“[In late winter] people started to move homeward, going to where they would settle down for the spring. It was a long ways going back, but it was fun, too, travelling on hard snow crust, sometimes killing some moose and more moose. Finally, the people got to the spring camp place. Everyone put their tents and made a big stage to keep the dry meat and everything else on it. How wonderful it was, plenty to eat, our own kind of food. The men would all help, cutting down timbers, splitting them, making it like lumber with an axe. Then they would lay them out to dry. The lumber they made was for a boat. The men would go out hunting for beaver. When they returned with the beaver, the skin was fixed, the beaver meat cooked, and everyone ate. In a few days, the lumber was dry, and the men started to make the boat. The moose skins with the hair removed were put in water by the shore to soak. One boat took about fourteen moose skins; some took twelve moose skins. These boats were about sixty feet [18 m] long, maybe more. It held about eight or ten families with all their belongings, and also their dogs. These moose skins were sewn together by the women. Then it was covered over the boat frame [and stitched in place]. Spruce-tree pitch and fat grease [were] mix[ed] and boiled. This was brushed on the sewing places so the boat wouldn’t leak. Dry meat and everything else was put in bags; everything was packed. Oars were made — eight of them, with four on each side. One large sweep was made for the stern. At the stern place, a little stage was made where the stern sweep was going to be tied, where one man would steer the boat. On this stage, one side was full of dry meat, and everything else was put there to eat on the way.
The boat was put in the water by the men and women. When the boat was put in, everyone was happy. Toboggans and stoves were put in the boat and then bags of dry meat, and everything else was put on top, then it was well covered. Then, the dogs were put in the boat, men, women and children; everybody was in the boat. Sometimes there were two or three boats …
Before we reached the [Peel] canyon, where the water was very swift, there a man who took care of the boat front was the boss, but the man who held the stern sweep was a bigger boss. The men who handled the oars didn’t have much to say. This was all planned out before the people reached the canyon so there would be no excitement going through this canyon. Just above the canyon, the boats would all land, women, children and dogs were put ashore to make a portage. The women had their babies on their backs, and all the dogs were loose … After climbing the big hill, the women and children got to the top and the boats are pushed out. The women and children are halfway down the other side of the hill and already the boats are landed. We could hear shooting, which meant that all was well. The women and children were all happy getting to where the boat landed. Fine meat was cooked and everybody ate, and everybody was happy that all went well and no one was hurt …
It took less than a week to reach just about sixty miles [97 km] above Fort McPherson. The moose-skin boats landed, and two young men were sent to the settlement with birchbark canoes … While the two young men were gone to the settlement, the boats went on slowly. Soon the boys were returning, and the skin boat was landed and everybody went to the shore, even the dogs, too. A fire was built, and what the boys brought back with them was tobacco, tea, cube sugar, flour and ammunition. Everybody ate cooked meat or dry meat with bone grease and bannock, drinking tea, and people who smoked enjoyed their smoke. This is about twenty miles [32 km] above Fort McPherson. Everyone got back on the boat and started off again. The men started shooting a signal [that] said, ‘We are here’. In turn, we could hear the shooting from the settlement, meaning ‘Welcome home’. The boats were tied together and landed on the shore of Fort McPherson. People came to the boat all happy to see one another again. Our friends were all happy and helped us pack our belongings to where we put our tents up. After setting up our tents and settling down, we sat with our friends, who were so happy to see us, and we were happy to see them. Right away, we gave them tea and dry meat with bone grease and, in turn, they, too, gave us nice fresh fish.”
— Christie Thompson, Teetł’it Gwich’in Elder, October 1974