Muchhas been written about the early exploration of the Northwest Passage
and some of the overland routes used to map and explore the northern
reaches of Canada. But the central travel corridor into the heart of
Canada's northern wilderness-the old way north-remains shrouded in
mystery and uncelebrated, its natural and cultural history largely
unknown. Long before the arrival of the first whites, the Chipewyan
(Dene) used the old way north to follow the herds of migrating caribou.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this travel
corridor, which stretches from Reindeer Lake in Manitoba and north to
the barren-lands in what is today Nunavut, was an important access
route for those intrepid travellers who opened the North. In the
spring of 1912, Ernest Oberholtzer-largely responsible for the creation
of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Ontario and
Minnesota-and Billy Magee, an Anishinaabe companion, set off on a five-
month canoe expedition following the old way north, a route that was
still largely unmapped. Oberholtzer's observations provide us with a
window into the way it was, before the changes that came shortly after
his passage.
Using Oberholtzer's journals as a narrative thread,
author David Pelly transports readers through the history of this
wilderness and introduces them to the mapmakers, fur traders and
trappers, missionaries, and Native peoples who relied on this corridor
for trade and travel. Among the many surprises he explores is the
contact, unique to this region, between the Dene and Inuit, who both
lived and travelled here. Through journals, historical records,
personal interviews with Dene and Inuit, and present-day canoeing
accounts, Pelly reconstructs the many tales heretofore hidden in this
land. David Pelly has been travelling and living in the Arctic since
the late 1970s. He is the author of several articles and books on the
land and its people, including Thelon: A River Sanctuary and Sacred
Hunt: A Portrait of the Relationship between Seal and Inuit.
Join David this September on our Walrus Expedition: September 12-24, 2008. For more information please click here.
There is new availability on the Walrus Expedition - please call our office for details!
To order a copy of The Old Way North please visit:
www.borealisbooks.org
For more information on Jean's book, please click here.
In 2008, The Rooms in St. John's features an extensive body of work by the noted photographer James
Often referred to as the unicorns of the sea, Narwhals are one of the
Adventure Canada staff member and Inuit culturalist Aaju Peter recently passed her bar exam in Iqaluit.
Many of us here at Adventure Canada can trace our routes back to the Celtic
