Response to Review of Northern Passage: Ethnography and Apprenticeship Among the Subarctic Dene

Abstract

I appreciate Leslie Main Johnson's thoughtful review of my book in Human Ecology (Leslie Main Johnson, 2002), but a response to several apparent misimpressions or misunderstandings may be in order. The first is an error of fact. The interactions between Chipewyan fishermen and Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officers occurred in Saskatchewan, not Manitoba as the reviewer reports. The northwestern Saskatchewan location of the Patuanak community of Chipewyan is indicated throughout the second part of the book. Secondly, Johnson expresses uncertainty about the purpose of my book and its intended audience. As noted in the prologue (pp. 2-3), Northern Passage is an experimental, reflexive ethnography meant to demystify the process of becoming a cultural anthropologist, on the one hand, while revealing the social and environmental realities and dilemmas of subarctic Athapaskan (Dene) hunter-fishers, on the other. My book is part of Waveland Press' series of ethnographic case studies written primarily, although not exclusively, for college anthropology students. While the book's study guide directly serves instructional needs, professional specialists and the general public are not discouraged from reading the work. Finally, Johnson desires more environmental knowledge and data analysis of the kind that readers of Human Ecology might prefer. I appreciate the reviewer's concern. Yet, I must cite my own stated goal (p. 3) of producing an interpretation of northern Athapaskan life by means of "'behind-the-scenes' accounts, the other reality beyond the formal prose of anthropological monographs and journal articles." This is a telling point. My formal analyses of