Fred Neegan Cree Indian

I'd met Fred briefly in Mattice several years before.  We'd just finished a trip down the Missainabi and Fred approached me and asked me if there was enough water.  Although I'm not normally intimidated, I was this time.  What on earth do you say to someone whose and extremely good canoeist and has paddled this river hundreds of times?

This gentleman of the river knows far more about surviving in the wild and/or bushcraft than most folk. Fred is Ojibway/cree indian from Mattice on the Missinaibi River in Ontario. He's spent most of his life in the woods and on the river, paddling & hunting, guiding parties of both hunters and canoeists. He knows this river and some other local rivers better than any other living human. The great boreal forests hold no fear for Fred, for it is his home. He has two hunting cabins he built along the river. He knows the use of everything in the forest. Every noise he can identify. And if he needs to, he knows how to catch and/or kill it too. Fred is a real hunter and man of the forests. 

 He's probably the best canoeist you'll ever meet as well. Ok, he can't or won't have much to say about fancy J strokes, or whether the stroke you've just shown him is a knifed this or reversed that. He probably doesn't really care either. I asked a guide whose paddled with him what his canoeing was like. "He doesn't look like he's paddling" I was told, as his paddling skills are completely effortless. At one time or another Fred has canoed down most of the rapids on the Missinaibi and poled back up them too. I don't know whether Fred cares about grades either. If its a rapid and its canoeable then Fred can run it or pole it. When asked how well he knows the river, he says he knows every stone and rock in it, you know he's not exaggerating! He's a minimalist too. 

What you see is what you get. Fred's wearing his canoeing gear. And his hunting gear. It was also his shopping gear on this day. Most of his equipment is bought from the local hardware shop in Mattice. No fancy knives or axes for Fred. He has no web site, doesn't advertise either. But he's well know in the northern boreal forests. He's probably the only living first nation person to have a memorial erected whilst still alive.  The landing place for canoeists in Mattice is called 'Fred's Landing'.

 He can carry the heaviest load on portages too. He's 83!! and not about to give up. Whilst we were talking the mention of another guided trip came up which involved long portages over difficult trails. Fred was keen to go, saying; "I want to know if I can still do it". So if you want to learn how to survive in the forest, learn real bushcraft and canoeing from a real expert, whose been there lived it and done it, contact Fred, now! before its too late.

Since writing this, I've learned that Fred died in 2008 aged 87.