Landslide damages Bear Rock — Tulita's Notre Dame
Bear Rock has been a sacred site for Dene in the Northwest Territories for thousands of years.
It's Tulita's Notre Dame. It dominates the landscape in the same way the medieval cathedral looms over Paris and is known as a sacred space.
Like Notre Dame, Bear Rock has been damaged.
A landslide struck high up on the mountain's north slope, facing the Mackenzie River. Rocks and debris scarred the landscape and blocked off some of the caves on the side of the mountain.
"I compare it to the Catholics with the Vatican, it's huge, in other words," explained Paul Andrew, a retired CBC North journalist who is originally from Tulita.
"For the traditional people, the traditional Dene, we grew up with the stories about Yamoria, others call him Yamozah, others call him Zhamba dezha. It's significant right across the Northwest Territories," he said.
The story of Bear Rock is one of those stories. It goes back to some of the earliest Dene histories, when Yamoria made the land safe for the people and animals to live together.
I don't understand the message, but there is a message happening. - Paul Andrew
In the version told by the Mountain Dene from the Sahtu, Yamoria killed giant beavers who were terrorizing the people, hanging their skins on the rock. He then built a fire nearby where he cooked their meat.
From then on, it's been a place of prayer and reflection. Dene often leave offerings there, recognizing the importance of the sacred space.
"There's three elements that we pay: fire, water and the land," he said. "[Bear Rock is] part of that. There isn't one particular place that's like a church but there are sacred areas, and this area would be more sacred than a church."
It's not clear when the landslide happened, but people in Tulita first noticed it last month, after they took their boats out on the Mackenzie River following spring breakup.
This isn't the first time Bear Rock suffered damage. Andrew remembers a wildfire burning on the mountain, which he covered as a reporter working for CBC News.
"I remember the shock, the sadness that I felt at that time," he said. "That Bear Rock, our church, if you will, was burning.
"A few months ago when Notre Dame was burning, I remembered Bear Rock."
At the time, elders told him they thought the fire could have been a message, warning people to return to Yamoria's teachings.
The fire led them to ask questions, like: "are we taking care of the land? Are we taking care of Bear Rock? Are we taking care of these sacred areas?" Andrew said.
Could this landslide be the sign of something similar? Andrew isn't sure, but he's certain there's something important at work.
"I don't understand the message, but there is a message happening," he said. "These things don't just happen."
