- A little history about Moricetown and it's kind people.
Wet'suwet'en First Nation community is located north of the village of
Smithers is called Moricetown, B.C. The Wet'suwet'en people (kyah wiget)
is one of five native communities living near or on Hwy 16. The valley
around Moricetown Canyon was once a traditional fishing ground visited
by five clans of the area.
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- Fishing the Bulkley River was a big part of the Wet'suwet'en
First Nation way of living. The clans would first meet in Telkwa in the
spring, mainly to visit and celebrate their heritage. Then later the
13 houses would pack up the village and proceed to Moricetown for their
summer fishing season.
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- Using gaff poles (spruce tree pole with a steel hook
and bound by rope) the First Nation fisherman would wait patiently perched
high above the river standing on exposed river boulders waiting to strike
and hook the fish as they swim by underneath. Today, the First Nation
still fish the river but use deep nets mostly.
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- In Moricetown, during the summer, the Wet'suwet'en First
Nation people would erect smokehouses, drying racks and fish traps. The
men would set out to catch fish while the women would hike up the mountain
to collect herbs and medicines. After returning the women would start
to preserve the catch. In the fall, after catching fish the focus of the
hunt would shift to mountain goats, ptarmigan and caribou.
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- Once sufficient preparation was completed, the Wet'suwet'en
people would hold various feasts celebrating the harvest. The general
meeting of all the people was an opportunity for the chiefs to deal with
clan business and for trading goods among houses.
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- The feasts would last for days and would be celebrated
by many houses. Many feasts later the clans would start to return to their
villages in preparation for winter - each clan's departure date depending
on the length of the journey back to their village.
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- Once home the clan would work on their longhouses, stacking
firewood, and finishing repairs so to securely store their food on stilts
inside. During the winter the elders and their wives would prepare for
next seasons hunt and children would learn about hunting while maintaining
the longhouses.
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- Moricetown is located 30 km west of Smithers and 31 km
east of Hazelton, BC on the main highway of the region known as Highway
16. Follow the signs. Cannot miss the community.
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- It was just another early morning in Houston, B.C. I
got up and turned on the computer and we went to feed the deer which were
waiting as they do most mornings. I came back in, checked my computer
and there I found a few UFO sighting reports which I still have to work
on, but it was a telephone call that came in that grabbed my attention.
A lady by the name of Melvina was so excited to tell me what had taken
place in Moricetown behind her mother's home on March 8, 2009 after dark.
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- On Monday evening Melvina's mother heard an awful racket/strange
and loud noise coming from the back of her property. It certainly did
frighten her as the sound was so very unusual and the dogs certainly were
going wild over what was happening. She contacted her daughter and Melvina
came down the next day to look into what took. She put on a set of snow
shoes and headed out into the forest. In the open areas, (not under any
trees) the snow would have been approximately a foot and a half in depth.
Under the trees the snow pack was only inches deep.
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- As Melvina made her way over the snow and under the low
hanging spruce branches she glanced ahead of her to see tracks in the
snow. Even from a short distance away the tracks appeared to be unusually
large. Soon she was shocked to find a large foot print that really should
not have been there. Melvina did look around and after a short while she
headed back to her mother's home, ran inside and told her mom what she
had discovered and called the Peak FM radio station in Smithers, British
Columbia as it was one of the closet media outlets. One of the staff members
at Peak FM gave Melvina my telephone number and then she contacted me.
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- As I listened to her telling me some of the details of
what she witnessed in the snow, I became more and more interested as I
started to believe we may really have found something here. I asked when
would it be okay for me to drive out so I could have a look at the tracks.
Melvina said any time was fine with her. Knowing the incident took place
sometime after dark on March 8, 2009 and I got this call on March 9, 2009.
I figured I had better get going as quickly as possible before bad weather
moved in. I packed the necessary things I needed, and rang around some
friends looking for some snow shoes. I grabbed my backpack and headed
out the door, into the truck and was driving out of Houston toward Moricetown
here in British Columbia.
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- After my hour and a half drive I arrived in Moricetown
and easily found Melvinas mother's home. There I met her mom, Melvina
and three other family members. All were really kind to me, some bringing
out there digital cameras to show me the pictures they took of the tracks.
After seeing these I was hooked and excited to get out to the back of
the property to look around and see with my own eyes.
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- Five of us took our time walking over the hard packed
snow until reaching the area where the tracks were discovered. To my surprise
and excitment there they were, just as Melvina had told me. Why I mentioned
that I was surprised, is that I have taken many a long road trips to visit
folks who have claimed to have had a UFO or Sasquatch encounter, only
to find out someone's imagination was running a little wild! It can be
more than frustrating!
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- The photo below is the first track I was shown. You will
notice I do have a plastic ruler beside the foot print and this does
not cover the entire length of the track. This one track measured 17 and
a half inches in length and what appears to be three toes imprinted into
the snow that can clearly be seen. The width across the front part of
the foot (outside of left toe to outside of right toe) measures seven
inches in width. The arch part of the foot measures 5 inches across and
at the back of the heel, this measured 4 inches wide. It sunk down 8 inches
into the snow.
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