Well lets see if I can answer some of your comments.
1. FAK If that means 1st aid then we don't bother generally. If we need things for cuts we can use what the forest provides. We have a root we mash up = I don't know English name which we use to stop bleeding. But we rarely get cut anyhow and only small nicks. For us we live here and the surroundings are a part of our lives. Just like the cities and towns are like home to you. I guess you guys don't carry a 1st aid for going in the towns and cities or if you go for a short walk in the fields and woods? Same here.
That's a nice idea upto a point. On a large enough wound, having a couple of large dressings you could apply are going to speed things up and increase chance of survival. That said, with no means of communicating with the outside world, a big enough injury will be fatal, where as others who can call in help, might survive...
2.we might carry rope on some trips but not on rivers where we use poles for going up swifts against the currents. Our shelters are made from poles cut from the forest a bit like tipi, covered with canvas and poles are used to hold it down. Same we we sometimes have used bark for shelter. No nails in old times so all held down by poles on outside. But if we need we can always use spruce root - plenty up here.,
I figured that would be your answer.
3. My axe weights 5lb pounds. Good for everything, cutting small brush and downing lumber if needed. Less effort is needed than using a smaller axe
You mention the axe, and you mention making a bow saw, but you don't list a saw blade?
7. There are many 1st nations people who cannot swim because they were brought up above the tree line where the rivers never get warm enough to swim. PFDs are not part of our custom in the same way fishing people in England don't wear PFDs when they go out to sea in fishing boats or when you catch the ferry yet I know fishing boats sink as do ferries with lots of deaths. Its different for you guys who canoe - you do it for fun I guess and falling in is part of how you learn and have fun. Staying in the canoe is how we learn and how we like our paddling!
Yet, when we get on that ferry, there is a life jacket for every single person on that boat. They don't make you wander round with one on at all times, but if you hear 6 loud bursts on the ships horn, followed by a long blast, with the announcement "General alarm", you are instructed to move to a muster point where a member of staff hands you out a life jacket. Since the titanic, there is also a requirement to have enough life rafts and life boats for everyone on board too, so if the ferry starts to sink, you can get get on a life raft or a life boat. It's the same as when you get on an airliner, they tell you about your life jacket under your seat.
Modern fishermen, at least in the UK, tend to wear a life vest that auto inflates if they fall in. It took a while to kick in, but people have realised there's nothing macho in dying.
I have canoed and kayaked without a PFD, and it depends on the conditions as to whether I will wear one or not. If the conditions are lumpy, I will be wearing one tho. It may be enough to keep your head above the water while the cold shock kicks in, giving you vital seconds to get your self together and make for safety.
Most of our rivers are far bigger than anything in England I saw. Throw lines cannot be thrown into the middle of our rivers as they are too wide and even guided trips don't always carry these things. You'd be too long getting to the bank anyhow in a bad rapid and our rivers you can't walk on the banks as there is too much brush & fallen timber - that is why our rivers are our highways.
How big are your rivers? We have rivers that are several miles wide in places. Not everything here is tiny.
Would you consider a throw line if it was 4 of you in 2 canoes? Where rescue is not from the bank, but from the river?
'no indian ever died on a portage'. This is old saying. We don't canoe in rapids we can't paddle. We walk around them carrying canoe & luggage - this is portage, I think a French word.
8. Dewi =- We don't reject modern stuff. We use it. But only what we want and need. I've used and made bows and arrows and stuff when i was younger but I use a rifle and shotgun for getting food. Its easier and needs less skill!!! We didn't use skins for shelter. Only bark in old times and now for unplanned stays.
You may want to check your tone then, as that is not the way it comes across in your previous posts.
I guess you enjoy going out and camping. But you live in a house?? Same thing maybe but other way around.
I know you guys like making wooden spoons and using other old stuff. You like to light fires by old methods - But you buy modern kit, jackets, waterproof clothing expensive boots, knives & axes that we would not use. Are we wrong to choose what we like? Are you wrong to choose what you like?.
Ultimately if you are happy with your kit, that's what is important. It is clear you have a higher level of knowledge of the area than any of us, which allows you to make use of the forest more than we can.
I'm sorry you dismiss us. In the past we've been called many wrong names, but now we are recognised as the 1st people who set foot in our land and that is why I'm a 1st nation canadian.
Any way kit. I'll look for video of Cree folk canoeing I've seen - maybe you'd enjoy it and I'll see if I can get one of the kids to put it on here to look at.
It's your higher level of training that allows you to take less. The thing is your culture has allowed you an education many of us can only dream of. As such it is not really fair of you to mock the white man for bringing too much stuff with them, it's not our fault we don't have your education. Same as I wouldn't mock you for not knowing how to program a raspberry pi in Java...
J
