The story your about to read is true. It happened to my sisters and me, when we were very young. My older sister was a year older than I, my younger siblings, and two of which were toddlers and the baby, she was a year older or younger. My family and I came to Pukatawagan for a visit, we stayed at a friend of our parents and they stayed in the outskirts of the reserve. The house we stayed at had two bedrooms; to one side there was a big open area containing the kitchen, woodstove, and living. The house had a front door and a back door. The front door had a sliding lock; the back door had to be locked with a butter knife, a screwdriver, and two big latches. Nobody used the back door.I’m going to write about that night the way I remember it. The evening started off as our parents were out on a drinking binge with their friends, and left to go continuing drinking somewhere else. We were left with our two older siblings, but they wanted to go somewhere else too. They figured that my sister, who was two years older than I could look after our younger sibling and ourselves. My older brother and my cousin handed me a hatchet and told me, if an intruder came to disturb us, that I should use it on the intruder, and then they left.
As it was getting dark out, the younger siblings, who were toddlers kept pointing at the windows in the room and saying, moo-moo." So I covered all the windows. Earlier that evening my father’s friend cooked fish heads and fish parts in a pot, and left it by the stove. My sisters didn’t want to eat it, so before we went to bed, my older sister and I made porridge for our younger sibling.
In the big open area there was a kerosene lamp hanging from the ceiling, which we lighted and went to bed. The bedrooms didn’t have light, except for candles. But we left the door slightly ajar to let the light in. As the night set in we all went to bed. During the might my sister and I heard someone scurrying around outside the house, then it was quiet for awhile, then all of a sudden heard a loud crash! Someone had broken in through the back door. My older sister and I were the only ones awoken by the crash, thankfully our younger siblings stayed asleep. My older sister held the youngest sibling so she wouldn’t cry or get up. I got up from the bed and crept to my sister, she handed me the hatchet. I could just see the fear I her eyes ad I was damn scared myself. It was dark in the room except for the stream of light coming from the lamp and the door slightly ajar, casted a light on the far wall form us. I stood behind the door with hatchet in hand. My sister looked at me and I looked at her.
We heard the person rummaging through the cupboards and drawers in the kitchen. We heard it eating the fish in the pot; it made slurping sounds as it ate the fish. We could hear the person breathe real heavily, hear it walk around, (it sounded like a dog would sound when it walks on the floor) and we could smell the person, it reminded me of something old, rotten, and moldy. After it finished eating the fish we heard it going into the next room and rummaged around, then it came out of the other room. By this time my sister and I were really scared, I was just sweating. The person was walking toward the room in which we were in. We heard its footsteps coming closer and closer. Then we saw its silhouette on the wall form across the room from us. It looked like scary, its hair was tangled all over the place, and it’s clothing looked in tatters. Just as it got to the doorway, the baby stirred and made a noise, my sister held her close, covered her head, and closed her eyes. I raised the hatchet getting ready to strike.
Just as the person was at the door and about to enter the bedroom, my sister and I heard the most beautiful sound in the world (at that moment), my father’s kung-fu yell from outside the house. The person stopped and ran out the back door. Our parents and their friends banged on the front door to be let in. I ran to the door and unlocked it and let them in. They were pretty inebriated, I ran to the back door to relock it, but it was badly broken, and it was hard to lock again. My sister and I informed our parents and their friends, what happened. They didn’t believe us. No one believed us, everyone thought it was just our imagination, telling tall tales. When I got older and read about the wentigo, it reminded me of the person that broke into the house that evening. Mind you, my sister and I didn’t actually see the person we heard, we just smelled and seen its silhouette. And that was enough to scare the hell out my sister and I. Thankfully, our youngest sibling doesn’t remember that night, just my older sister and I know and remember.
Life as it was on a northern reserve The first time I came to a northern reserve in the late 70’s. I was in for a big life style change. As a child growing up in a town I was used to running water from a tap, indoor plumbing, and indoor heating. When I got to the reserve, I had to adjust very quickly in order to survive. The local housing on the reserve didn’t have any running water, indoor plumbing, or indoor heating. Water was drawn from the river, for drinking and cooking. To use the washroom you had to go to the outhouse or a waste pail (a.k.a slop pail) was used. And a wood stove was used for heating and cooking. In those days you had to do your chores and everyone in the house hold had chores to do everyday. The heavy chores like hauling water, getting and cutting wood were done by the males who also did the hunting. The females did the cleaning, cooking, mending, and washing. The head of the household were the parents and you had to follow orders or face disciplinary action. While life on the reserve in those days was hard, you developed a strong bond with the people around you; they depended on you and you depended on them. Since those days, the reserve has acquired the convenience of modern housing, which give the youth of today more leisure time than I had when I first came to a northern reserve.