Topic: Aunt Emmaline's feet (long long)
Aunt Emmaline's feet (long long)
When I was a small child we had no TV and if it was really nasty outside and we couldn't go out to play or it was too dark, we were to sit quietly in the house. Boring when you are young. Mom always sat and either sewed or knitted after supper and I'd often sit at her feet and try to knit or talk to her. I'd often say. "Mom, tell me a story of the old days" and that was how the evenings often started. This is the story of Aunt Emmaline's feet. Not sure it belongs in this section but it does have dogs in it so here goes:
When I was young, Aunt Emmaline was an old lady and she walked with an unusual gait,limp. I asked Mom on this particular night why she was lame. This is the story:
Years and years ago when Uncle Far and Aunt Emmaline were first married they lived with her parents as most young couples did back then. When Uncle Far went to go into his trapline after Christmas , they decided she would go with him because they had no kids and no reason for her to stay home. Women very seldom went with their husbands because there was so much to do at home.
Back then using a dog team the trapline was often a 3 or 4 day walk from home and the trappers were gone 2 to 4 months at a time. They woyuld either make a lean to for the night to sleep or if they were near another trappers tilt (cabin) they were welcomed there for the night.
So they set off together. They packed the sled and harnessed up the 3 dog team and of they went. The people did not ride on the sleds. The sleds were used to haul the provisions needed to be away for a long time. Not really a lot of supplies but they would have to haul home maybe a couple hundred pounds of pelts.Some men had 3 dogs and some had 5 dogs. Not big teams and of course many reasons for that.
Once on the trapline Uncle Far would go daily to check the traps taking the dogs with him and Aunt Emmaline would gather wood, water and do whatever in the tilt. This one day everything was as usual. Uncle Far was out to the traps and she went to get wood. She had gone about a mile or so from the tilt and out of nowhere a blizzard blew up. She was lost not knowing where exactly the tilt was in the blowing snow, she quickly lost sight of any signs she knew to get back to the tilt.
Uncle Far got back to the tilt almost dark and found the stove out and cold so he knew she had been gone awhile. He was worried. No sense in him going out in a storm not knowing which way she even went. He had not fed the dogs yet and they were hungry and wanting food. (dogs were always fed at the end of the day) He went out and turned the 3 dogs loose and with a whip chased them away from the tilt. They didn't want to leave because they were hungry. Uncle Far knew they would smell Aunt Emmaline and hopefully bring her home and get fed.
Sure enough once he drove them away from the tilt they were not long finding Aunt Emmaline and with their guidece she got back to the tilt in the storm. Uncle far had the fire going and food cooked for her and the dogs food ready.
This should be the end of a good story but it is not. Aunt Emmaline had frozen both of her feet while she was lost. Her deerskin moccisins had gotten wet and she had froze all of her toes and one foot quite badly. She sat up all night and rocked with pain. Next day the storm was still blowing and she was too ill to start the 4 day trek back to the village. 2 more days passed. By now she was sick. Uncle Joey stopped by on his way to his trapline. He saw the shape she was in and Uncle Far and Uncle Joey were at a loss what to do with her. Her feet were starting to become infected and looking bad.
They took her outside to the choping block and packed her feet in snow to numb them and chopped off her toes an one foot and chopped the other foot off. They stuck her feet in a bucket of wood ashes and then stuck them into a barrel of flour. She passed out thankfully but still when she awoke there was no pain medication. After a few more days she begasn to get better and Uncle Joey went on to his trapline and promised to come back in a week and if she was still alive, they would take her back together.
They could not take her back right then because the wound was still not well enough closed to move her too much and all the shaking and bouncing around would open it all back up.
In a week Uncle Joey brought back his dogteam and harnessed both teams together and loaded Aunt Emmaline onto the sled. They got back home in 4 days. A month later when the doctor came around, he said they had done the right thing. If they did not chop off her feet, she would have died.
This happened when she was around 19 or 20 years old. She went on to have 8 children and lived to be 91 years old.
Needless to say I listened to this story spellbound. But these are the kinds of stories my mother told. I left out a lot of this story becaus eit would take all day to type it all out and people would get bored reading it.
It was a true story becaus eafter I got older I heard it from Grandmother as well. Uncle Roll told it to me too many years later.
Please please, if you do not want to hear these stories, tell me. I will not be offended.
Last edited by inuit; 06-29-2010 at 11:14 AM..
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