First Nation Encounter

Haines Junction, YT. Thursday.

Haines Junction is really a junction, the sign outside our motel sends travelers to the right for Fairbanks and Anchorage and straight ahead to Haines, AK. It's 9AM and most of the travelers have moved on from the Kluane Park Motel. Tomto made a run (slow walk) to the Village Bakery for a bran muffin and reports that there are good looking possibilities for packable lunches. The mountains are misted over and a heavy dew is creating droplets on my bike cover. We are in no hurry to leave, Tomto is off again to check for provisions at the amazingly well stocked General Store... therapy for his aching back, too.

Last evening we walked to the store with a lone Goldwing rider from North Dakota, Bismark, he said. If anything he is at least as old as your faithful coorespondents, but perhaps it is only the appearance of his teeth. They would have been at home in George Washington's wooden collection. He'd been to Fairbanks and was on his way back home. Reported an oil boomlet on reservations in ND and quickly made his views on racial and political topics known. We parted ways at the store. Prices are generally high here and after scoping the cost of a summer sausage, cracker and cheese dinner we opted for a light meal at the the Northern Lights Steak and Seafood restaurant. After viewing the menu we opted for salad (our camp has been light on greens) and a couple of appetizers. Also, a glass of not so good Chilean cab/merlot, our first non-camping wine of the trip. A satisfactory meal but for $50 we could have stuffed ouselves for several day on cheese and crackers.

Tomto and I are fans of the motorcycle writer Peter Egan who is a regular columnist for Cycle magazine. Tom has read his books and I check out his column from time time and especially like his travel stories. Tomto has taken to asking when faced with a lodging, entertainment, or eating question, "What would Peter Egan do?" or WWPED? Peter is a fan of all things local so after dinner we were headed back to room 7 when the WWPED? arose and we stopped by the motel bar for a nightcap. They had real draft beer here but we were unfamiliar with the brands so I asked the man next to me what he was drinking... it was a darkish brew and he informed me that it was a local 'red' brewed in Whitehorse. That brief encounter set off a chain reaction that lasted for a couple more beers and a wide range of topics.

Our bar companion is First Nation, probably later 30's or early 40's. He'd been to Ohio (as well ans most other states) in his youth as a "Dead Head", a follower of the Grateful Dead. He asked if we'd heard of a place called Buckeye Lake, he'd seen the Dead there in 1989.

He is a native of the Haines Junction area but had been adopted by a family in Ontario and grew up there. He eventually returned and is now immersed in First Nation culture. He has guided tour groups for Holland America in the summer and works as an archivest in the winter preserving recorded native oral histories, transfering older tape recordings to digital media. As beer will do, our conversations ranged to politics, touched on religion, and flirted with solutions to world problems. At some point an older man wearing a Rolls Royce baseball cap came behind the bar poured himself a beer and listened. He eventually joined in and we had a lively talk about the Iraq war, US politicians, the coming US elections, and the comparitive merits and dismerits of our respective forms of governance. The Canadians are remarably well informed about US politics and history. We, on the other hand know little of their politicians and form of government... they get CNN we only see "The Red Green Show" on PBS. Not a fair cultural exchange.

It's nearing check out time at the Kluane Park and Tomto is methofically packing his many bags so I'd best sign off. More later about oral native histories, frozen artifacts and solutions to world problems.