My term at Norway House was a different
kind of adventure from my previous teaching experiences.
The dock and lake behind the school.
It was a no-frills operation: no indoor plumbing,
just two outhouses high on a windy slope overlooking
the centre.
The wind whipped the door open as soon as you
sat down
unless you used one hand to keep it shut with
a handy loop of rope that substituted for a latch.
Aah, the good old days!
But we took it all in stride, mud up to our knees
and all.
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When the indoor plumbing froze up at the STP
centre
we had to go outside. For a while there was an outhouse, but when the snow thawed a small ice lake formed in front of the facility. Dressed appropriately in my high rubber boots,
A sink hole had formed at the bottom of “Lake
Westfall,”
Perhaps it is still there, reappearing every spring.
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Rossville School
It all looks so different today,
thanks to paved roads and indoor plumbing almost
everywhere.
Bobby Clarke
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The Sasquatch industry has revved up a little in Norway House thanks to ongoing and recent media coverage. There are numerous websites devoted to all things Bigfoot. Some people are trying to make a little industry of what appears to be lacking substance! An interesting phenomenon of human behaviour. The Yukon one turned out to be a Wood bison. It should be fun, anyway. Maybe there will be cryptozoological adventure tours to the area, which could include people dressed in ape suits to startle and titillate visitors! My concern is that it could be a replacement for the authentic wihtiko stories about the cannibals who almost certainly existed here and there, as well as the psychotic individuals who believed they were actually turning into wihtikos. As the language is lost, so are too many of the pieces of folklore from the pre-European contact cultures. Some of the Media Coverage Bigfoot Sighting in Norway House: Blog and Footprint Photos: At dawn on Saturday, April 16, 2005, Bobby Clarke, a Manitoba ferryboat driver and Native of the Norway House Cree First Nation noticed something, a "big, black figure," "a massive creature" on the opposite bank of the Nelson River, about 300 meters away. Clarke videotaped what many say is a Sasquatch. Follow-up 2007 Sighting A fluke encounter with a Bigfoot has changed
a man's life.
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Oxford House ~ ELA Methods Course
Bears - Bears - Bears
These convocation photos are from 2005 and 2006.
The previous years I was away attending conferences
and presenting there.
Back to the David Westfall Project
www.hillmanweb.com/westfall
Visit All The Hillman Pukatawagan Features at:
www.Brandonu.ca/eduweb/puk
EduTech Research and Creation
by
William Hillman
Assistant Professor ~ Faculty
of Education ~ Brandon University
2007/2012
hillmanw@brandonu.ca