Experiential learning camps on the land with Lutsel K'e Dene School and Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation in the NWT

1. Artillery Lake Camp 2009
Every spring students, Elders, parents, teachers and community
resource peoplego out to Artillery Lake in the barren lands for the
Spring Hunt.

2. It takes all day by skidoo to travel across lakes, rivers, and very steep
hills out to the Barrens. If people leave too late in the day they might
stay overnight at Fort Reliance right at the east end of Great Slave Lake.

3. At camp students learn traditional skills like
hunting, trapping, navigating, setting up and running a camp, and safety in
traveling. This little caribou is ignoring us……

4. During the winter the caribou herds wander through the barrens north and east of
Great Slave Lake. Dr. Ryan Brooks, from the University of Calgary Veterinary School,
joined our trip in 2009 to collect samples for his Caribou Anatomy Project. This was an
exciting opportunity for our students to see what ‘real’ scientists do in the field.

5. Jasmine feels that unity with the land and the caribou!

6. The first caribou of the hunt arrives. Community members helped unload
the animals from the sleds.

7. Community members give Dr. Brooks a hand unpacking the caribou and
getting it ready for the research.

8. They brought all dissection tools and a very good camera to record all their
observations and specimens that they collected and took back to Calgary for
further analysis.

9. Community hunters and students watch as Dr. Brooks starts work right there!

10. Students from Grade 1 – Grade 10 had a chance to talk to the
researchers and even help them collect samples.

11. The students really enjoyed watching the progress of the dissections. Many of them
had seen caribou cut up many times for family food. But many had not made the
connection with what they had learned in science – how the heart and the stomach
work, the importance of the fat, ….

12. And their favorite - the brain!

13. Everyone was very interested in Dr. Brooks’ information on caribou health. He
also spent a lot of time talking to hunters and elders about the community’s
traditional knowledge about caribou, and the land.

14. All samples were photographed, documented and then carefully
wrapped for transport. This was real science on the land!

15. In the meantime, the older students also had to go out to cut and split
firewood for all the tents, especially for the elders. They also had to chop
through the ice and fetch water for their tent daily.

16. Unloading wood to split for all the tents!

17. After dinner there was time to hang out at the fire at night and talk
about the hunting and trapping from the day, and just feel really lazy!

18. Meat is prepared by Women Elders and the girls for smoking. The rest
of the meat was cleaned and wrapped in hides to go back to the
community by sled.

19. Smoking
the
caribou
meat
under the
tarp

20. There was lots of work, but always lots of time to play with friends

21. These cousins had a chance to go hunting, and get really close out
on the land…

22. The caribou hide was stretched for drying. Then it was rolled up and taken
back to the community to be tanned (using caribou brain and smoke) for
making jackets, purses or boots.

23. Towards the end of the week, everyone just wanted to go out for a ride to
enjoy the beautiful days before packing up and heading back to town.

24. Time to pack up!! At the end of the 10 days everyone was
looking forward to heading home – back to TVs, computers
and hot running water! But students had a chance to
experience some of the life their ancestors lived on the land.
They also had a chance to see how traditional knowledge and
science are both working to understand and preserve the
caribou and the north.