By Dorthea CalverleyThere are not, and never were, “Indian Princesses”. The Indians would be the first to deny the romantic fiction of the white man. In the first place there was no hereditary Indian royalty or aristocracy. Even a chief’s son could be set aside in favour of a nephew or even an adopted boy… Read More

By Dorthea Calverley Women, particularly old women, played a major but too often unrecognized part in Indian life. Again and again in the writings of native people “My Grandmother” appears, and is recognized with affection and, above all, respect. Ohiyesa (Charles Eastman) who wrote the classic book Indian Boyhood devotes much time to his grandmother, Uncheeda,… Read More

Summarized by Dorthea Calverley “When a woman is going to have a baby, she goes outside to some out-of-the way place and gives birth to the baby by a brush-sheltered fire. It makes no difference whether the weather is warm or cold. After the child is born she stays by herself a month before coming back… Read More

By Dorthea Calverley In most countries, until comparatively recent times, there were no surnames. The reigning British monarch perpetuates this old custom, signing herself, “Elizabeth, R. (for Regina meaning queen)” although her family name was “Windsor” and her husband’s “Mountbatten”. Descriptive adjectives distinguished individuals. For example, the old English king “William Rufus” meant the “Red-headed or… Read More

By Dorthea Calverley The Beaver child left behind the “infant” stage sometime between two and four years of age or whenever another child arrived. At that time, he entered the world of being an individual. Up to this time the child had belonged to the mother, but he slept with his mother and father. Although he… Read More

By Dorthea Calverley Alexander Mackenzie was the first European to report about the Beaver’s bereavement-behaviour. “There being several natives in the house at this time, one of them who had received an account of the death of his father proceeded in silence to his lodge, and began to fire off his gun. As it was night,… Read More

By Dorthea Calverley These comments are based only on observations of the author. Attempts to get corroborating statements from local native people have not met with much success. What must have been one of the largest old burial places has been totally obliterated. At Dunvegan were buried not only the Indians who clustered about the post,… Read More

By Dorthea CalverleyIf Governor Simpson had been forced to go out with the trappers he might not have been so annoyed about their lack of interest in going after the kind of furs he wanted. These were mostly from underwater animals, and prime in autumn, deep winter, or spring break-up times. Trapping is incredibly hard… Read More

By Dorthea CalverleyThe weentigo [or Weetigo or Weendigo or Wendigo] was more than a sort of imaginary bogeyman with which to scare children. He or she was a cannibal, and he or she did exist among many Indian tribes. The condition seems to have been a sort of madness of which all Indians were in… Read More

By Dorthea Calverley The persistence of tradition for eight to ten thousand years is shown in the Indians’ remembrance or knowledge of the giant prehistoric beavers, buffalo and other animals, now known only as fossilized bones. It is shown in the tradition that there were “little men” in the Arctic in the “older days”. This… Read More