Yesterday I began reading a report that is trying to convince the government to allow ATV's use the preserve. Mostly native families for subsistence use. The report studied families in two very small villages in the NW corner of the park. There have been some very interesting interviews with the older generation of these villages. One story I would like to share with you.
There was an older man who said that in 1969 he was out in the woods and heard this engine sound. He first thought it was a plane but when he searched the sky he didn't see anything. The noise grew louder and he got scared. He was hurrying home when he saw a neighbor on a strange machine. They called them sno-gos (snowmachine). It was the first time he had seen anything like that. Up until that time all travel in the area was done by dog sled. 1969 was when sno-gos were introduced to that part of the bush. In 1969 I was nine years old and I can remember snowmobiles used every winter just for fun.
Before the sno-gos people had to hunt and fish not only for themselves but to feed the dogs too. It took an awful lot of food. When they hunted, if they happened to kill a moose it would take days to get all the meat home and then only if they were lucky that a wolf or bear didn't get the rest of the meat before they got back. Once the snowmachines arrived life greatly approved for the villages. After the snowmachine came army surplus vehicles. Jeeps and transport trucks were the way they got around. Now every household has an ATV for transportation. What a change process to live through.
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