We had been in touch with an Indian reserve far from us (Injanequa sp?); the caucasian man who was in charge of the reserve was a Christian; some of our men visited the reserve and he came to visit us with some of the young braves. One of the young men was very interested in our daughter Mary; he found out she liked horses and he showed her a picture of his horse...it was almost love at first sight; the only problem was that Mary was only 13 years old.

There was visiting back and forth for years, we sent some of our baby goats to their reserve by bush plane (they were gobbled up by their dogs, right away). Some of the caucasian families, eventually, came to live on some of the Christian farms in our area; the Indians seemed to prefer it where they were.

Some of our men had been learning all they could about trapping, some even went out on a trap line and got a few furs. They were teaching this skill to the boys in school, also. Some of the men were beginning to feel they should build cabins on one of the trap lines and live there with their families. One of the families to go, had a son who was "walking it out" (engaged) with a young woman on the farm; there was to be a wedding before they all left.

So, we had to make all the arrangements - not being "worldly", of course, but devising what a Christian wedding should be like. The bride wore a white dress, the groom a suit; it was very meaningful; there was a reception later, with a homemade cake - it was quite nice. They took their sleeping bags and backpacks, and headed off into the local bush, for their honeymoon. A few weeks later they, too, went with the other families to live on the trap line.

The families living on the trap line tried to grow their own food, but it didn't grow very well; we were obliged to drop dried food to them from a small bush-plane. Joe went on one of the flights, and it is almost comical (while being nauseating), the way the plane had to bank and turn on its side, to go through those mountain passes - and drop the food at just the right time. When he was done, he just laid there and was sick.

The boy who had diabetes went with his family, to live on the trapline. He had a close call while there, was in a coma, which wasn't unheard of (because he had problems through puberty, with the insulation dosages). They had plenty of wild game to eat, such a high protein diet, that one of the woman who was very heavy, lost all that extra weight; when we saw her, later, we didn't recognize anything of her, except her voice was the same.

One thing they discovered, out there, was that they began to tell each other all their faults (there wasn't any thought of ever leaving that place - only going deeper into the bush); but, later, they wished they had kept some things secret - because these things were used against them, when they had disagreements. None of us were as "advanced" as we thought.

All of the men, on the farm, were encouraged to take a trip out to see the families living on the trapline; so, Joe went along. They road snowmobiles as far as they could, then camped overnight in a little trapper's cabin; the next day they used snowshoes, until they arrived at the secluded valley where the families were. They had a very good time visiting with them, saw all they had accomplished...but, Joe was determined to look deep within their eyes (he told me many years later). Joe never had any "leading" to hunt, trap, or live on a trapline.