Oil Spill

Testimony of Charlie Barnaby

"I know what oil can do because I seen with my own eyes in 1943. When the last war started, it was going strong, they were short of oil, so they got oil from Norman Wells to Alaska.

I seen one tank, 5,000 gallon tank on this Canol side and they used to call it old camp, that is right on the river bank, there was tanks there."

Photo: NWT Archives

"In 1943 before I went to school in April, that tank busted and all that oil went into the Mackenzie River. I know it because my dad had a cabin there and it got old so I built another one.

Actually my dad lived there and raised us up eight miles below Norman Wells on the west side. And when that oil spilled there was about a three mile stretch of it just full of oil on top of the ice."

Photo: NWT Archives

"When the ducks coming in they land in it, and not one of those ducks ever got out. There were hundreds and hundreds of ducks stuck in the oil.

Usually we stay here fishing in the summer and go back in September and live there all winter. I guess when the ice went, the oil went with the ice. Goose Island was all covered with oil, it didn't get rid of it with the water, with the overflow."

Photo: Richard Bartz, Wikipedia

"My brothers shot two moose on that island and I think that is the only two that ever went there and even the flesh was taste oil and the hide was worth nothing because it was just soaked with oil from the willows they was walking through…

A little bit of spill can spoil a lot of damage to our land and for the animals we live on and for the fur we sell to get our money. I still think experts are the native people, the people from the country, not the white people."

Photo: NWT Archives