UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY The Role of Fur Trade Technologies in Adult Learning: A Study of Selected Inuvialuit Ancestors at Cape Krusenstern, NWT (Nunavut), Canada 1935-1947 by David Michael Button A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF EDUCATION GRADUATE DIVISION OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH CALGARY, ALBERTA August 2008 © David Button 2008 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-44376-7 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-44376-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada Abstract This thesis examines the application of fur-trade technology on the adult-learning process of five Inuvialuit ancestors who traded at Cape Krusenstern (Nuvuk), NWT (Nunavut), one of 51 Coronation Gulf-Holman trading sites operating in the contact- traditional period of 1935-1947. Cape Krusenstern Inuvialuit lived in an all-Inuit environment with their neighbours, the Inuinnait (Copper Eskimo) sharing a lifestyle focus on food, family and social connections. Living in semi-permanent family base camps near caribou-crossing areas and good fishing lakes or rivers, they used many of their ancestral Thule hunting and fishing technologies (kayak, dog team, iglu, ulu, umiak and soapstone lamp) to enjoy a subsistence lifestyle. Inuvialuit left their camps from April to October, travelling inland while caching food along the way for future needs. These journeys were characterized by the individual adult learning of subsistence living skills. Having added fur trapping to their subsistence practices in the 1920s, they set up lengthy traplines to trap predominantly white fox to trade. Abandoning their earlier aboriginal-era practice of December to March gatherings out on the sea ice at pre­ arranged meeting or "knowing" places, Inuvialuit now chose to gather at trading-mission centres for shorter periods (Christmas, Easter). Though shorter in length, the significance of such multiple family gatherings was not diminished. There under the direction of their elders', enriched by Inuvialuit orature and traditional ways of knowing (non-verbal, intuitive, present time, spatial memory, reflective and spiritual), Inuvialuit participated in both individual and communal adult learning to develop community and cultural ties. iii Customary law was informal and flexible but relied heavily on social pressure to see that people acted according to traditional customs, practices and spiritual beliefs, and maintained cooperative values. All adult learning was based on an animistic worldview and belief in the integration of spirit with the physical world. Further, adult-learning choices were shaped by the belief that life's events are influenced by ayorama, that many things "can't be helped" or changed by individual or group learning, or intervention. Through contact with the trading post managers and the selection of store goods at the time of trading their furs, Inuvialuit were exposed to the influence of the global fur- trade economy as well as new ideas and material technologies. This did not affect traditional practices. I adapted methods from the discipline of history and used the procedures of document research. I analyzed written words in primary and secondary textual sources, particularly fur-trade records, Semmler trading post records, and Inuvialuit oral histories. I used anthropological research methods to explore the role of trade technology in Inuvialuit ways of knowing during the contact-traditional era. The results reveal that in exchanging white-fox pelts for trade goods, Inuvialuit supported traditional technologies by selecting scarce Inuit-made goods (food supplies) and resources (deerskins). In accordance with their practice of adapting new material technologies to ease the challenge of Arctic subsistence living, Cape Krusenstern Inuvialuit selected new goods such as boats, schooners, clothing, tools, sewing machines and new foods such as candy and chocolate, which prompted them to undertake new adult learning experiences. Other selections that had no connection to Inuit subsistence iv living (necktie, Big Ben clock, rings) reflect a dawning awareness of the Euro-Canadian or western worldview. In summary, as a result of successful white-fox fur trapping and trading, Inuvialuit selected traditional as well as new trade goods, prompting adult learning for individual skill development and "having." Of greater importance is Inuvialuit adult learning for community and cultural ties, which (through its attention to food, family and social connections and a comfortable "don't ask, don't tell" approach) promoted Inuvialuit "being." The data acts as a segment of a much longer timeline that demonstrates the adaptation of new technologies (a symbolic integration of product and knowledge) and the emergence of an Inuvialuit common ground through the intersection of traditional and western worldviews. v Preface Our past is preserved and explained through the telling of stories and the passing of information from one generation to the next through what is called the oral tradition. Inuit recognize the importance of maintaining the oral tradition as a part of our culture and way of learning. At the same time, we realize that there are other ways to understand the past through activities such as archaeology and the study of historical documents. Both ways of knowing must now be used by Inuit and it is our elders and our schools that will provide the necessary tools. (Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, 2007, f 3) vi Acknowledgements The completion of this research would not have been possible without the kind assistance of several people to whom I would like to express my gratitude. I particularly want to thank Dr. Ted Dyke, then with Aurora Campus, Aurora College, Inuvik, N.W.T., who five years ago, at the onset of my graduate studies, took me on as a special project outside of normal college duties. His mentoring enabled me to reactivate research-writing skills that had been dormant since my undergraduate years some 39 years earlier when I completed an undergraduate thesis with the Department of Education, University of Regina, Saskatchewan. I also owe much to my MEd (2004) supervisor, Dr. Janet Groen, University of Calgary, who contributed greatly in further strengthening my critical thinking and writing skills necessary for graduate studies, but most of all rekindled in me the excitement and passion that lifelong learning brings. Lastly, I want to thank my graduate studies supervisor, Dr. Robert Stamp, professor emeritus, University of Calgary whose patience and guidance enabled me to achieve a lifelong dream. I would like to thank the people in the Faculty of Graduate Studies, and the Graduate Division of Educational Research, University of Calgary, for being leaders in the delivery of graduate studies through the Distance Education format. Through the combined efforts of your administration, staff and professors, it has been my experience that you have indeed achieved your vision of offering programs that are flexible, responsive and characterized by technological innovation. As a Distance Education graduate student, and one residing in Canada's western Arctic, my research would not have been possible without the tremendous assistance of vii library staff who, in response to my many email requests over the years, located articles or books and then promptly forwarded them to me by Canada Post. Thank you to Mark Simpson, Doucette Library, for your assistance in compiling a searchable database as well as for the construction of our research website: www.capekrusenstern.org. At the Mackimmie Library, University of Calgary, I want to extend my appreciation to the Shauna Lipton, Leslie Potter and Zaheed Bardai for being equally calm