Who's Artifacts?

By Arlyn Charles

"The day after my interview with Jean-Luc Pilon at the Canadian Museum of History, I had a Zoom conversation with Douglas Cooper and his students in Fort McPherson.

Jean-Luc had showed me artifacts found by archeologist Scotty MacNeish in the 1950s. How would the students respond to photos of the artifacts?

This is a caribou shin bone that was split in two. The edge has been ground and polished so it has a sharp edge. We used it to remove hair from a caribou hide.

This Gwich'in shirt dates from the 1870s. The hide was scraped so it is even and supple, even now. It is beautiful, decorated with porcupine quills and willow seeds.

This arrowhead with a fine, tapering tip used by both the Gwich’in and the Inuvialuit. It is decorated with lines. Barbs on the edge keep the arrow in the animal.

These are bird bunts, with a square tip. On an arrow, they knock out a bird: a ptarmigan or partridge. They were used by children who were helping their parents to find food.

This arrowhead has a metal tip, so it dates from after contact with the south. This type of arrowhead was made by the Inuvialuit. Perhaps both groups met in McPherson.

This toy is a bone-and-pin game, made from the toe bone of a caribou. The end was cut off, hollowed out and whittled into a triangular shape. People had fun then, too!"

The photos from the museum triggered a debate with the students: Should the artifacts be kept in a museum far away? Or should they be located closer to Fort McPherson?

The staff of Chief Julius School invited Jean-Luc Pilon to visit Fort McPherson, so he and the students could explore that question together.