The Old Way North: Following the Oberholtzer-Magee Expedition

by David F. Pelly

Overview

In the spring of 1912, Anishinaabe guide Billy Magee received a letter from future conservationist Ernest Oberholtzer asking Magee to accompany him on a journey. Soon after the two set off on a five-month canoe expedition following the old way north, a largely unmapped territory that would test both their endurance and their friendship.

Tracing the route of the Oberholtzer-Magee expedition, The Old Way North transports readers through the history of this challenging wilderness and introduces them to the mapmakers, fur traders and trappers, missionaries, and Native peoples who relied on this corridor for trade and travel. Through Oberholtzer's journals along with historical records, personal interviews with Dene and Inuit, and present-day canoeing accounts, wilderness and conservation writer David Pelly reconstructs the many tales hidden in this land.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681340722
Publisher:	Minnesota Historical Society Press
Publication date:	09/01/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

David Pelly has been traveling and living in the Arctic since the late 1970s. He is the author of several articles and books on the land and its people, including Thelon: A River Sanctuary and Sacred Hunt: A Portrait of the Relationship between Seals and Inuit.

Table of Contents

Preface     ix
Acknowledgments     xv
Looking North     3
The Journey Begins     15
At the Frontier     41
Memories     69
Into the Beyond     83
Downstream at Last     97
Dene Reflections     115
Trappers' Country     123
Nu-thel-tin-tua, Qikiqtariaktuk     133
Run to the Sea     147
Arviat     159
Heading South     169
The Outside     179
Envoi     187
Selected Bibliography     189
Index     191