The Soul, Human-Animal-Plant Relations, Hunting, Gathering and Fishing, Lodges (Igloo), Tribal Sovereignty: The Netsilik, the Inuit and the Arctic - intro
"live by endangering the souls of others"
"live by consent of others"
Readings:
Oswalt 2006: 69-103 or 2009: 67-102
Soul Food: Stories of Sedna, Muskrat Man, A Wandering Soul and Other Oral Traditions
Schitsu'umsh Seasonal Round Sum (PDF)
Lecture Handouts:
Inuit Art and Ritual (and Living Stone YouTube)
Schitsu'umsh Hunting and Gathering (images), Seasonal Round Sum (PDF), and L3 (text and video interviews) - what are the prerequisites what successfully traveling the landscapes of the five seasons?
Video
Nanook of the North (79 min., the Robert Flaherty 1920 classic of one family's seasonal round, wonderfully depicting the indigenous knowledge needed to survive in a frozen desert.)
Make Prayers to Raven (52min., these are two segments from Richard Nelson's 1987 series, "Make Prayers to Raven." In the first segment, "Grandpa Joe's Country," journey with Joe Beetus down the Koyukuk River as he hunts moose each fall. He believes that his luck in the hunt depends on his humility and care because the spirit of the moose must be appeased before it will offer itself to a human. Because moose is the most important source of meat for Joe's village, the skill of moose hunting is passed down through the generations. Joe, his son and his grandson search for signs of moose as Joe shares stories from his own childhood. In the second segment, "Forest of Eyes," Wilson and Eleanor Sam, like many other Koyukon, travel to the banks of the Koyukuk River each summer for the salmon spawning season. Families set up camps on the banks and carefully place fish nets in the river. As salmon fishing dominates summer life of these families, they are very careful to please the spirit of the salmon.)
Cree Hunters of Mistassini (preview) Another Edition (59 min., for thousands of years, the Cree Indians of James Bay inhabited the northern Quebec forests - originally gathering wild rice, and later hunting, fishing, and trapping. Traditionally, small groups of families spent the winter months together in the bush, subsisting on moose, beaver, deer, wild geese and caribou. In 1973 a film crew joined three families in their annual move to the north. In this film we come to know the Blacksmiths, the Jollys, and the Voyageurs: building a one-room lodge floored with pine boughs, hunting, trapping, preparing food and skins, and living together in the bush.)
Atanarjuat - The Fast Runner (see URL link)
The Living Stone (32 min., this 1958 National Film Board of Canada classic illustrates key Indigenous cultural values, told in story format.)
Supplemental Materials:
Nunavut Images
Inuit Information and "5000 Year Heritage"
Never Alone (an interactive, virtual world game)