My Summer in Deer Lake First Nation

See that picture of Hollywood? That’s where I spent my summer.

No, it’s not in California, and no, it’s not a place where movie stars generally hang out. This picture was taken in Deer Lake, Ontario (photo credit:http://firstnation.ca/deer-lake-first-nation), and it’s way cooler than California could ever be.

Literally. Heh-heh. Spend a winter in Deer Lake if you want to experience some real weather.

Deer Lake First Nation is an Oji-cree community with a membership of about 1100 people. (On-reserve population is somewhat less.) I was told that “Deer Lake” would have been better translated from the native language as “Caribou Lake.” Hundreds of caribou used to migrate through this area. Sometimes caribou still pass through, but in less abundance.

Deer Lake is a fly-in community, meaning that it is accessible only by air for most of the year. For a brief 1-2 winter months, Deer Lakers are able to drive out on the ice roads plowed across ice and land between the northern communities and Winnipeg.

My partner, Laura, and I, flew into Deer Lake July 1st, on Canada Day. Here we are:

And here is our plane:

What did we do all summer in Deer Lake?

Well, we hung out with kids. A lot.

We taught Bible school, participated in tent meetings, made new friends, went fishing.

Oh, yeah, and when the motor died we paddled back to shore. Since we only had one paddle, a stick, and a fish net, that took a while.

On our first, more successful fishing trip, though, Laura and I and our fishing partner caught 17 walleye in 20 minutes. Fishing in the north is tops!

We hosted a couple of teen girl nights and got to know some of Deer Lake’s teens. They turned out to be a lot of fun:

We learned to love bannock, which is a simple bread that can be baked or fried, eaten with jelly or raisins or fish or wrapped around wieners to make bannock dogs. We also had the privilege of trying smoked moose meat with lard. It was delicious!

We went swimming, did some baking and salad making, held a couple of Bible studies and three book sales, and played many games of Dutch Blitz. Once we played after the electricity went out, by the swinging light of a flashlight-and-shoelace chandelier. This picture looks like it was taken in daylight, but that’s only because of my camera’s flash.