Touring Fort Simpson’s changed landscape with Dehcho Grand Chief

Dehcho Grand Chief Herb Norwegian witnessed some of the worst of the wildfire that threatened the village of Fort Simpson.

As village residents return home, Grand Chief Norwegian offered advice about grief, returning to the community and to the land.

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What does Fort Simpson’s landscape look like after the wildfire? Dehcho Grand Chief Herb Norwegian showed us. #wildfire #northwestterritories #canada #northerncanada #forest ♬ original sound – Cabin Radio

A Fort Simpson resident, Norwegian stayed in the village during the nearly three-week long evacuation to monitor wildfires across the region and provide support and comfort to community members.

He described sending photos to evacuees of their homes to reassure them they were safe, and he called some of the firefighting efforts he witnessed a “war.”

“You’re seeing these incredible burns that are taking place – just Mother Nature at work – and it was just a powerful feeling,” said Norwegian.

“You just feel so minute when you see something like that unfolding, when you compare the power that you have, you compare the power that’s out there.”

Norwegian took Cabin Radio on a tour of some of the wildfire damage around Fort Simpson on Sunday. The success of structural protection efforts during the weeks-long battle with the fire was evident. In some cases, burned areas were just a few metres from homes.

While those efforts saved a number of houses, one home in Nogha Heights was ultimately lost to the fire.

Norwegian expressed his gratitude to crews that worked to save the village.

“I’m telling you, these young guys, these young women that just dive right into this kind of fire – I just admire them,” he said.

He said he imagines them leaving their hometowns with clean-shaven faces and bright yellow coveralls.

“At the end of the day, when they come out of there and they’re lining up for their food or whatever they’re going to do in the evening before they go to bed, you can’t recognize them,” said Norwegian.

“They’re just covered with charcoal. Their face is black, their hands are just black.”

At one point during the evacuation, Norwegian said, a big wind picked up and hindered firefighting efforts.

“That’s what brought everyone almost to their knees here,” said Norwegian.

“When you’re dealing with something like this, the first thing that you do is you get scared, and you feel surrounded, you feel helpless, but the only thing that pulled you through is you have to have faith.

“You’ve got to believe in something, and I think that’s what people were able to do is try to help out and try to hope for the best all the way.”

Later, Norwegian said he got a call from an Elder requesting that he do a fire ceremony to help bring rain to the area.

He said he had done something similar with Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation Chief Kele Antoine two years ago, when a fire was quickly approaching the community.

“Kele, the chief, had set it all up, and then he gave me the offering – the tobacco – and I took it and I went up the river, and I dumped it, put it into the river,” said Norwegian.

“Honest to God, before I even came back from there into town – my boat had just touched the shore – it started raining, and it rained, and it rained.”

This time, Norwegian said, something similar happened.

“Went up the river and did a ceremony and there again, I turned around, and from there, I hit a wall of rain,” said Norwegian.

‘The land speaks to you’

On Saturday, Norwegian was one of a number of people who drove previously evacuated residents home from the airport after the evacuation order for the community was downgraded to an alert.

He said some people cried looking at the damage the wildfire had caused to the forest.

While Fort Simpson was previously evacuated in 2021 due to a flood, Norwegian said this was the first time many residents witnessed this type of devastation.

“The community – it being one of the oldest communities — it’s also alive. It’s been alive for thousands of years and it cradled people here for the longest time, from all walks of life,” said Norwegian.

He said the spirit of the community is also affected by the fire.

“When people come back, that’s what they actually feel – they feel that there’s a person there, and that they’re reconnecting back with it,” said Norwegian. “It’s a pretty emotional thing.”

He wondered if fire is a tool for a kind of reconciliation.

“It gets you to think that the land is still important, and that you can’t let it go – you need to be part of it,” said Norwegian.

“People need to not only reconcile with the churches and communities and with each other, they also need to reconcile with the land. You need to go back there, and you need to tell the land that you’re back and you’re there to take care of it, and you’ll do everything you can to be part of it.

“However you feel about the land, you need to actually share that with it, because the land speaks to you. The land takes care of you. It’s taken care of us for thousands of years.”

Norwegian described what happened to the land around Fort Simpson as “wild” but said in the next five to 10 years, residents will see new life develop.

“Fire is like a cleansing tool, I imagine. What I think happens here is that Mother Earth needs to change her dress every once in a while, and so the fire is something that needs to come through – clean everything up.”