The Man Who Lived with a Giant: Stories from Johnny Neyelle, Dene Elder ed. by Alana Fletcher and Morris Neyelle

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Man Who Lived with a Giant: Stories from Johnny Neyelle, Dene Elder ed. by Alana Fletcher and Morris Neyelle Glen Sean Coulthard (bio) The Man Who Lived with a Giant: Stories from Johnny Neyelle, Dene Elder edited by Alana Fletcher and Morris Neyelle University of Alberta Press, 2019 THE MAN WHO LIVED WITH A GIANT is a classic example of master storytelling in the tradition of late Dene Elders George Blondin (When the World Was New, Yamoria the Lawmaker, and Trail of the Spirit) and John Tetso (Trapping Is My Life). Skillfully edited by researcher Alana Fletcher in collaboration with Johnny Neyelle's son, Morris Neyelle, the book represents a lifetime of stories shared with his family by an Elder who lived through the transition from a self-reliant "way of life" on the land to one that became increasingly influenced by colonial dependency, missionary belligerence, and white encroachment in the latter half of the twentieth century. Recognizing the historical, cultural, and philosophical significance of his father's teachings, Morris began to first record and then painstakingly transcribe and translate his dad's stories in the 1980s. While completing her fieldwork in the Sahtu Dene community of Deline in 2014, Dr. Fletcher was recruited by Morris to help compile the stories into publishable form. The Man Who Lived with a Giant is the result of the web of working relationships that ensued. "[Like] any oral history collection," the editors write, "[this book] is the product of many important relationships: the relationship of the stories to all Sahtu Dene people, past and present; that of the storyteller and his son; the relationship of the two editors; and those among the editors and the support network that help make this book a reality" (vii). The book itself is structured into two parts, "Sacred and Traditional Stories" followed by "Oral Histories from the Life of Johnny Neyelle," bookended by a preface and introduction on the front end and an epilogue, afterword, genealogy, and glossary of North Slavey words on the back end. The first section draws from oral histories that depict "distant time" stories—what some have called "floating time"—representing a period in Dene history and cosmology when spiritually powerful humans and other-than human animals lived and communicated with one another on the land, sometimes in conflict and sometimes in harmony, learning and laboring together to better enable the mutual well-being of all over time. A classic figure in these [End Page 172] stories is that of Yamoria, known in many Dene regions as the "lawmaker," who traveled the world dedicated to establishing the laws that would best facilitate the Dene and animals sustainably living together in peace and reciprocity. Yamoria, like many other characters in these stories, existed at a time when the "world was new," prior to the rapid transformations that would be brought on by colonial development and eventual settlement. The second part deals with stories of life on the land. These stories follow Johnny Neyelle himself—an incredibly knowledgeable and skilled hunter, fisherman, craftsman, and musician—through his important experiences living a fulfilled but challenging life of unalienated labor harvesting the renewable resources that Creation provided. To my mind, the significance of this collection of stories registers on two interrelated levels. First, as someone who regularly works with Dene Elders in educational programming that is substantively shaped by them (and based in large part on the knowledge they have of the land and all that it culturally signifies), storytelling is a critical medium for knowledge production and dissemination. The problem, however, is that Elders who carry these stories are getting older, are passing away, or are sometimes taught by the colonizing society that their knowledge is not legitimate compared to approaches that saturate the classrooms and learning spaces of the dominant society. In such a context, any community-based project that seeks to document and hold up these stories for future generations is a critical project of epistemic decolonization. Second, and relatedly, these histories are meant to teach us things—teach us about politics, law, political economy, and community; they are supposed to inform us how to conduct ourselves safely and ethically in...