Beware the beaver

Boozhoo, my name is Samson Jacob.

I am 20 years old and live in Webequie First Nation, 540 km north of Thunder Bay. My family does a lot of hunting and being out on the land. I want to share a story about a hunting trip out on our trapline with you.

Not long ago, when we went out hunting at spring, my cousin and I were sitting in our blind while our uncle sat alone at his own blind not far from us.

All afternoon we were waiting for geese to fly by. I got 12 geese that afternoon.

Soon, evening came. As we waited for more geese to come, we had a good time talking and laughing until I saw something going across the muskeg towards a small creek close to our blind.

I stood up and said: “Look!” I ran off towards the animal but as soon as I got to the creek it was gone. I wondered where it went. I looked around and didn’t see it anywhere.

My cousin came over. “What did you see?” he asked. “I don’t know,” I replied.

As we stood there I remembered what my Great- Grandmother had once told me: “If you ever see a beaver and it has dived down under the creek, the beaver might still be there. Get a long stick and start poking that area where you last seen it.”

And so I did. Sure enough the beaver came up and stuck its head out of the water for a few seconds and went back down. “It’s a beaver!” I yelled with excitement. Then our uncle showed up and asked us what we were doing.

All we said was: “There’s a beaver here.” I started poking again and the beaver came back up just when I was about to grab it. “Does it bite?” I asked.

“What do you think?” our uncle said. “It has big teeth.”

Then the beaver went back down again. The fourth time it came up.

I grabbed it by the legs and threw it out of the water towards my cousin, without knowing he was there, and barely missed him.

Our uncle told us to get down after he saw a flock of geese coming our way. I quickly grabbed the beaver by the legs again and started running off while the geese were flying. That moment was full of excitement. And all of the sudden the beaver took a big bite on my lower legs.

As I fell the beaver was in the air not knowing what was going on.

Next thing you know the beaver was on top of me laying on its back trying to get off while I was busy squirming and yelling: “Get it off! Get it off!”

My cousin was just standing there laughing his head off watching me get beat up by a beaver. It wiggled and kicked its legs in the air and tried to get up. Finally, a few seconds later, the beaver got up and started biting me between my legs. Without knowing it, I started screaming like a girl.

Meanwhile both my cousin and uncle were just standing there laughing and I’m wondering, “What the hell?” And then I saw an opportunity for a selfdefense method. While its jaws were locked in place between my legs, which I felt on my lower region, I grabbed the beaver by the neck and went on top of its back laughing my head off at same time. And so I knocked it out with a small axe. After all that we couldn’t stop laughing about that stupid thing that happened to me with the beaver that evening.

Written by Samson Jacob