Kita Nahanni Loeks
“Kita Nahanni Loeks’s name was one result of her father’s life-long love of the Nahanni River and the far Northwest, inspirited by a childhood reading of R.M. Patterson’s “Dangerous River”. Another result was his moving to the Yukon where Kita Nahanni was born in 1986 and raised to enjoy wilderness travel. Although her Dad’s guiding business and his personal travels took him to the Nahanni and many other rivers between the MacKenzie and central Alaska, Kita has never seen her namesake river. She plans a daughter and father trip starting at the Moose Ponds some September soon.”
Dave
Nahanni Greenaway
Please let me share my story about Nahanni…. I have been interested in the Nahanni River ever since I heard about this mighty river. It has the most unique and beautiful features, topography, and vistas of any river that I know. It is a powerful and majestic river, too. I’ve always wanted to see its entire watercourse, especially the hot springs and Virginia Falls.
Please allow me to share my own story about my own little Nahanni. You see, in the past, when I was yet single and carefree, I remember telling my mother something. I told my mom, “If I ever had a daughter, I would like to name her Nahanni.” Mom thought that it was an unique name, but I really don’t know if she liked the name for a girl’s name. I also said to one of my closest friends and his wife, “If I ever had a daughter, I would like to name her Nahanni.” They were not sold on the name, and they thought it was an odd name. However, I was sold on this beautiful name, after all, it reminds me of such a beautiful place.
Well, after some time, I decided no longer to share this unique and beautiful name with other people. After all, if I told too many people about this special name, then they too may name their own child Nahanni. So, I kept the name to myself. Over many years I did not share my secret place with other individuals. After all, I thought, they wouldn’t understand me or my thinking about this terrific place. It was almost as if I didn’t want people to know about the Nahanni. I suppose, for selfish reasons, I didn’t want anyone taking this beautiful name from me and simply making it a common word.
In the more recent years, I met someone named Virginia who could better understand me. While we were still dating, I remember sharing some important words with her. I said, “If I ever had a daughter, I would like to name her Nahanni,” and I was pleased that my girlfriend liked that name, too. Well, eventually Virginia and I got married, and on our wedding day we paddled a river, but it wasn’t the Nahanni River. Well, we will have to wait for another time in our life to paddle that majestic river.
About a year and a half later in our marriage, my wife became pregnant. Neither my wife or I knew if the baby was going to be a girl or a boy. So, we had several boys’ and girls’ names picked out by the delivery date. During that time we met with the doctor, and we found out that he also enjoyed going on canoe trips. Actually, my wife and I discovered that he had been on several great river trips out in Western Canada, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. One particular river he had been on was the Nahanni River. So when my wife, Virginia, finally gave birth to a beautiful little girl, it didn’t take long for us to name our little girl. My Virginia insisted that our girl’s name should be Nahanni.
I no longer want to keep Nahanni a secret. That is, I want people to know my own Nahanni, and I want them to know about the Nahanni River. People ask my wife and I, “What is your girl’s name.” We proudly tell them that her name is Nahanni. Then we get all kinds of comments and questions like, “That’s a pretty name” or “Where did you get that name?” Like a proud parent, I also gladly share details about the Nahanni River. I tell them it’s a protected wilderness area in the north of Canada. My wife, Virginia, and I tell them about the beautiful waterfall along the Nahanni named Virginia Falls. (By the way, I didn’t marry my wife just because her name is Virginia.)
Let me make some important parallels in my story. I am captured by the beauty of my little girl, and similarily, I am raptured by the beauty of the Nahanni River. Just as I need to protect my girl, Nahanni; we all need to work together to protect the Nahanni River. Just as I am proud to tell others about my little girl, Nahanni; we all need to be proud to tell other people about the beautiful place that she is named after. So, I encourage you to be proud to share with others this majestic place named the Nahanni, and hopefully you can experience it for yourself.
John Greenaway
Nahanni BorsosMy name is Nahanni Borsos.
In the summer of 2002 my dad, a longtime Yukoner and my 12 year old brother Sebastian have paddled the South Nahanni River in a single canoe. It was an unforgettable trip, that started at Rabbitkettle lake at the beginning of July, and ended on my dad’s birthday in Blackstone Landing.
They came home with a lot of wonderful stories, beautiful pictures to share with my mom and brothers. The year after that one I was born, and named Nahanni.
My brother Sebastian has promised me to take me on the Nahanni river for my twelfth birthday. I really want to see the Nahanni river. For the Save the Nahanni fundraising I raised nearly five hundred dollars.
I love camping, canoeing too, but for now I have to sit in the middle.
with love
Nahanni
ps.: as I am only in Kindergarden, my dad helped me with this letter.
Nahanni Dearing (nee Hansen)
I have just received the book you sent morgan and I. I have to say I envy your career choice, it is amazing the nature we have around us, seeing so much land untouched by us breath taking. Being named Nahanni is the best thing my father could have done for me ( my mother wanted to name me Eve). I have a strong attitude and a name to go with it. People always ask me if it is hawaiian, and comment on how it is a pretty name and they have not heard of it. I tell them about the river and how Pierre Trudeau was very fond of it. One of my goals is to see the nahanni river, to add another piece to the puzzle. I hope this river and many of the rivers remain untouched, nature how it should be. Thank you for the gift I will treasure it, as I do not find very many things with my name on it.
Nahanni Dearing
Morgan Nahanni Dawn Hansen
Hi my name is Morgan Nahanni Dawn Hansen and my brother is Liard Hansen. My dad was a big game guide in the South Nahanni for 10 seasons working for Grieg Williams of Nahanni Butte Outfitters that is where our names came from. He said he would average 2000 miles a year packing dogs and back packing in the mountains. I have heard stories about many different mountain ranges and their treasures. I also have a cousin named Nahanni Hansen.
Thank you Neil. My daughter and niece will be thrilled to receive something about the beautiful name sake. We were given a book written by Dick Turner about this area, because our son’s name is Liard. So it will be treasured by all.
Our niece Nahanni, was named this for the most beautiful place her Dad ever seen, fitting for his little girl he was holding in his hands.
Shane Hansen named our daughter Nahanni for this is where he thought about his family the most, sitting in the Liard Mountain range watching the Dall Sheep looking over the valleys wondering if he ever get a chance to share this site with his Son Liard and Daughter Morgan Nahanni Hansen.
Maureen Ross – Shane Hansen
Morgan Nahanni Dawn Hansen
Nahanni RichardsonAlways enjoy reading your newsletters and the videos you have linked to it. It makes for a great read during the winter and good work with all the accomplishments you and everyone involved have made to protect this piece of magic called Nahanni National Park.
In 2001 we became the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl and we named her Nahanni. We have spent time in both the Northwest Territories and the Yukon Territory and fell in love with the north and on the first trip to the Nahanni River my wife fell in love with the name.
In 1997 my wife mentioned that if one day we ever had a baby girl (she was getting maternal) we should name her Nahanni. Well four years later, our first child arrived and she was a healthy baby girl and we were proud to name her Nahanni. She is a beautiful girl with a beautiful name.
Nahanni would love a autographed copy of one of your books. She is now at the age she really enjoys to read and to see and read your book will be very enjoyable for her and us.
Ken and Demian Richardson
Kristin Nahanni LeggoMy name is Jeff Leggo and I was a Park Warden at Nahanni in the late 1980s and I am now the manger of resource conservation at St Lawrence Islands National Park (working with Sophie Borcoman). My Daugther, born December 26 1989, is named Kristin Nahanni Leggo after one of the most incredable places I’ve been. Doug Tate sent me a note about your quest for babies named Nahanni.
While growing up in so many national parks I heard several stories from my father about Nahanni and other National Parks in Canada. My parents have always said Nahanni is one of the most beautiful places in the world with several unique features, with some existing in Nahanni alone. I am currently living in New York state and attending the state university of New York at Potsdam and luckily I am less then an hour away from the beautiful Adirondack mountains where I spend as much time as possible hiking and enjoying the lovely mountains. Overall I am very proud to be named after one of the most beautiful National Parks in the world and would love to travel back sometime and personally see what Nahanni and it’s amazing wildlife has to offer.
Kristin Nahanni Leggo
Jeff Leggo
Nahanni JohnstoneAt my birth my mother told the doctor that my name was Nahanni, he said “Poor kid!” . I understand why. It’s not easy to be the only child with an indigenous name in an urban south eastern corner of Canada, far away from the river, the people, and anybody who knows or understands them. My name was the one nobody could pronounce. For some reason, even though it is pronounced exactly as it is spelled, I got crazy interpretations….like “Tahini”, my personal favourite. In fact pronouncing my name became an instant IQ test to me. If somebody gets it on the first try I am impressed and know that this is someone worth talking to, someone who is awake and paying attention. If, on the other hand, they come up with Tahini, well, bye bye.
The man responsible for my being named Nahanni was the famous Canadian author and TV personality, Pierre Berton. My father, Canadian writer and journalist Kenneth Johnstone, knew him and when I was born Pierre was writing about the North and the Nahanni. My mother, an artist from New York city, chose the name for me after hearing his stories about the untamed wilderness and pure waters. It was a prophetic choice. I always loved to be in nature (though I think most people do) and to swim and drink from the clear running stream on my father’s farm in rural Quebec. I ran barefoot all summer and rode my horses bareback through forests and fields to a lake where I swam while the horse grazed freely. I listened to the wind in the trees, waded through tall grass and watched the stars at night. I became a junior animal rights activist, chasing poachers and hunters off our land, and always felt more at home on the land, in the forest and fields with the horses, than I did with people. One of my earliest goals was to live off the grid, before I even knew what the grid was.
Twas not to be. Shortly after my father’s sudden death I was dragged kicking and screaming off the farm and into a different wilderness. At the age of 17 I found myself modeling in Paris. It was quite by accident, but with models named Iman and Appolonia I seemed to fit right in. I was a one-named model and the only Nahanni anyone had ever heard of. I took pride in my name and the wild Canadian heritage behind it, and I lived it out in the nightclubs of Paris, New York and Milan! Completely wild and running fast, nobody could tame me or slow me down. I ran from conformity and marriage and any semblance of control. Along the way I managed to have some success and was fortunate to work with many other free spirits and brilliantly talented artists, appearing in Vogue, Harpers Bazzaar, and traveling the world on location assignments. It was indeed a wild ride, and left me gasping and exhausted and looking for a new career by 25.
If I couldn’t be a wilderness explorer or a jockey, I wanted to be an actress. After 2 years of intense study in New York, I began to work as an actress and sadly had to add my last name to my first professionally to distinguish me from models, and establish some reference to my ethnicity, because casting was confusing when they expected someone exotic enough to match my name. I am about as white as a person can get without being Norwegian. Nahanni was always a great ice breaker at parties or other awkward situations and I could easily control the flow and duration of the conversation with it as an opener. I wish I had a dollar for every time I was asked, “So, what does your name mean?”. Sometimes I told them, it means Goddess of Wisdom and Beauty, sometimes People of the North, and sometimes: Those People Who Live Way Over There. As my career grew and I attained some tiny bit of recognition, I decided I must have a website. No need for the last name there. But the domain name was already taken!!! Hhhmmmm.
Eventually I met a nature loving, fly fishing, guitar pickin New Yorker who brought me to the forest and made me climb a mountain. We got married. My normally shy and soft spoken mother gave a speech at my wedding about me and my namesake. She said something like, ” many men have tried to brave the rapids of Dead Man’s Valley and lost their heads as a result but in the end there was one left standing, ” ….applause for my husband. So far he is still alive. He is the only one who can keep up with me.
I have never visited my namesake. I haven’t been farther north than Winnipeg. My life has taken me south, and across oceans, all around the globe, but has never yet carried me to the River. I hear about her from time to time, and always swell with pride at her beauty and integrity. I prayed for her when I heard she was in danger. I circulated petitions. But though I feel her in my blood, I have never seen her with my own eyes. Recently I noticed a story in a fashion magazine about a photographer who shoots on wild locations around Canada. I wrote to him, since my modeling career experienced a rebirth in my 40’s, suggesting we go to the River together and take some pictures. He never responded, but I have a feeing that it may still happen. Somehow my River will call me home to her, to at least have a look, and a chat and taste her water. Knowing Nahanni as I do, I am not so sure I will ride her waves, as I know how unpredictable and dangerous I can be. But I will tell her that I love her, and thank her for all the inspiration she brings to me and all who meet her.
Nahanni Johnstone
Nahanni MitchellThis is a story about the river. Not just the Nahanni River per se; more like ‘the river’ as a general entity, as a spiritual touchstone, as a place of challenge and exploration. It is the story of a marriage and of a fledgling family and a little girl with a beautiful name. It is the story of trying to find peace, of trying to push past limits and of living life to its fullest.
I suppose I ought to start at the beginning, but which one? I could start with the Chilliwack, the first river we ever ran – me filming a TV show, my husband along for the ride. It was meager fun compared to rivers as we know them now, but it was the start, the spark that lit us upon a journey of rivers that we hope will never end.
Enriquez was a river guide – well, is a river guide, for even though life takes over, the river never really leaves a guide’s blood. Now he works a mainstream job and tries not to mourn too heavily the absence of his life on the river. Six short years he managed to eke out from this love he found in his adopted home of British Columbia. We are both from the flat expanse of southern Ontario which borders the United States. We grew up going to bush parties and hanging around increasingly dirty little beaches on the shores of the Great Lakes while the kids out here were kayaking and climbing mountains and skiing. We moved west, tasted the unbelievable banquet of nature out here and became insatiable. He guided in the summers and worked teaching kayaking and taking out ocean tours in the winter and every river day changed and mellowed him in small but measurable ways. I am an actress and have had my share of successes and failures in a very harsh business. On the river it didn’t matter what I looked like, how much I weighed, if I was pretty enough. The river tested me and taught me. On the river we both found peace. We could do things together and still challenge ourselves in ways we could not even have imagined. For me every river run was a victory over gripping fear, and a sense of pride and accomplishment only matched for me after giving birth. It gave us thrills and calm in relatively equal measure and it began to define us individually, and as a couple.
We became water people.
And in our travels, we have met and bonded with other water people. Friends Trish and Royce Casford, both nomads who have guided rivers all over the world – including the Nahanni (they sent a rock for our girl when she was named). Crazy Rodolfo Rada, the fiery Chilean who is leading an effort to save rivers around the world from being dammed with his “Free Flowing Rivers” campaign. And the Thompson and Gregory families and their circle of friends and myriad children who run a major river every year across BC, the Yukon and NWT.
And we became inspired.
Some of it was the sheer audacity of the trips they would run; helicopter portages, weight restrictions, bears, moose, fires –kids, so many kids! That was what really did it for us. We had been ambivalent for years about having kids until we met these families who took their children down rivers and loved it and we saw that we could build a family like that too. We saw what it taught them, how it drew them together and knitted them tighter, how it taught these kids skills unlike any they would ever learn in school – independence, wilderness skills, strength and peace and respect for nature. And finally, in 2006 it was our turn to go on one of these adventures we had helped them gear up for on so many occasions. Through a connection we were able to run a major guided expedition for a client in the Yukon on the McNeil and Nisutlin rivers and it was from there that we brought home a little spark, a little drop of the river life.
And we named her Nahanni.
The Nahanni has been our dream river since we came out west and discovered the power of life on the water. We saw a documentary on her majestic beauty over a decade ago and so began our love affair with this place where we have not yet been. I remember promising him that if we hadn’t done it already we would do it the year we both turned 50 – but now that we have our daughter that seems too far away in an uncertain future. How many nights have we huddled together in the waning light of a fire on the side of some little river – a Similkameen or an Adams – and planned our wild adventure down the Nahanni River? And we would glow with the very thought of exploring one of the world’s premier Heritage sites, together, in a boat enveloped – embraced by nature.
We chose to name our daughter after a river because river life has been everything to us. It has been our job, our passion, our hope. We chose Nahanni because it has long been our dream river – our Grand Canyon, and because it was one thing we have shared all through our time together, the hope for this great wild northern adventure. And in our research we came across something which said that Nahanni meant ‘the people who wander the mountains and the valleys’ and it seemed right that this child who was literally made in the mountains and the valleys and beside a beautiful river under a gorgeous northern sky should have it.
And because it is a most beautiful name.
It has always thrilled me to say it. Whenever we have ventured out, her tousled curls, her wide brown eyes attract people and whenever they ask her name I feel a sense of pride. Some know the river for which she is named, others learn of it then and are, I hope, inspired as we were to learn more about it. It is a name and a story that we know she can be proud of.
That river trip, the fabled, yet-to-come Nahanni River Trip is a big part of the story of our marriage. It has been the thread that has bound us together in times thick and thin. Our adventures on the river have always brought us closer and the expedition experience is always unique and thrilling. We know that when we finally stand on her shores and really see the Nahanni as a family, we will weep. We know that until the day we die we will speak of her and her beauty and all that she has meant to us, before, after and since.
And the same goes for the river.
Thank you for letting us tell our story.
Keegan, Enriquez and Nahanni Mitchell
Nahanni CampbellI was born Baby Campbell on August 30th, 1971, at Grace Hospital in Vancouver, B.C. My parents, Colin and Sandra (nee Bromwich) Campbell hadn’t yet chosen a name for me and were at a loss. For a full week, I remained nameless.
Mom was a school teacher from Toronto, an independant free spirit with strong ideas about how to live life for a woman in the late ’60s. She was an outdoor enthusiast who had spent summer holidays camping, canoeing and hiking with her family, and later, friends. She later became an avid world traveller and backpacked through Europe and North Africa.
Dad was a recent immigrant from Scotland who had begun his career as a geologist in West Africa and now found himself based in northern British Columbia. He loved his work in the wild Canadian expanses and the culture of this new country his bride Sandra had introduced him to.
Clearly, their first child had to have a strong name. This name had to be uniquely Canadian and represent the values and dreams that they shared. It was a tough decision for my parents, because they truly believed that a name can identify and define a person, even when bestowed upon a newborn. They knew my name would become an important part of who I would grow up to be. And because I could not make the choice for myself, they had to ensure that I would also appreciate and and respect their choice. This naming process was proving to be more difficult than they thought!
A fellow geologist stopping by the hospital to visit the new Baby Campbell, reminded Colin of the beautiful river and mountain range near their base camp. The Nahanni. Colin and Sandra were intrigued by the name and the place. What did Nahanni mean? What were it’s origins?
Colin made a quick call to the Department of Indian Affairs and found out all he needed to know: The Naha people from the region were it’s namesake and in Dene the name meant, “Strong and Free.” I was named Nahanni Fiona Campbell.
Mom and Dad were thrilld with their choice of name for me, although their families were less so. “What kind of hippy name is that?” my Grandparents wondered. Their apprehensions with my name were shortlived, however, and all grew to love it.
The name is unique and pretty, it rolls off the tongue easily. Some pronounce it “Na-haw-nie” although we have always pronounced it “Na-hA-ny” which is closer to the Dene pronunciation. My name always prompts the question with new introductions, “How pretty, is it Hawaiian? “How do you spell it?” “That sounds Persian!” “What does it mean?” “Was the river named after you?”
The summer of my 18th birthday, in July of 1989, was the year we finally made the trip to the Nahanni National Park as a family. Mom, Dad, my sister Tamara and I spent an exhilirating 2 weeks rafting down the Nahanni River with Whitewater Adventures, and our guide, Dan Culver. It was a life defining trip for me, and it cemented my love of camping and the outdoors, and ignited my passion for kayaking and water adventures. Our guide, Dan Culver, became a friend and mentor and encouraged me with some of my important life decisions.
I left home after that summer for University and later to travel the world. I explored by bicycle, kayak, car, jeepney, sailboat, train and airplane! I settled down in many foreign countries then moved on to explore again when the mood took me. Finally, my love for a wonderful man brought me home to British Columbia. My husband Paul and I now live on Read Island, in the Discovery Group of Islands, near Desolation Sound. We built our cabin in the woods from trees we felled and milled ourselves. We dug our own well, we make our own power, we grow our own veggies. We “commute” by canoe, kayak, rowboat, motorboat and sailboat.
I so appreciate and respect my parents’ choice of name for me and truly believe that my name did help to define me. I am proud of my name, the origins of my name and the story of my naming process. I am Nahanni Campbell of Read Island!
Thanks for reading my story.
All the best,
Nahanni
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