• Age: 6 to 8
• Grade: 1 to 3
• Reading age: 6 to 8

Maintaining the Dene storytelling tradition of passing along the teachings to their children, John Blondin relayed the story of The Old Man with the Otter Medicine as he heard it from his father, George Blondin a respected Elder and storyteller. Now written down in dual language the legend is passed on to you. Discover one small part of Dene history and the lessons that have been passed on for generations.
It is winter and the people are starving. There are no fish. They must seek the help of a medicine man to save them. The Old Man with the Otter Medicine tells of medicine power, the struggle for survival and an important part of the history and culture of the Dene people as it has been passed down through stories and legends for generations.
The multimedia CD included allows readers to hear and see the Dogrib legend in Dogrib or English on a Mac or PC computer, or insert it into a CD player to listen to the story in either language.

George Blondin is a Dene Elder who was born in 1923 in the Northwest Territories. He has been a wilderness guide, a miner, a trapper, Vice President of the Dene Nation, and in 1989 was elected chairman of the Denendah Elders Council. He now works parttime with the Dene Cultural Institution and writes articles for local newspapers. In 1990, Mr. Blondin was the recipient of the annual Ross Charles award for native journalism. He is the author of When the World Was New and Yamoria the Lawmaker.

George Blondin's profile page

John Blondin (March 6, 1960â??April 27, 1996) was a talented dancer, graphic artist and founder of a Native theatre group. Working through a museum education outreach program at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, John celebrated the Dene culture by performing stories that he had learned from his father George Blondin (1940â??2008). The Legend of Caribou Boywas one of Johnâ??s favourite stories.

John Blondin's profile page

Archie Beaverho is an accomplished painter and illustrator, whose Tłı̨chǫ Dene culture is reflected in his work. He creates paintings of spiritual activities of his people, like drum dancing, hand games, and hunting. He lives in Behchokò, Northwest Territories.

Archie Beaverho's profile page

Mary Rose Sundberg's profile page

The Old Man with the Otter Medicine

This legend is based on stories told in the oral tradition of the Dene people. The people living on the shores of a small lake realize they are not catching enough fish to sustain them through the winter, so they ask a man who has medicine power to help. He transforms into an otter, visits the depths of the lake, and kills the jackfish that are keeping the fish captive. The people soon find their nets are full. This legend teaches children about the lifestyle, culture and hardships faced by Dene living in remote regions. The text is written in both English and the Dene’s Dogrib language.

A CD-ROM of the story told in both the Weledeh dialect of the Dogrib language and English, and an orthography and pronunciation chart of the Dogrib language are included.

The Old Man with the Otter Medicine

This legend is based on stories told in the oral tradition of the Dene people. The people living on the shores of a small lake realize they are not catching enough fish to sustain them through the winter, so they ask a man who has medicine power to help. He transforms into an otter, visits the depths of the lake, and kills the jackfish that are keeping the fish captive. The people soon find their nets are full. This legend teaches children about the lifestyle, culture and hardships faced by Dene living in remote regions. The text is written in both English and the Dene’s Dogrib language.

A CD-ROM of the story told in both the Weledeh dialect of the Dogrib language and English, and an orthography and pronunciation chart of the Dogrib language are included.

Eneèko Nàmbe Ik’oo K’eèzho / The Old Man with the Otter Medicine

hc with CD/DVD

Two books from Theytus Books harken readers back to times when people crossed the Sahtu Region of the Northwest Territories without the aid of engines. The text of Ekwo Dozhia Wegondi/ The Legend of the Caribou Boy and Eneèko Nàmbe Ik’oo K’eèzho/ The Old Man with the Otter Medicine comes first in Dogrib (Weledeh dialect), followed by the English. Importantly, these stories are the only works in this list that are written and illustrated solely by Aboriginal creators. Direct communication from First Nations groups about their own culture is the best way for them to have control over selection of the messages they wish to portray and the way in which they want them to be delivered. The focus of the stories is not so much the printed text, but the importance of the Dene oral storytelling tradition. The voice of the storyteller sings through the pages. The stories were collected and told by John Blondin before his premature death in the 1990s. They are retold by his father, George Blondin (a resident of Behchoko, NWT) and translated by Mary Rose Sundberg. Each book has a CD/ DVD included and I would urge parents and educators to experience reading and listening to these stories with the children in their care. Listening was, for me, a humbling experience. The words sounded like water falling from a paddle during a quiet lake crossing.

The Legend of the Caribou Boy intimates just how closely Dene people feel to the creatures that sustain them. Members of a family “were travelling through the bush, carrying all their belongings.” After camp is set up and everyone abed, artist Ray McSwain paints the boy sleeping poorly, moaning and groaning as the green and white northern lights flicker in the midnight sky. The grandfather, “who was a Medicine Man,” is tasked with drumming his way back to the boy’s early childhood to find out what is wrong. Sadly, he returns without an answer. The boy disappears and his family trudges after his footprints. When he is found, the boy reveals that the trouble lies in his past life. What will happen once he tells his family that he was a caribou?

The main character in the other Theytus title by the same storytellers is an inter-world travelling old man with “medicine power.” In The Old Man and the Otter Medicine, a community needs to find out why there are no more fish in the lake. Before they starve, the old man uses his medicine song to transform himself into an otter. Illustrator Archie Beaverho has some clever, energetic pictures of the brown otter-man thrusting himself into the blues of magic and the lake. After one failed dive, another takes the man to the deepest cold dark water where two grey jackfish guard the entrance to a huge, weedclogged hole. Swirling around inside are the thousands and thousands of fish that the people need to survive. Can the otter free the fish?

It seems to me that for years, many stories of Aboriginal people have been far from readers, as if hidden at the bottom of a lake. Have the jackfish vanished? Are the stories now able to wriggle out? Letting these tales surface is the beginning of hearing all the voices, all the stories about this land from its oldest stewards, and we will all grow richer from it.