“There was one time when my dad took my brother, who just might be next in line, but he's two years older than me out. And it was him on a snowmobile and us on a sled. And we were only going to go check the trap line, and then we were going to go back to the tent. And then all of a sudden we heard my dad shouting at us that there were caribou coming. And that's as close as I've ever come to a herd.

So he kind of pulled up alongside of them, and then he veered enough so that the sled fell over. We were fine. It was just me and my brother. He unhooked us from the and he took the shotgun out of it and then he was gone. So he left us in the middle of the lake until he got back.

He ended up catching up to the herd. I don't remember how many caribou he got, but he just left me and my brother out there. And, you know, we just kind of hung out, waited, couldn't really do anything because we were far from the camp. And when we came back my dad was laughing as he was telling my mom and my older brothers about it, and, how he just kind of left us in the middle of the lake because he had to go follow the caribou.

And then my mom said, you know, it's one of those things where dad had to make a decision and he knew we were going to be okay. So it's not like we were little. I think I was 15 and my brother would have been 17. So it was just, you know, not a big deal for him to do that, to leave us to our own devices, sitting in a sled in the middle of a great slave lake.

So that was pretty much the closest I've ever come, come to seeing a herd like that. I've never gone with them, whenever they've gone out, to their lands because my mom and dad used to go with the teachers every time they went.

So when we lived in our old house, we would be facing Marion Lake, so not facing the town so much, but, the bedroom windows were facing the lake and we'd hear on the radio that our dad was on his way home. And so my brothers and I would always be glued to the windows, watching the lights go by, just on the horizon. And it'd be dark. And he always came home either in the dark or in the evening.

That would be the highlight of the whole year.”