Canadian Update #2

First of all, before I forget, here is a slightly more user-friendly way to access our Canadian photos on Flickr.

We are in Edmonton, freshly laundered and showered in a Motel 8 in the midst of a mega-commercial strip on the south end of town. It was sensory overload, coming to this busy place, but after two days of muddy camping, the laundry was much appreciated. And I think all of us appreciated having a little more personal space. Except perhaps Toby, who thinks living heaped together in a well-cushioned six-by-twelve box is exactly what the wolf god intended for us.

Yesterday we drove from Lake Louise to Edmonton, with a stop to visit Margaret and George, distant cousins who were born and lived, until their retirement, in the Northwest Territories. Margaret's mother was Inuit and her father - like my grandfather, his first cousin - was of mixed European and native descent, but self-identified solely as white. George's father was an Englishman turned fur trapper and professional cook, while his mother's people were what he calls "town Indians," sent to Anglican or Catholic missions schools where they were prohibited from speaking their native Slavey, they ended up with a mix of English, French and Slavey, none spoken fluently. While Margaret self-identifies as Inuit, George refers to himself jokingly as "Heinz 57 - lots of ingredients and a little bit of spice."

Thus Margaret and George are true natives of the far North, in many different ways, descended from the oldest families of that region and having lived through the greatest changes that have come to it. My aunt in Edmonton introduced me to them a couple of years ago when I became interested in this thread of the family history, and they are the loveliest people and most gracious hosts you'd ever meet. Enrico was happy to meet them at last, and we enjoyed a long lunch at their house over many fascinating stories - they remember life in the North before electricity or running water, before the NWT government moved from Ottowa to Yellowknife; and the US Army's arrival during World War II to build an oil pipeline from Norman Wells as protection against Japanese invasion of the US West. They also offered a wealth of advice on what to do when we get north.

Then on across the big, big prairies of Alberta, which has the same Big Sky effect as Montana to the south. We're meeting up with my aunt today to visit a national park that preserves a bit of the original ecosystem of this area, as well as herds of pure wood and plains bison. We might also visit a winery - no grapes up here, just fruit wines. So - pictures to follow.