November, 2019
POLAR INN, 58+ Degrees North Latitude
Churchill, Manitoba, Canada
November, 2019
“You see, they took everything from us. First, they took us from our home. Our parents had no choice but to give us up, they made them give us up. Then we were sent far away to a white mans’ school. We had never been far from our lodge, our tepee, and we were scared and lonely and we cried. We had to take a train, it was our first time on a train. That was exciting. The school was far away. It took days to get there. Then at the school, they took away our clothes and we had to wash in the shower - we had never seen the rain hot like that. Then they cut off all my long hair and the braids my mama had made for me. They gave us uniforms so we all looked the same. They made us eat food we had never had before. So we got sick. And they took away our language.
’You must now speak English only,’ they told us. ‘No more of that Indian jabber.’
’You are just another dirty Goddamn Indian. Like animals! You are stupid and ugly. You are nothing. If you complain about your treatment here, no one will believe you because all Indians lie. So go ahead. Report us! You can say whatever you want. No one will believe you anyway because no one trusts you.’”
The old Cree woman sits straight in her chair. Her posture is erect and her words are delivered softly and quietly. Her tone is reportorial. There’s no rancor. There is a shadow of sadness but no anger. Only regret for things that were.
“So we were abused - physically, sexually, emotionally and spiritually. When we were returned home to our parents, we spoke a different language and the family was now broken, you see; we had been exposed to the white way so we began - most all of us - to drink beer and whiskey and smoke cigarettes.”
To get the money for the booze and cigs, they took to thieving and whoring.
The Cree woman - Georgina - continues to describe the disastrous results of the Canadian federal government’s re-education and cultural reassignment program of the 1960’s and 70’s. The government, assuredly well-intentioned but woefully misguided, was determined to force assimilation upon the Native tribes - to abolish their indigenous culture and tribal heritage and integrate them into White culture - to turn them into productive and conscientious citizens. Thankfully, the program was abolished when more enlightened thinking came to the fore in the 80’s.
Churchill, Manitoba promotes itself as the Polar Bear Capitol of the World. There are about 30,000 polar bears in the world ( spread over the Canadian, Russian and Norwegian Arctic, and Greenland), and about 1,000 of ‘em spend their summers around Churchill.
But, why? you ask. What makes Churchill ( pop. 800) special?
Well, it turns out Polar Bears, uniquely among bears, don’t hibernate
( except pregnant females, which do). Instead, they just hang out during warm months ( say June through October). They might nibble some grass or berries, but not much really; instead they subsist off the fat they stored during their time on the ice. So in summer, the bears hang out, waiting for ice to form in Hudson’s Bay. Now, pay attention here, because this is key: Churchill is located on the southwesterly shore of the Bay and because of the direction of the current and the prevailing winds ( from the Arctic North), Churchill is the first area to get ice come winter. So it’s the first place hungry bears can get out and resume hunting and feeding on their favorite quarry - seal, their dietary staple.
So Churchill has a lot of bears - so many, in fact, it’s considered to have a bear problem. Until 1982, bears freely roamed the streets and supposedly around then a citizen got mauled to death and the residents decided they better do something - anything! ( Prior to ’82, folks shot the bears - one year, in ’79, they killed 29!)
Anyway, in ’82, they built a bear jail - a concrete block house erected inside a Quonset Hut. And every summer the Conservation Officer takes the troublesome, nuisance bears - the jerks, always ‘teenage’ bears - and locks ‘em up. There are 28 holding cells and there the bears cool their heels until the ice forms and they then get released. At which time they are expected to stop being jerks and be responsible bears and go out on the ice and hunt seals and support themselves. Some do, some don’t. The Conservation Officer reports he always gets some repeat customers, some recidivist behavior.
At any rate, anywhere and everywhere you go in Churchill you are reminded to be wary and alert and to not go out alone at night. At municipal urging, vehicles are left unlocked to provide a handy refuge should a pedestrian encounter a bear, and the bars have signs telling you to get a ride - not walk! - home.
Incidentally, and a bit off subject, you can’t be accused of Grand Theft Auto in Churchill because there are no roads out of town. So the heaviest charge you face for stealing a car is joyriding.
Churchill is at 58+ degrees North latitude. The Arctic and Antarctic Circles lay at 66+ degrees N and S, respectively. And there are 69 miles in a degree, so Churchill is therefore about 550 miles south of the Arctic.
However, this place is colder than any place I’ve ever been. Sweet Jesus! Colder than a whore’s heart. Simply awful! Takes your breath away, literally. As Robert Service wrote, the cold “…stabs like the driven nail.”
A couple of years ago Jen and I were in Antartica but it was January, their summer, and the sun was high. Here, there’s barely any sun and the wind is merciless and the temps are 15 to 30 below zero ( pre wind chill). Maybe colder. Every day. All day. Since Mercury de-stabilizes at 20 below, it’s a bit academic.
However, since the bears probably aren’t going to show up at your hotel and pose for pictures, you gotta go out and find ‘em. Which involves donning endless layers, a la the Michelin Man, and climbing aboard a Polar Rover, a 50 foot diesel bus with 6 wheel drive - think an atv with wheels 5 feet high. Custom made for the tundra. Inside, behind thermal glass, the heaters blast. Blessedly.
Thus equipped, you set out. And it becomes safari-like. You drive around, looking for critters. The guide and driver spot and position the vehicle; you, ever the appreciative pilgrim, oh and ah appropriately and take pictures.
Our tour organizer is Natural Habitat, so it’s upscale - good guide and driver, food and solid lodging. It’s mid-range - between Lindblad/ NatGeo or Abercrombie & Kent and GAdventures.
On safari, timing is everything and unfortunately I got here about a week late. This year the ice formed early and the bears had mostly left the land and moved out onto the ice, their winter domain. However, on the last day, we hire a helicopter and fly to the ice and get some decent pics of the bears in their preferred environment - hunting seal on the ice floes. Very special.
So, now to address the elephant in the room. Global Warming. Climate Change. What say the guides and naturalists who are here, on the ground, and making daily observations?
They say this: Worldwide, the Polar Bear population appears stable at about 30,000 bears. Eons ago, it may have been 50,000. However, recorded history suggests 30,000 is about average.
Interestingly, though, bear tagging suggests that the average weight of the bears may be declining, and it’s theorized that shorter winters ( less ice time = lower intake of fatty seal blubber) leads to a smaller animal at maturity. At present, this is anecdotal and speculative. When it comes to monitoring Polar Bears, the almost incomprehensibly vast and inhospitable terrain they inhabit inhibits data collection. Plus, dead bears sink, so postmortems are rare.
All right. That’s it. Hope this finds you well. I’ve now told you what I’m up to. What about you? Send news. If none, rumor will suffice.
Lou
A Telling Pic - 35 Below Zero!
