Profiles by East Three ELA 30-2 Students

WORDS BY TYSON MISTAKEN-CHIEF

Naokah (Ny-O-Ka) Mistaken Chief was born on November 3rd, 1979 in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. Her parents soon moved to Yellowknife, NT, where she was raised by her parents (Les Roth and Irene Roth). Naokah had a fairly normal childhood in Yellowknife but had frequently gone on the land with her parents. She said some of those memories of her on the land were the best. From junior high to the end of high school, she played volleyball. A year after she graduated, she spent a year in Spain for college. After that, she moved to Lethbridge, Alberta to finish off her college diploma in general studies; she also got a certificate in travel, tourism, and print journalism. That is when she met my dad (Dickie Mistaken Chief)—while she was attending Lethbridge College.

A few years later, my mom had her first child, which was me (Tyson Mistaken Chief). By then she was living in Edmonton, AB, where her dad was living at the time with his new wife. 7 months later, I was born. They moved to Inuvik, NT, where they settled down to raise their child. 3 years later, she wanted another kid, so she they tried to conceive one but were unlucky. After a couple of months they decided to adopt. Lucky for Naokah, one of her distant cousins was pregnant and was unsure if she wanted to keep it. In July 2006, they were able to adopt the child, and on the 19th of July they welcomed their new baby daughter (Tatum Mistaken Chief—my sister).

After she had children, she went to work with the department of lands as a lands officer (federal) in Inuvik. Naokah was married for around 13 years from 2001 to 2014. A few years later, Lands was turned into Territorial from Federal and her pay was cut. In 2017, she was offered a transfer to Yellowknife from the Lands Department, and in mid-summer of that year she accepted the offer. By September, she and her two kids moved into her mother’s house by Great Slave Lake. The transfer was two years, but they offered an extension the summer of 2019— and she declined the offer. She was given her old job back in Inuvik and is currently working at Lands again. She is also helping me—her eldest child—as I am graduating this year.

The reason why I did an interview with my mom is because she is one of the best people I know. I think her experiences of the North are pretty interesting. She is very active— going out on the land with her parents and kids. She goes visiting with people in town as much she can. When she is in a small town with a lot of her relatives, she does the most she can to visit them. That’s one of my favourite things about my mom—she tries so much to connect with the people in the communities and with the Elders to connect herself to the land. My mother is also very loving; she is never mean unless need be. This is why I picked my mom. She is very kind and respectful I could never ask for a better mother.

WORDS BY JAMES ROGERS

Jacob Lennie was born in Inuvik on April 29th, 2002. His full name is Jacob Richard Daniel Lennie Blake. He is now seventeen and is going to East Three Secondary School. Jacob is also graduating this year. Jacob’s parents are Dan Blake and Melissa Lennie. Jacob has seven siblings by the names of: Darrien (oldest), William, Jaxson, Iona, Max, Delma, and Sam (youngest). Jacob is the second oldest after Darrien. I thought Jacob was the oldest child in the family, but apparently not—in the interview I had with him, he told me he was the middle child. His siblings ages range from four to eighteen.

Jacob has quite a few siblings. One of his biggest hobbies is hockey. He plays goalie. Jacob is the only goalie of his age, and the best, in my opinion. He just is. Another hobby Jacob is into is trucks, because he grew up working on them. He likes lots of different types of trucks, or even just vehicles for that matter. He told me that he wants to be a heavy-duty mechanic. Sometimes I think that’s why he likes trucks so much. It’s kind of like an exposure to what being a mechanic even is and that type of thing can really help in the future with what he wants to do. He also likes to hunt almost anything from the traditional lands.

I have a lot of respect for Jacob. I learned only now that Jacob has a lot of siblings and that he is the middle child, and I’ve known him for what has felt like the longest time (6-7 years). Jacob and I have made a lot of memories in the past couple years; it’s one of the main reasons why I chose him to do this interview with me. I know a lot of things about him—but, apparently, I didn’t know everything about him.

WORDS BY DRAYDON ALLUM

After sitting down and chatting with Cynthia, I learned that she has a very strong connection to her family. She was born in Inuvik, NT, but was raised in Tuktoyaktuk, NT with her family. She is the youngest of ten siblings; she has three brothers and seven sisters. Through her whole life, she looked up to both of her parents and her older sisters.

While growing up in Tuk, Cynthia enjoyed hanging out with her friends. They did fun activities like going sliding, and going out on the land together for school trips. While being on the land for school, they went hunting, fishing and were taught new survival skills, like putting up a tent and cleaning and cutting animals they hunted. In the summers, Cynthia would enjoy going out to summer camps where she got the chance to set nets, go hunting and play games. One year, she got to learn how to make bannock and build a fire. She remembers getting stranded at camp for one week because the weather was too bad to travel in. Cynthia believes that being young means having fun by doing whatever you want without worrying about the consequences that come along with your decisions.

WORDS BY SHALINA GULLY

My mom is Shauna Gully. When she was growing up she and all her sisters and brothers were raised on the land by my Nanuk and Daduk. At a very young age my Mom and all of her siblings were taken from the land and had to attended Residential school, she attended Residential school for six years. She doesn’t like to talk about the horrific experiences she endured while attending Residential school. After she and her sisters and brothers got out of Residential school they went whaling and continued doing all of the things they loved to do on the land. When they returned back to town for the Spring Carnival my Mom met my dad when she was eighteen and they fell in love. My dad lived in Fort Good Hope and she decided to do something life-changing. She moved to Fort Good Hope with my dad and they started a family together and got married. She lived in Fort Good Hope for 28 years before she decided she wanted a change. We now live in Tsiigehtchic just an hour away from her hometown of Inuvik.

Words by Kai Oasis Cardinal

My name Kai Oasis Cardinal. I am 17 years old and I’m getting ready for graduation from East Three Secondary School in Inuvik. I chose to interview my grandma Karen Mcdonald because I was interested in what it was like for her to be young. She is 71 years old now and it was so cool to interview her. I never took the time to talk about her life before I was born and I learned something new about her—that she had a pilot’s license when she was younger! Karen’s younger brother was very interested in flying, he ended up getting his commercial license as soon as he could, around 16. In the summer of 1969, a flying school came up here and her dad bought her pilot lessons for her birthday. She did fly a plane across the country when her flight schooling was over with her instructor to Edmonton, Alberta. It took two days to fly from Inuvik to Edmonton. In a Cessna 150, she went through Norman Wells, Rigley and overnighted in Hay River. To get a license, she had to learn a lot about weather, and about how the plane works, but she said it’s not that difficult if you have an interest in it.

I always respected her as I grew up because of the person she is; she is always nice. Now that I have learned something new about her I have even more respect for her. She’s brave and has achieved a lot in her time such as starting her and my grandfather’s business McDonald Bros Electric. That’s why I look up to her as a role model and good parent. I’m glad I had this opportunity to share her story with the readers. Doing the interview made me inspired to try and interview more of my grandparents so I can share their stories. I hope that one day my grandkids think I’m cool enough to interview when I’m old.

WORDS BY ISABELLE HENDRICK

The days were getting shorter, the nights darker. On October 16th, 2003, big sister Skye and big brother Jacob welcomed innocent, Libby Ellen Day McLeod into the world. Libby didn’t say much in our interview, but the reason I picked her is because I know so much about her already and she’s my best friend. I met Libby when I was in grade eight while she was in grade seven. We got very close very fast by hanging out nearly every day. I’ve learned that Libby is the most honest, caring and funny person ever in the days that we have hung out. The thing Libby loves about Inuvik is the scenery; on nights when the sun sets, we drive around, listen to music and just vibe to the surroundings. I also like to drive around with Libby because it’s so calming and I love just being around her. At this time in Libby’s life, the most important thing to do is to graduate, create a successful life and get a great job. What I like most about Libby is that she stands up for herself and her friends; she never lets any of her friends down. Libby also doesn’t take any negativity from anyone.

WORDS BY CAMERON WOLKI-JACOBSON

My name is Cameron Wolki-Jacobson, and I was born in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, October 9th, 2000. Growing up with my brothers, Keenen(20) and Edward(17) we always had something to do whether it be playing video games such as Super Smash Bros, Mario Party 2 and 3 for Nintendo 64, or Tiger Woods PGA Tour for PS2. If we weren’t playing video games we were outside playing baseball or at the park running around. Both my mom and my dad’s side of the family are very competitive by nature, so when we won or lost we weren’t subtle about it. In all of the fun I also ran into some complications as well, I guess you can say that there’s a price for fun. While me and my brothers were being kids and having fun there’s been things going on in the background, like having our parents split up, I think that is the hardest thing I’ve had to go through given that I’d never experienced loss at that age, and having something like that happen was a new experience that I've gradually grown accustomed to. But it’s not all bad, I feel like I have a fairly good relationship with my family, a few years ago I had the opportunity to visit my daduk in Tuk, Fred Wolki. During the visit he was telling me all about the photos of my family that he had, when they were taken, and what they were about. I grew up loving music, my family was always playing any kind of music from Metal to Country. Later I’d try playing songs, like One by Metallica or Perfect Weapon by Black Veil Brides. I didn’t really learn to play a full song until I was about seventeen years of age, the song was Hardwired by Metallica. Which I later played in front of my music class and that was more anxiety inducing than when played on stage because in the music class I was being graded on my performance. The song I played on stage was Sad But True by Metallica. My love for music started when I watched my daduk, Philip play guitar when I was younger.

WORDS BY CYNTHIA TEDDY

Charmaine Teddy was born and raised in Tuktoyaktuk. She loves to sew and teaches those important cultural skills and other activities to her children and other family members. She learned how to sew mukluks first and then taught herself how to sew parkas and mitts. As a young person, she enjoyed spending time with her family, going to Sunday school, and hanging out with her friends. More, Charmaine’s most favourite activity to do as a kid was to go fishing at her nanuk and daduk’s smokehouse, located right at the beach by their house. Along with that, Charmaine also travelled on the land to do yearly spring hunting and fishing. She would go to her Husky Lakes cabin with my parents and around that same time, they would also go to the coast where they hunt geese.

Charmaine says she believes that being a young person means being young at heart and in your soul.

I am the youngest of my ten siblings and Charmaine is the oldest, so learning about her life growing up when she was younger makes me think of how different we grew being from different generations. In this generation, we have newer technology like phones and computers, but they did not have those back when she was a kid.

INTERVIEW BY JACOB LENNIE

JL: My name is Jacob Lennie. I am interviewing James Rogers for my English 30-2 project. So James, what did you do for fun as a child?

JR: What I used to do was…I used to ride my bike with the bros, used to play grounders at the park, hide and seek in the bushes by my house. I played a lot of videos games. I used to do a lot of things growing up.

JL: Out of all the games you played as a child, which game was your favourite?

JR: There was… I’ll give you my top 3. There was Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2, there was NHL 09 and NHL 10, bro. That’s how it was. An underrated one was probably Tony Hawk.

JL: What was the most interesting thing you did so far? JR: Most interesting thing. That’s a head-scratcher. I’ve done a lot of interesting things over the years… so far I was able to go and buy myself a skidoo.

JL: So James, what is your full name?

JR: Haha—James Darren Kobe John Allen Rogers.

JL: Did any of those names come from further relatives?

JR: Oh yes. James came from my Dad; Darren also came from my Dad. James Darren was liked my Dad’s best friend. Kobe came from my brother Edward. Allen came from…I think it came from my grandmother. And Rogers was just like a family name.

JL: How many siblings did you have growing up?

JR: I’d say three.

JL: Are you able to name all of your siblings?

JR: Yes. Danielle, Edward, and Dan.

JL: What was your favourite traditional food to eat?

JR: Caribou meat. Caribou meat is my all-time favourite. Still to this day.

JL: Alright, thank you for taking time out of your day/project to sit here and talk with me, and help me with my project and interview you. Hope you have a nice day.

JR: Yes sir. Thank you.