Dukesachin - "He Sleeps With Giant Animals" (Told to Robin Ridington by Tommy Attachie) This is the story of Dukesachin. People from all over; Doig, Blueberry, Prophet River, have told this story. Makenachin, Old Man Aku, Jack Aku, Charlie Yahey, Albert Askoty, grandma Nachin, each one told the story a little differently but nobody said it was wrong. They didn't tell it exactly the same way, but by the meaning, they were all the same. My grandma's story is true. How do they know these stories? Grandma told me about how she learned her stories. She never knew her mom. Other people raised her. When she was a girl, somebody else raised her. When she was young she married old Appan. She said, "Appan showed me everything in the bush. How to trap. He knew about everything, stories too, Appan's stories." Grandma learned from that. That's why grandma said, "I know all these stories, good stories, from my husband." My grandma told me, "My mom never raised me but I learned from other people," whoever raised her. Dukesachin was from somewhere up in the mountains, near where the Halfway River people live, but he went to Milligan Creek and married into the Tsipidanne band. He was there when people from High Level came to attack the Tsipidanne, but Dukesachin, never had to kill them. He just stopped them with his power. He knew that big animal, Onli Nachi. That was how he got powerful. Nobody could kill him, Dukesachin, but he didn't want to kill anybody. Onli Nachi gave Dukesachin power. Onli Nachi told Dukesachin to stretch out his hand on like this. The giant animal jumped and counted his fingers. He counted to ten and then he moved back one. "That is how long you will live," he told him. "You will live be ninety years old. Nothing will hurt you. Nobody will hurt you. You are going to die in old age," he told him. "Anyone who tries to beat you will have to beat me too. Nothing will harm you," he told him that. Those people from High Level wanted to go and fight the the muskeg people. One of them told lies about Dukesachin. The person who told those lies was his nephew, Wayaazi. His name was Wayaazi. He was from over there, High Level people. They wanted to kill these Milligan Creek (Muskeg) people. Wayaazi came over to where the Muskeg people were. Dukesachin was sleeping up there. From his dream, he knew they were coming to his country. He dreamed they were coming. Dukesachin told his wife, "I am going to meet them. Let's go." So he went right straight toward where they were coming from. Some guys went with him. He met them over there. Dukesachin told his wife, "Make a fire here. Cook something." He kept going, and he saw big snowshoes tracks in there. He turned around and went back. That was Waayazi. His name was Waayazi. He was Dukesachin nephew. He wanted to kill all the muskeg people. A whole bunch of his people came with him, too. He was going to kill the muskeg people. Dukesachin, dreamed about it. His power told him, "You go meet them." He saw the snowshoes tracks there and he turned back. He came back to his wife and said, "I saw their snowshoe tracks." They went back to their camp. "Tomorrow we are going to go to their next camp," he told her. In the morning after they ate, they went over to where he saw the snowshoe tracks turn. They saw a whole bunch of tipis. "One time I camped there with Wayaazi, my nephew" he said. He met him there. Wayaazi came out from his camp. He shook hands with Dukesachin. Dukesachin shook his hand really hard. He squeezed his hand like this. Wayaazi asked him, "How come you squeeze my hand like that? Pretty mean." Dukesachin told him, "You come here with all those guys. Maybe you're going to kill me. That's why you brought all those guys. Do you think I'm going to shake hands with you easy?" They stood together right there and talked to each other. Dukesachin said, "There are lots of people over there in High Level, Fort Vermillion. You just came up here with all your guys. You're not a man. You came up here like a lady. You think you're tough over there, but when you you come up here, you come like a lady. You talk like that to me," Dukesachin told him. After that, Wayaazi quieted down. The next morning, he and his people wanted to go back to High Level. Dukesachin was too powerful. Lot of guys knew him. They knew about his power, so they wanted to go back. They started to move back there. They went with Wayaazi. Dukesachin told him, "You're going to go where you said there are lots of people. You can talk big up there." Then Dukesachin told him, "I can go back with you." Wayaazi said, "You see my snowshoe tracks? Big showshoe tracks. I wonder what you think. You must have got scared." Dukesachin answered, "Oh, those showshoes, you wife braided them for you. You think I'm going to get scared of those? I slept with Onli Nachi. Every night I sleep with that one. I'm never scared." He told Wayaazi's people that. Those guys were scared of that power, so they started to move back with Wayaazi, to go home. Some of them, they talked to each other about beating him. "If we let him go back with us over there, something might happen. If people try to do something to him, he's going to clean us out. He's too powerful. What can we do. He's not going to go up there with us," they told each other. That one guy from High Level thought he had a lot of power. Dukesachin told him, "Sit down." He sat down. Dukesachin said, "I can eat this kind of rock, the special rock we use to make fire. I just bite it, you know, I chew it," he said. He had his own power rock and that man had one too. Dukesachin gave his own rock to the man who thought he had more power.. "Here," he said. " I'm looking right at you. Try this while I am looking at you." Dukesachin said, "If you bite that rock, it will go inside and kill you," but that guy was scared to try it. So Wayaazi sent three guys to Fort Vermillion where the store is. They got tobacco and all that other stuff; bullets, you know, everything, powder. They brought back lots of stuff. Three people went up there. When they got back at night, they called Dukesachin; "Come up here. See what we got for you. Tobacco, lots, everything stuff, here. From here you can go home, you know, then we will go home." So he believed in what they told him, too. "OK, but I'm going to go over there soon as ice has broken up. I'm going to go down to check fur prices, over there," he told them. But when they got back up to the trading post they made a different story. They told people at Fort Vermillion that Dukesachin had told them, "Wait till I get up there. I'm going to finish you guys". Those people made up a story about him. When the ice started to break up Dukesachin headed to the trading post. When he got to Fort Vermillion, the people there had set up their guns on the top the hills on both sides. Wayaazi had told them lies about him. That's why they had their guns pointed at him. Dukesachin came into their area anyway. He just looked at all those guns and their powder all got wet; couldn't fire. He was so powerful all those guns never went off. The bullets never left their guns. So he got out safely. He had an axe and a knife at his side. When he went in there, people just ran away. He got to the trading post at Fort Vermilion. Dukesachin talked to the traders. He told them, "Those guys told lies. I just want to sell my furs up there in my own country." He was heading back up to his country. He told them, "I want my store to be at Gata Kwon (Spruce Tree Camp, Fort St. John), my side of the river this time." The trader said, "Everything you say is going to happen." So next time they put the store on this side, not across. Before that, they made the first post on the south side of the river. Indians had a hard time to go across. "This time," he told them, I want the store on my side." That's what Dukesachin told them, and that's what happened. He didn't want to kill the people there. He just did everything right. That's why their guns wouldn't fire. That's Dukesachin story. |