So Many Graves

Louis Wedawin: There are so many burials from Whatì to Behchokǫ̀, there are lots. We can see the graves by the bank of the river, on the shoreline. These are the ones we know.

Burials that are exposed can be seen but the burials that are hidden or in a hidden location, behind a small pond, in thick bushes, we don’t see and we don’t know about these graves. And we can’t identify these places. The burials that are not near traveling routes have never been seen because we only travel on trails and roads in winter and summer.

Our people have been burying people for a long time before other people. So there are graves all around our lands. Bunches here and there. Burials are scattered on the land. Since people moved around, leaving the land, we never saw anybody carrying a casket with them. They’ve always been buried.

After they buried the dead people, they have not visited and these burials have not been seen by the people. That’s why our Elders talked about not knowing where we set up tents and slept on graves. Elders said we wouldn’t know and are not aware of the gravesites.

Our ancestors said that “We don’t know if we set our tent on a grave and slept on the ground.” I’m sure that’s what our Elders meant. Those people are very true, they are right. Our fathers, grandfathers and grandmothers that lived on the land for many, many years said that. “Here is a nice clear spot, here is a nice clear spot, let us set the tent and we’ll sleep here.” They said that. So it was a clear spot, the nice spot where we got spruce trees and cut off branches on the ground. We set up the tent over the boughs and slept there. That’s how Elders talked about the ground; “It is a nice clear spot we set the tent there.”

Elders say, “There has been a grave from way back, a long time ago and we would not even know if we set the tent on a grave and slept on it.”