Yamoria the Lawmaker: Stories of the Dene

Thomas S. Abler is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Waterloo and the author of A Canadian Indian Bibliography, 1960-1970.

In the spring of 1922, George Blondin was born in a hunting camp near
Horton Lake in the Northwest Territories. For the first seven years of
his life, he accompanied his parents and grandparents as they hunted
caribou, trapped beaver, and fished the lakes of their homeland. He then
was sent off to residential school for five years; upon his return, he
was unable at first to speak to his family, having lost his language. He
identifies himself as Dogrib, but his great-grandfather was Gwich’in
from Aklavik. In this volume, he has compiled a collection of brief
stories of the life of the Dogrib and the other Dene of the Northwest
Territories.

The title refers to a transformer figure who after the creation of the
world did much—including changing the landscape as well as the form
and behavior of animals—to bring about its present shape. In addition
to the actions of Yamoria, this book presents a range of oral
traditions. Many stories deal with strong spirit helpers were used for
good and, occasionally, for ill. In one such story, the spiritual powers
of a Dene are used to pull a paddle-wheeler from a sandbar in the
Mackenzie River. Several stories recount battles between rival shamans.
Interspersed with these tales of individual power and achievement are
general comments on how the life of the Dene changed as a result of such
intrusions as the fur trade, the missions, the police, and government
treaty negotiators.

The book includes not only material derived from the author’s own
experiences and family traditions, but also stories collected by Blondin
from other Dene communities. Unfortunately, the circumstances
surrounding the collection of these tales are not made explicit. Brief
biographies presented by Blondin indicate that majority of the sources
for these stories are of Dogrib ancestry, but some are Slavey, Mountain,
or Hare.

Clearly written and illustrated with well-chosen archival photographs,
Yamoria the Lawmaker serves as a lively introduction to the world of the
Dogrib and their neighbors.