Culture – Rudy Day

CULTURE

Rudy Day

With enough Grizzly bear encounter and hunting stories to fill a novel, Rudy Day has spent his life following his passion for being a big game guide outfitter. He has spent every year out on the land since he can remember and has professionally guided for countless clients from around the globe.

Rudy Day is a Tahltan man who is part of the Eth’eni family and the Crow Clan. His Tahltan parents are Fletcher and Doreen Day. His Tahltan grandparents are Hyland and Louise Dennis and Amy and Ira Day. Rudy has three kids, ten grandchildren and currently lives in Telegraph Creek, BC.

Rudy was born in Fort Nelson, BC in 1959 before moving to Cassiar, BC. He always wanted to work for his dad’s guide outfitting business and would help wrangle horses but had to wait until he was fourteen before his father taught him the business and the ways of the land. At fourteen, Rudy and his entire family packed up their belongings and moved to the Sheslay area to live off the land and trap for the winter. Living in tents while the kids were home schooled, the family trapped animals all winter including lynx, wolverines, and martens. They also hunted moose and created raw skin toboggans to transport the animals to the family. Rudy would continue to trap for another two seasons before guiding full time.

Tahltan knowledge is transferred through experiential learning and Rudy learned to guide from his father and other relatives by spending ample time on the land. He tracked animals including sheep, goat, moose, caribou, and Grizzly bears. He was taught to read the contours of the land to see where animals would be, how to stay safe during bad weather by not pushing it too far, and how animals would be in different regions during the year. Spending up to two full months living on the land during hunting season, Rudy guided for clients from around the world and in 1995 he took over the family business.

Without missing a season, Rudy has guided every year since he started and has years of experience in the Tahltan wilderness. He says the hardest animal to hunt is the Grizzly since they have a keen sense of smell and hearing. They are extremely dangerous to hunt but the lessons he was taught by Elders, like never approach a wounded bear straight on, instead circle around it, have helped him survive many encounters. During one trip Rudy was out with a client hunting for seven days where a Grizzly would visit the camp every night and eat their daily kills. At night, Rudy heard the bear sniffing around camp and ripping their kills from the tree until day six when they waited in the darkness for the bear and finally shot it. This is just one of Rudy’s many Grizzly bear stories.

Simply spending time on the land is Rudy’s favourite part of guiding and he says once it is in your blood it never comes out. He claims that each year will be his last, but the land calls him back every season. He is passionate about passing on his knowledge to the Youth just as his Elders and family did for him to keep the cultural tradition strong. He says you will not learn about it unless you get on the land and experience it yourself.