Monthly Report For March, 1949
W. A. Fuller
Most of the month of March was spent in Ft. Smith. Early in the month I made an examination of 148 muskrat pelts for primness, condition, and sex and age ratio studies. Forty-three of these were tagged animals, recaptured by Mr. Lacaille. I also began studies on the carcasses of wolves poisoned in Wood Buffalo Park. This study is not yet complete. Twenty-six animals have been autopsied and three more are available. A progress report has been forwarded and a final report will be prepared later.
While the game wardens were in Ft. Smith a series of lectures was given covering the field of wildlife management. These dealt with classifications, anatomy, estimating numbers reproduction, diseases and parasites, predation, influence of environment, fluctuations in number, and primness and condition of pelts. In addition, the sessions dealing with registration were attended.
A trip was made to Fond-du-lac and Stony Rapids from March 21 to 23. Dr. W.N. McKee, Indian Health Services and Mr. J.W. Steward, Indian Affairs Branch, were also on this trip and conducted business in the settlement while trips were flown in the Northwest Territories. The purpose of these trips was to form an opinion as to the advisability of permitting the hunting of beaver in this area, this spring. Recommendations were wired to Ottawa and a detailed report is in process of preparation.
On March 28, I accompanied Mssrs. Holman and Prescott on a trip to Fifth Meridian and proceeded beyond this point while the others made a brief investigation of the timber on the ground. In the area bounded by the Peace, Red and Wabasca Rivers and the 27th base line, we located two herds of bison numbering 39 and 49 respectively. Later, we spotted two groups of three and a group of four making a total of 96 animals observed in this area about 40 miles west of the park boundary.
From Fifth Meridian, I continued on to Embarras Airport and spent the period March 29 to 31 examining muskrat carcasses and making related observations. I was told of the finding of three dead muskrats on one slough but was unable to secure specimens. Pieces of liver were saved from several specimens at Lecaille’s which showed a suggestion of lesions. These were submitted immediately on my return to Smith to the Veterinary Pathology Laboratory, Edmonton.
I stopped briefly at Ft. Chipewyan, to exchange passengers, refuel, or have a quick lunch, on March 14, 21, 23, and 26. On every occasion, our plane was met by the usual assortment of curious inhabitants – most of them trappers. The muskrat season was in full swing; on only about three days during the entire month did the temperature drop below zero; the muskrat population is higher than it has been for many years while the winter catch was at an extremely low ebb. Mr. Solomon Lacaille ran his traps every day in March and caught just over 550 muskrats through pushups; Mr. William Daniels and son combined caught over 500; yet I heard only on Indian whose catch approached 200. I am reasonable sure that the average catch of all Wood Buffalo Park trappers operating out of Chipewyan would not exceed 30.
In the past, I have attempted to give the native trapper the benefit of every doubt. I was at Chipewyan in the last summer of 1945 and so was able to observe the hardship occasioned by a poor muskrat crop. I have heard the complaints of native trappers in virtually every settlement in the Mackenzie District and listened to the oft repeated charge that the Government was slowly but surely starving the Indians by applying an ever tightening net of restrictions. I have heard the counter charges of the European population to the effect that the Indian was lazy. My own observations led me to the conclusion that the Indian was indeed lazy when called upon to do white man’s work, but I felt that in his own environment and occupation—living the life of the hunter and trapper—perhaps this was not so.
The month of March, 1949, has provided conclusive proof that the native trapper will not exert himself in the least to help himself. Muskrat trapping around Fort Smith was haphazard, sporadic and on an insignificant scale. Fort Chipewyan has been discussed above, but the best example is the Indian village at Embarras Portage. These people trap sloughs adjacent to, and equally as good as, the one trapped by Lacaille and Daniels. Lacaille averaged 17 muskrats per day which provided meat for a family of six, food for six dogs, ten pounds of lard rendered from the fat and thirty quart jars of meat preserved for summer use. The Indians have not caught food for their dogs and have therefore been forced to trade pelts (some of them green!) for dog feed at a nearby trading post.
In the two years that I have been at Fort Smith, this office has received numerous letters of protest, particularly over the game regulations, from organizations purporting to have the welfare of the Indians at heart. Is the time not now ripe to point out to these same organizations that they are perhaps more guilty of neglect than we? The fur and game animals will come back in a matter of years. The philosophy of the Indian has not changed appreciably since the influence of the white man was first felt. To alter the philosophy and bring it in tune with the times still appears to be a problem which will require generations.
‘agd’ W.A. Fuller
W. A. Fuller,
Mammologist.
Indian Affairs. (RC 10, Volume 8409, File 191/20-14-1, pt. 1) – Poor copy
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