Nimosōm takes me on a Hike

I mentioned before that nimosōm would sometimes stay with us on the reserve at the parents place during the summer. It was a beautiful summer day when he decided to go on a hike. He told me that there was an old trail he used to take to a small lake east of the reserve: “wīcīwin nosim, kiwī itohtāhitin apisci sākahikansīs, itī māna ikī kaskimohtiyān koskinikiyān.” (Come with me my grandchild, I will take you to a small lake, it is where I would go when I was young by cutting across).

So, it was set, we would be on foot and we were actually out to look for ptarmigans and partridges. He had a single-shot .22 caliber gun and I used a straight-bow and carried 5 store bought arrows. At this point, I had only shot small spring birds to make flour soup and missed many more squirrels (which brought in $1 a piece during trapping season). During the winter before, I had gone out on my own and hunted down a partridge which I just kept on missing, it was very disheartening.

About 15-20 minutes into our trip, we came across an old bear snare that was rusted and deserted to hang precariously on a log. He mentioned a name of the person who may have left it there and how they were so inept at looking after their snares. “tāpwī īsa ikī kakīpatiso awa kākī tāpwakwīt, nītha wītha nika tāpakōmoha maskwa.” (This person that set the snare was so stupid, I would have snared the bear).

As we got deeper into the woods, we came upon a group of ptarmigans. Nimosōm flashed his big smile, “watch out pithīw, watch out.” He went sneaking up on them and I heard a shot, bang! He got one of them, “mitoni īniyānanicik” (There is five of them). He managed to kill four of them and I got one right through the neck, it was such a proud moment for me.

After our kills, we did end up walking to the small lake. We sat and admired the view from afar as there was much marshland. We had our rest and we went back home. I hope to go back there this summer with my son.

paskisikan – gun

pithīw – ptarmigan

nimosōm  – my grandfather