When I was a little girl I had that same sore on my neck. And, um, my grandmother was a surgeon. She kept her knife in snoose [tobacco]. Sheʼd wrap that snoose around it. And, uh, when I got that sore in my neck she felt around for days. Iʼd sit down somewhere and uh, sheʼd call me over, she would feel around. She was feeling for the artery. And, ah, one day she said, we are going to do it today. So, after feeling it, she um, peirced it with a pocket knife. Right in there somewhere. Canʼt remember where. And, ah, all of the pus came out, there was a lot of it, because all of my neck was swollen from it. It was a poison of some kind. And that cured me. She, um, kept it open for almost a month. Sheʼd, ah, put twisted twine in there with tobacco on it, in there. And that was to keep it open. And then sheʼd clean it once a day. And, um, she saved me! And then my aunt saved me. I was bleeding to death. And, uh, I was about 9 maybe. I canʼt remember. We were in a cannery. And, ah, I put on my shoes, brand new. My auntie bought them for me. Iʼd put them on and Iʼd go out and play. And, ah, I never got new shoes when we were kids! Iʼd get boots, brand new boots, cause we wore boots a lot. And, um, I was, ah, running outside to play and my mother took my shoes away. And I ran outside without them. And I was playing on a stump and I slid off. I slid right on a glass on my toe. And that, um, made it bleed. It was ok, they bandaged it and everything. And uh, then my, my brothers came home and I got excited I made it bleed again. And this time it was bleeding like I was bleeding [points horizontally straight out], like that. And, um, they put a tourniquet on my leg right there and my grandmother brought out a blanket so I could die in it. And my Auntie went ito the woods; it was dark. She brought that that medicine down from there, from the woods and saved my life. They had coal oil and ah, painkillers, Sloaneʼs Linement. They were sticking my foot in it and itʼs still bleeding hard. And my auntie went into the woods for that medicine and brought it back. And they put it on just once and it was ok. (Unidentified speaker: Isnʼt that something, eh? I know our people are...) We didn't have airplanes, we didn't have fast boats. We were way out on the coast. The cannery was out there. So, for being here, in Carcross, she saved me, my great auntie. Her mouth burned from that medicine. She had to put grease on her mouth. So our medicines were really great. And then, um, I'm afraid to offer it to people, just people that I know who won't complain. So.
ḴNMD