Sir Charles of Evans and the Yukon Medicine Man

Sir Charles of Evans and the Yukon Medicine Man

dedicated to Sondra Grizzlyfingers and Sir Charles of Evans

Sir Charles of Evans and his Merry Men were travelling from Banff National Park in Alberta to Yoho National Park, in British Columbia. They were  headed over Kicking Horse Pass to get there. Sir Charles had an idea. “Men,” he said, “I think I need a little adventure, I would to go to Yoho by way of Lac Sherbrook (he was trying to practice his French while he was in Canada).

“The horses and wagons cannot go that way, so we will divide in half. Half the Merry Men will go over Kicking Horse Pass with the horses and wagons, half will come with me and we will hike up to Lac Sherbrook, through the the pass at the head of the lake and meet the horses and wagons in Field, B.C. That will be a grand adventure!”, he said.

And that is what they did. Half of the Merry Men went toward Lac Sherbrook with Sir Charles of Evans. They hiked toward the lake. The trail was steep. It was a hard hike.

After an hour, the Merry Men were getting hungry. Sir Charles of Evans stopped and said, “Let's have a snack and a short rest before we go on.”

When they went to look for a snack, they realized that they had sent all the food with the wagons and horses! They had no food. It was too late to go back. The other half of the Merry Men had already gone over Kicking Horse Pass by now. They only thing to do was to hike on.

As they hiked Sir Charles and the Merry Men got hungrier and hungrier. Some of the Merry Men saw berries that were blue along the trail. Hmm, they must be blue berries they thought. They started picking them as the went along. Sir Charles of Evans ate some too.

After a while they saw red berries and they thought they must be strawberries, They started eating them as well. Sir Charles ate them as well. Then one Merry Man saw a mushroom, He thought, "I’ve had mushrooms on pizza, and they tasted very good!"

Soon everybody was picking and eating mushrooms as they hiked along.

They got past the lake, and started up the steep part to the pass. Something strange started happening. Sir Charles of Evans started to feel funny. They started to get headaches. They had ringing in their ears. They started getting pains in their stomachs. Soon it was hard to walk. They were holding their stomachs and doubling over in pain. Some of them threw up. They were crawling up the steep trail to the pass. Sir Charles of Evans found his tongue was starting to swell and it was sticking out. He could hardly speak as his tongue would not go back in. He was on his hands and knees crawling as he got to the top of the pass and collapsed.

His head was spinning, he could hardly move and the rest of the Merry Men were no better off. He looked up. There was a tall man standing in the pass. He had on a blue robe, trimmed with white fur, and red trim on his sleeves. He had a black dog at his side that wore backpacks along his body.

As was his habit, Sir Charles tried to raise his hiking stick like a sword and announce his presence with authority. He only got to his knees. With his swollen tongue it came out, “ I yam Sirth Charfles of Evanths and deese arff my Mawee Menth. Whoth arff yoot?”

The man in the blue and white robe said, “I don’t know exactly what language you are speaking sir, but I am Nay-tan-yell, a Medicine Man from the North, the land of the Husky Nation, the place you call Yukon, and this is my Medicine Pup, Sky.”   

Sir Charles of Evans tried to stand all the way up but fell to his knees. He blurted out with his swollen tongue, “Helffff!”

Nay-tan-yell looked at all the Merry Men lying on the ground holding their stomachs and groaning. He said, “What happened?”

“Berrithese”, said Sir Charles.

“You ate berries?”, said Nay-tan-yell, “Were they blue?” Sir Charles and the Merry Men shook their heads, yes.

“Were, they red?” Again the Merry Men and Sir Charles shook their heads, yes.

“And muthrooms!” said one of the Merry Men.

“Muthrooms, I mean mushrooms?” repeated Nay-tan-yell.

And slowly the story came out of how Sir Charles and the Merry Men ate berries and mushrooms and were sick as dogs (Sky the Medicine Pup, excluded, of course).

Nay-tan-yell told Sir Charles of Evans and the Merry Men how foolish they had been for eating food from the forest when they were not absolutely sure it was safe. He told them that they needed to get to a doctor, right away.

Sir Charles said, “Youth powerfuth Meth-a-din Manth, pleeth helphhh!”

Nay-tan-yell said that he was a powerful medicine man, who had studies the medicines in the Yukon for many years, and that Sky the Medicine Pup carried many powerful medicines in her  bags, but it was the doctor’s job to decide what was the right medicine. It the job of Nay-tan-yell the Yukon Medicine Man to mix the right drugs and deliver them to the person. He needed a doctor’s OK.

Just then a Merry Man threw up and the barf landed on Nay-ta-yell’s blue robe. Nay-tan-yell thought about all his years of medicine training in the Yukon. There must be something. Then he had it. He remembered his teaching from an old French explorer, Oveer de Countear, who taught the Yukon medicine men to collect leaves and twigs from nature and brew a soothing tea that made stomachs feel better.

Nay-tan-yell told Sir Charles of Evans, “I have an idea. I  remember a recipe for a soothing natural tea taught to me by the old French explorer, Oveer de Countear. It won’t be as power as a medicine chosen by a doctor, but it might soothe your stomachs enough to get you off this mountain. Sir Charles of Evans said, “Pleeth, dooth it”

Nay-tan-yell called over Sky the Medicine Pup and pulled a few packages of dry leaves and twigs from the dog’s backpack. He started walking around and carefully picking  a few leaves here and a few leaves there.

Sky the Medicine Pup helped, too. She dragged sticks out of the woods for the fire. She gave the Merry Men some puppy love by licking their faces to help them feel better.

Soon Nay-tan-yell had the tea ready. He had Sir Charles and the Merry Men take little sips. It tasted good! And it was helping! Sir Charles liked it so much he reached over to add extra sticks and leaves to his tea. Nay-tan-yell swatted his hand away.

He said, “Sir Charles, isn’t that just what got you in trouble in the first place? Grabbing things you don’t really know about  and sticking them in your mouth? Look what it did to your Merry Men! I am a Yukon Medicine Man and have dedicated my life to understand drugs. I know that even natural drugs have to be taken with caution!”

As Sir Charles’  tongue was smaller now he could speak better. He asked Nay-tan-yell what a Yukon Medicine Man was doing so far from home. Nay-tan-yell explained that while he lived in the north in the summer, he spent his winters in the south. Part of his Husky Nation had settled in the northeast corner of a state called Connecticut. The tribe was very good at many sports. Nay-tan-yell was making his yearly pilgrimage to cheer on the sports teams for the winter. This was going to be Sky the Medicine Pup’s first trip and she hoped to meet the Yukon Husky Mascot, Jonathan.

Bye and bye, Sir Charles of Evans and the Merry Men were feeling better. Not great but good enough to try hiking again. Nay-tan-yell reminded them that as soon as they went down the mountain they all had to see a doctor. He gathered up some of the berries and mushrooms so they could show the doctor what they had been eating.

Sir Charles of Evans asked what he needed to pay the Medicine Man for helping the Merry Men and Sir Charles get better. Nay-tan-yell explained that it the north it was not necessary to pay for these kind of services. He said that they believed that it was enough reward to just make people feel better.

Sir Charles was shocked. He insisted on paying something. Nay-tan-yell explained again that it was not necessary, but Sir Charles insisted again. Nay-tan-yell, said it was only in the south that people argued and fought about paying to help people feel better. Sir Charles insisted again. Nay-tan-yell finally said, “I know in the south they have something called a "co-pay", where you have to pay a little as part of the service. Give me $10 and I will consider it a co-pay.”

Sir Charles quickly counted out 10 Canadian Loonies and gave them to Nay-tan-yell.

Sir Charles rallied his men with the traditional cry, “Tally-ho!”

His men answered, “Let’s go!”

He led his men through the pass and Nay-tan-yell and Sky, the Medicine Pup went down the other side. As they went Sir Charles could her Nay-tan-yell singing the Yukon Husky Fight song,

Connecticut Yukon Huskies

Symbol of might to the foe

Fight, Fight, Connecticut

For victory, let’s go…….

Skythe Medicine Pup was barking and howling right along!