About The Project | PROJECT TEAM

Patrick Moore (Ędze)
Linguistic Anthropologist, Beaver Translation Team

I was born in Michigan, in the middle of the mitten that is the Lower Peninsula in 1954. In 1976, I came to the North, to the community of Assumption (Chateh), where I first learned to speak Dene Dháh (Slavey). Since then I have worked with native language programs and projects in Alberta, the Yukon and British Columbia with Slavey, Kaska, Tagish, Beaver, and other languages.

I have especially enjoyed working with this project because the stories remind me of many of the elders I knew in Assumption thirty years ago, and the teachings they shared with us then. It has been an honor to work with the Doig River elders who are among the best teachers I have known, and I have especially enjoyed working with Billy, Eddie and Madeline on the stories and on the Beaver language. Billy likes to joke around and he gave me my Beaver name, Ędze –‘Strawberries’– because I picked so many wild strawberries and I usually show up just when they are about ready to eat. My Kaska name is Dahyālitá ‘Traveling Man’ but I can’t use that in Beaver because Billy travels around even more than I do. I enjoy just being with people when I am in Doig River and I miss them when I am back in Vancouver. Some of the best times I have had in the last two years have been spent camping by the river in Doig River; it feels like home to me there. I hope we will continue working on the language in the future because there is so much more we can do while our elders are with us.