About The Project | PROJECT TEAM
Below is a collection of community members and participants that made this project possible. Click on each photo thumbnail to learn more about each person.
Johnny Askoty
Elder, Oral Historian, Beaver Translation Team
We go out camping in an area where we want to hunt with our whole family - cousins, nieces, nephews, elders. We teach the kids to go out there, go hunt with us, show them, and let them do the job too.
(Johnny Askoty, 2003)
Although he was born at Doig, Johnny grew up with his parents, Albert Askoty and Alice Moccasin at Peterson's Crossing. He attended the day school at Peterson's Crossing and is among the first generation of Dane-zaa to settle in one spot and go to school for a period of time. He also received a traditional Dane-zaa education from his parents learning how to hunt and trap and learning how to drum and sing the Dreamers' songs. Johnny learned many of the Dreamers' songs from his father, Albert, who was an important song keeper.
Like others of his generation, Johnny has witnessed great changes to the Dane-zaa landscape as roads, seismic lines, oil wells, pipelines and refineries have been built and as his people have shifted from a semi-nomadic lifestyle to a sedentary one. Yet with these changes, Johnny continues to hunt, trap, and sing, and is eager to share his knowledge with his children and the younger generations.