Tape Transcripts on Elder Ronnie Sheshamush
Whapmagoostui First Nation Member
Transcriber: Mary Shem
March 15, 2006

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Then there were weight scammers. Those people that used to weigh the furs and set the prices, there was something about those people. I saw him myself that character, he was married to an Inuk woman.  There are other stories when people were being cheated because of their furs but that is not what I was instructed to reveal in this recording I was told to speak of Richmond Gulf, Little Whale River and Great Whale River communities.

Hudson Bay Company was the richest company on the land because of the people of the land. The people made the company for what it is.

Summers were spent in Whapmagoostui then the people would go back to their trap lines in the wintertime.

During the summers, some people worked for the post. They would chop wood and put it on a raft and sail it from the rapids. Some people paddled, when the tide was low, they would carry the wood from where water touched the bank and it was hard work for ten dollars in those days.

Some people got paid $5.00 for cutting wood but it was $10.00 to transport wood and cut it too. In some cases food was given as a form of payment. The cutting wood venture was an important one for some people especially those who did not have furs to trade then so their families could eat. In some pictures I have seen of the post at Great Whale River, the mithigan (firewood site) was the biggest one in town as people worked for that mithigan.

I used to make a raft myself and my brothers and I would use it when the tide was high so we would not have to work so hard. It was a good way to make money and get wood especially when we did not have an outboard motor so we just made our own raft and sail and we would do our chores that way.

There was a plane crash once at Little Whale River, they say the plane crashed into the walls of the mountain of Little Whale River and all of the passengers died. People from Whapmagoostui had to go there and clean up the site and I believe our Chief was one of the participants. They had to bury the remains of the deceased.

I have heard many stories of Whapmagoostui, Little Whale River and of course Richmond Gulf post. A lot of our history is there and there are many stories to document. Phillip Natachequan and John Petagumskum Sr. are the other elders, one can go to when they seek historical information they are all older than me. I am the third oldest in the community.