What did they do when a person was sick,·like what kind of medicine wns given to them? \..... \ When a person gets sick. Well they make there own. ~omething about bark? I think Devilclub was the main one. ~ What do you call those tea leaves. I forgot what you call it J now. That's their laxative. Just taste like tea. I think they boil it hey. There about this long the leaves. They boil it and they just drink it and they just driGk it like tea. That's the other medicine that I kGow of. And ooligan greece for colds coughing. berry picking, was that done alot? Would you store the berries for food too? ~They trade for whatever they make here, I guess they trade it with the Nass in order to'get ooligan greece and ooligans, dried ooligans. Have any of you either made moccasin boots, blankets on spinning wool? ~ I remember mother makes those aduks they say, she makes those and she makes those moccasins. wool too. 1 don't know if she does the ,. I remember she used to\like the new wool and like she unravels the socks, the warn out socks. Then she uses the spinser. The new wool and the old wool together she makes a new pair of socks again that~s all I remember. She usually do it. I don't know if she spins her own wool, maybe she does. What about the language, when did you learn how to speak Indian? Oh, I speak my language when I started to talk. it. I'm not good at speaking english. Still speak Cause I talk my own language. Did your parents talk to you alot in Indian? Yeah, they don't talk english. My ~other dOcst talk english. ( How old do you think you were before you started talking regu~ lar in indian? QU:I l-- '460-\A6\ -\NJ~~ ~ '? Yeah, both my parents they speak my own language. When were in school we speak Even in school? Yeah well amongst speak english. were our own language. our self like I hear the children eut just when were right out like playing in school we talk our language. now they like when