From Whispering Wind - American Indian: Past and Present
Effie Talks - as told to Conley McAnally
"Our people need to survive. I had heard the expression 'harsh survival' used many times when listening to the elders talk about the days long ago." Said Effie Hadley, herself now an elder. "A group would take their wives, kids, and dogs, everything they owned and walk the land hunting for food and trying to select the best place to spend the winter. Sometimes they would find a place and then another group would come along and they would have to leave, fight, or welcome them.
"At a place we called Inuktag a girl once saw a group of people coming out of the fog carrying logs. These people looked strange to her so she ran to tell her people. But as she was running the other group's shaman threw a feather with a sharp point that hit her in the neck. By the time she had reached her people she had forgotten what it was she was going to tell them. All the people in Buckland were surprised by the attack and killed.
"Shamans had great power over our people, even when I was small. The wise ones would have a vision and would tell people what they should or should not do. I remember very well that the shaman told a friend of mine not to braid anything. Not grass, not hair, not sinew - nothing. No reason was given and after a time the girl forgot.
"One day my friend started braiding some grass for a basket. She was just about to finish when she saw a lot of people running towards her sod home. She remembered what the shaman had told her, but it was to late. Her father had died.
"After that her life and her mother's life got very hard. She ended up getting married at thirteen to a hunter. She had no choice. He provided food for her and her mother but he was a cruel man. He would let other men play with her, but my friend leaned how to do her chores and be a good wife and not complain. Young girls cannot imagine that happening to them today. But strange things happen out here away from the eyes of the people.
"My friends plight was not typical but it did happen often enough. Many don't like to talk about those things. It is embarrassing to them, but what was is."
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