Edward Blondin
Edward Blondin | |
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Born | |
Occupation(s) | shaman, hunter, surveyor, lumberjack |
Spouse | Eliza Blondin[2] |
Edward Blondin was a member of the Sahtu Dene First Nation, who played a prominent role in the industrial development of Canada's north.[3][4][5][6] CBC News quotes one of his descendants describing how it was Blondin who first drew the attention of developers to the oil reserves at Tulita, on the Mackenzie River.[7] This deposit was to play an important role in the building of the Alaska Highway. Blondin was one of the guides who found a route for the Canol pipeline that supplied the teams constructing the Alaska Highway with gas from Tulita.[8][9]
Blondin also played a role in the development of the Eldorado Mine, at Port Radium.[10]
In his 2006 book Trail of the Spirit: The Mysteries of Medicine Power Revealed, George Blondin, one of his descendants, wrote that Blondin acquired shaman skills from his own father.[11]
In her 1996 book The Cultural Politics of Fur Julia Emberley quotes Blondin's son George's description of how his father found laws restricting trapping, passed in 1930s, affected the Dene following their traditional lifestyle.[12]
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Edward Blondin and Jean Baptiste supply Port Radium with fresh meat.
References
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George Blondin (1990). "When the world was new: stories of the Sahtú Dene". Outcrop, the Northern Publishers. ISBN 9781919315218. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
Oral history in book form, covering five generations of the Blondin family of Fort Franklin.
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Laura Tutcho. "Ets'ulah: Eliza Blondin's Story" (PDF). University of Victoria. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
The late Eliza Blondin was from Délı̨ne (for a time known as 'Fort Franklin'). She was 88 years old when she passed on in 1993. She was married to the late Edward Blondin.
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"Bulletin of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, Issues 69-77". Fisheries Research Board of Canada. 1946. p. 43. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
For 215 winter days the dogs are fed twice as much per day as in the summer, so that approximately 900,000 pounds are needed. In addition there is a quantity used for human food which we are able to estimate from figures given us by Edward Blondin.
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Russell Alderson McKenzie (1946). "The Haddock Fishery of Grounds Fished by Canadians". Fisheries Research Board of Canada. p. 40. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
Edward Blondin told us that one year he caught in this manner and dried 150 bales of "bluefish" (grayling): one bale contains from 100 to 150 fish.
- ^ Liza Piper (2010). The Industrial Transformation of Subarctic Canada. UBC Press. pp. 40, 173, 335. ISBN 9780774858625. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
- ^ Johnny Neyelle (2017). Alana Fletcher; Morris Neyelle (eds.). The Man Who Lived with a Giant: Stories from Johnny Neyelle, Dene Elder. University of Alberta. ISBN 9781772124088. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
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"Imperial Oil forced us out, family says". CBC News. 2010-12-20. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
His grandfather, Edward Blondin, knew oil was valuable and took a pail of it to Bishop Gabriel Breynat at Tulita, then known as Fort Norman. "That was presented to Bishop Gabriel Breynat, on the assumption that anything ever happens concerning the oil, he will be well looked after," Joe Blondin said.
- ^ Gwyneth Hoyle (2007). "The Northern Horizons of Guy Blanchet: Intrepid Surveyor, 1884-1966". Dundurn Press. p. 174. ISBN 9781770702929. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
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Aldene H. Meis Mason; Leo-Paul Dana; Robert B. Anderson (2012). "Getting ready for oil and gas development in Canada's Northwest Territories: aboriginal entrepreneurship and economic development". International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business. 16 (3): 251. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
The Sahtu discussed previous experiences with building pipelines in their settlement area – the CANOL in the 1940s and the Enbridge pipeline in the mid 1980s... Fred Andrew, an experienced Dene hunter, and Edward Blondin and his son George, both Sahtu, were hired to guide the surveyors and work crews.
- ^ "If only we had known: the history of Port Radium as told by the Sahtúot'ine". Deline Uranium Team. 2005. pp. 38, 66, 122. ISBN 9780973772708. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
- ^ George Blondin (2006). "Trail of the Spirit: The Mysteries of Medicine Power Revealed". NeWest Press. pp. 51, 54. ISBN 9781897126080. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
- ^ Julia Emberley (1997). "The Cultural Politics of Fur". Cornell University Press. p. 196. ISBN 9780801484049. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
External links
[edit] Media related to Edward Blondin at Wikimedia Commons