Febuary 13th Arctic Doug Tells More!

Hi Everyone!

Today part of our crew departed-the producer Rob and I will be staying to continue filming b-roll, etc. We will be based out of Inuvic for the rest of the trip, although we may overnite in Tuk one or two nights.

Excellent question Manuela! If you forget to cut an airhole you would likely suffocate, as snow is an excellent insulator. As for forgetting your knife outside, you would be able to kick through the wall and escape. I’m told that it takes 1 hour to build a “camping” igloo, like the one James built. It will last all winter but in those first few hours the snow is soft enough to break through.

We were able to get James’ dogs out for a run. Here they are.


We have had the opportunity to try some interesting foods, including Musk-Ox soup, Caribou soup, Cloud berries(also known as salmon berries for their color), dried whitefish, and muktuk. The Muktuk is the outer skin and blubber from a beluga whale and is highly prized by the Inuit. I’m told a beluga whale will feed a family through the winter (in addition to their other harvests, including Caribou, geese, and fish). It is extremely high in fat, which the people need to stay warm, and is supposedly loaded with vitamins that can be difficult to attain in the winter months. The skin has lots of vitamin D for example. Eighty percent of the food James and his family eat comes from the land. This is not so with the younger generations and many problems have been noticed, including a severe spike in diabetes.


Yesterday we met Sam Leddie, another Inuit Elder. Like many Elders, he is a wealth of information about the old days. If you are lucky enough to have grandparents make sure to show them good respect and learn as much as you can from them!


Sam and his wife Mary Anne spend much of their time living at their “camp”, which is a beautiful little cabin right along the Mackenzie River. They travel by snow machine, collect big chunks of ice which they melt down for drinking water, and live off the land. Sam also makes jiggling fishing poles. The wood is from the willow, and the lure is a carved tip of Musk-Ox horn. Here is one that he was working on:

After using his took to chop a hole through the 2 foot thick ice, we pulled up three large Pikes!