Elder remembers life lived on the land

Page 10

It was a very different Fort McKay when Victoria McDonald was born on August 4, 1915.

"There was no whiteman, nothing There were no stores in McKay, only in McMurray. There was a Hudson Bay Store in McMurray and every summer me and

my family went by boat down the Athabasca to McMurray to shop at the Hudson Bay.

It would take six hours to get there. We stayed in McMurray for the whole summer," she said.

When I arrived at Victoria' home, she was busy sewing a pair of moccasins. Her moccasins were carefully hand-crafted, and the beadwork was beautiful. In her spare time - when she has any - Victoria enjoys making moccasins for her friends and family.

She began talking about her life as a young girl in Fort McKay, 30 miles north of Fort McMurray.

When her family returned from Fort McMurray in early fall, her father would pick, lots of blueberries to last the family through the winter. "He would wash them, string them and hang them in front of the window to dry so we could eat them through the winter."

During the winter, if they fell short of supplies, Victoria's father would travel by horse team to Fort McMurray to get what they needed.

Her father had strong faith in sweetgrass ceremonies and sweat lodges.

"When I was young there was no sweat lodge in McKay, so my Father and my Grandfather would put rocks in the stove and put a blanket over their heads. That was their sweat lodge."

"It got hot in our house," she laughs.

In 1931, Victoria became wife to Phillip McDonald. She was 16 years old. Together they had 14 children. Four of her children died. Phillip died in 1977.

"Phillips was a good hunter, a good provider. He killed moose, beaver, mink and he caught lots of fish."

I asked Victoria if she hunted at all. She replied yes.

"I helped my husband, we went to Moose Lake and we would go into the water up to our knees. He would shoot the moose and I would skin them for him."

Victoria skinned about 18 or 20 moose in the spring. They sold a few and she used the rest of the hides to make clothes for her husband and her children. She also made dried meat for sale and for her family.

Her husband worked at many jobs. In the 1940s he worked on the steamboats for two dollars a day and later worked in the warehouse for the Hudson Bay Company. In 1966 he started working to build the road to Fort McMurray.

"He had to go away for a month and they didn't pay him much, just a little bit. He stayed by Mildred Lake but it was terrible, he couldn't fish, he tried hooks but there wasn't any fish. He couldn't even swim there. I moved my family to the lake to be close to my husband. I made him tea and cooked for him."

In addition to taking care of her husband and children, Victoria had another very important job which paid her with gratitude and satisfaction of bringing life into the world. Victoria and her sister-in-law Elise McDonald were the midwives of Fort McKay until the road was completed in 1967.

"Me and my sister used to walk a long way in 40-below weather to deliver babies...lots of babies."

Victoria couldn't keep track of all the babies she and her sister delivered, although most were success stories. They only lost a few. Victoria remembers one time when she and Elise had to deliver Elise's first grandchild.

"Elise was so scared, she cried and couldn't finish so I took over. It was a hard, difficult birth but I delivered a healthy baby boy."

Another success story Victoria remembers very well is when she delivered her nephew's daughter. It was a complicated birth and the mother almost died. To this day her nephew's daughter Dianne, who lives in Edmonton, comes to visit her when she's in Fort McKay.

"She hugs me and kisses me and tells me I saved her life, this makes me feel so good...a lot of life I gave here."

This part of Victoria's life is special to her and so it should be. Being a midwife without any education, except for the two years in the mission at Fort Chipewyan, was difficult, but Victoria and Elise managed.

The ays are still very busy for Victoria. A group of her friends in Fort McKay built her a tipi right beside her home so she can dry moose meat and makes pemmican. Victoria also cooks for friends and her family.