Bessie Adams, Year of Birth: 1933
What about the reserve? Where did you live?
Right down the hill where Joe Napish lived. A long time ago they built him a house in Aubrey. After they finished fighting in the war. He was let go, but they still got a house.
When did people start to arrive on the reserve?
I can really remember a long time ago. They always talked about people on Eagle Lake. My grandfather had a store. The Hudson Bay post. I guess the white people used to stop there and pick up fur and tools, shells, gunpowder. They made their own shells.
Who were the families then living here on Eagle Lake?
As far as I can remember, my grandfather, Jack Indian. His Indian name was Sore Chest. Frank Indian and us Adams and I can remember the Kavanaugh’s arriving. They arrived here a long time ago. The old man Kavanaugh brought a young woman down. They had a little boy. Oh, Tom Napish was another one. The Reserve at that time I heard that it was split into two reserves. Half was the Wabigoon Lake #27 and Eagle Lake #27.
Where did you live when you were a little girl?
Down the hill where the spring is, where my grandfather lived and us too and the Skys and Indians (last name). Right where the healthy house is today. (Catching herself talking English). Right there is where they built a house. That’s where Albert Kavanaugh lived. There was a great big house there. Sky’s old house; there was another place, Napish, then Pitchenese. Pitchenese was given a nice big house. They gave it to him after the First World War.
Did they build their own homes?
They always gave big new houses. There was another big house. I don’t know where, somewhere to the west. I guess that was the one that got taken by Albert Kavanaugh, down by the beach. He and his wife lived there for a long time.
What did the houses look like? Were the houses built with rooms like they are now?
They were one big room, no bedrooms. Take for instance, ours had a great big kitchen.
How many families in one house and relatives?
Look at us when we lived over there, we had woodcutters staying with us. Sometime there were four of them that came to live with us. And maybe that’s why everybody got sick – living together.
When you were living on the reserve, how did you go to get your groceries?
Over here, they used dog sleds. There were no roads. The road we have now was a horse trail. The portage now going to Aubrey, it was a horse trail. My grandfather Alex Singleton, Frank Indian and Jenny Indian. They gathered together and rode together. Nobody had a car then that I can remember.
When a moose was killed, did they share with other families?
Yes, that’s what they did. They shared the moose they also shared the skinning. Sometimes in the evening, there would be two of them. They would go out in the evening and come back at night and have their kill.
They drove the animals out for the hunters to get them. The woman did all the skinning and cutting up, so everyone got an equal share. That was the same thing with the fish when they set the net. That’s what they did a long time ago – they shared everything.