Drum Songs : Glimpses of Dene History [1 ed.] 0773509925, 9780773509924, 0773511504, 9780773511507

Citation preview

***-f/WPSES

°^A/E HISTO^

KERRY ABEL

Drum Songs

-

mcgill-queen’s studies in ethnic history

Donald Harman Akenson, Editor

1

Irish Migrants in the Canadas A New Approach Bruce S. Elliott

2 Critical Years in Immigration Canada and Australia Compared Freda Hawkins (Second edition, 1991) 3 Italians in Toronto Development of a National Identity,

i875-!935 John E. Zucchi 4 Linguistics and Poetics of Latvian Folk Songs Essays in Honour of the Sesquicentennial of the Birth of Kr. Barons Vaira Vikis-Freibergs

Columbia W. Peter Ward (Second edition, 1990) 9 The People of Glengarry Highlanders in Transition, 1745—1820 Marianne McLean 10 Vancouver’s Chinatown Racial Discourse in Canada, 1875-198° KayJ. Anderson 11

Best Left as Indians Native-White Relations in the Yukon Territory, 1840-1973 Ken Coates

12 Such Hardworking People Italian Immigrants in Postwar Toronto Franca Iacovetta

6 Class, Ethnicity, and Social Inequality Christopher McAll

13 The Little Slaves of the Harp Italian Child Street Musicians in NineteenthCentury Paris, London, and New York John E. Zucchi

7 The Victorian Interpreta¬ tion of Racial Conflict The Maori, the British, and the New Zealand Wars James Belich

14 The Light of Nature and the Law of God Antislavery in Ontario, 1833-1877 Allen P. Stouffer

8 White Canada Forever Popular Attitudes and Public Policy toward Orientals in British

15 Drum Songs Glimpses of Dene History Kerry Abel

5 Johan Schrpder’s Travels in Canada, 1863 Orm 0verland

Drum Songs Glimpses of Dene History KERRY ABEL

McGill-Queen’s University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Buffalo

© McGill-Queen’s University Press 1993 isbn 0-7735-0992-5

Legal deposit third quarter 1993 Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec

Printed in Canada on acid-free paper This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Social Science Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Funding has also been received from Multiculturalism Canada.

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Abel, Kerry M. (Kerry Margaret) Drum songs: glimpses of Dene history (McGill-Queen’s studies in ethnic history) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-7735-0092-5 (bound) — isbn 0-7735-1150-4 (pbk.) 1. Tinne Indians - History. 2. Indians of North America — Canada — History. 3. Indians of North America - Arctic regions - History. 1. Title. II. Series. e99-t56a23 1993

971'.00497

C93-090210-6

This book was typeset by Typo Litho composition inc. in 10/12 Baskerville.

Contents

Tables and Maps vii Preface ix Introduction xiii Illustrations xxi 1 When the Earth Was New

3

2 Life in the Eighteenth Century 3 The Stone House People 4 The New Traders

43

65

5 War Songs, 1821 to 1848

88

6 Prophets, Priests, and Preachers 7 Trappers and Traders 8 In Witness Whereof

17

113

145 165

9 Canada and the Dene Nation: Economics 10 Canada and the Dene Nation: Society and Politics 231 11 Drum Songs

265

Notes 271 Bibliography Index 333

309

202

Tables and Maps

TABLES

3.1 Northern Natives Visiting Churchill, 1719—35

59

8.1 Average Day School Attendance, Selected Day Schools, 1889-1935 183 8.2 Average Boarding School Attendance, 1887-1935 184 9.1 The Changing Shape of the 10.1

Dene School Attendance, 1901-54 233

nwt

nwt,

Economy

229

Selected Years,

10.2 Boarding School Attendance, in the Mackenzie Valley, Selected Years, 1918—54 233 10.3 Native Population, Selected Communities, 1 go 1—86 10.4 Populations in a Divided Northwest Territories MAPS

1 The Dene Homeland 2 The Eastern Fur Trade

16 66

3 Treaties and Registered Bands

166

263

238

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/drumsongsglimpseOOOOabel

Preface

While growing up in a number of resource towns in northern Can¬ ada, I developed a very distorted view of my world. Schoolteachers provided a sound survey of British history, but Canadian history ap¬ parently consisted solely of red tracings of explorers’ routes across a pink map. There seemed no evidence around me to contradict that conclusion. There were no elderly people to tell stories of days gone by, everyone lived in houses of the same style and age, and everyone had parents who had been born “outside.” Apparently, my land had been a vast and uninhabited frontier awaiting development by the mining and logging companies. Native peoples were mythical beings who had existed in magical times, and it never occurred to us that there might be real, living Natives on our own doorsteps. When it finally became clear to me that northern Canada did in¬ deed have a history as old and fascinating as that of any other part of North America, I began a search for reading material and was sadly disappointed. Most of what had been written dealt with the ex¬ pansion of Canadian industry into the resource “frontier,” compendiums of dry facts that did little to explain the human experience of northern life and seemed to bear no relation to my perspective on my surroundings. Aboriginal peoples were scarcely noted. Those events that had occurred before the arrival of Euro-Canadians were called “prehistory,” and after contact, only those events related to is¬ sues of interest to Canadian society as a whole were examined. It is only relatively recently that historians have attempted to include events of importance to minority groups in their assessments of the

x

Preface

past. Formerly, for instance, fur trade historians examined the eco¬ nomics of the trade for Canadian and British entrepreneurs or eval¬ uated the place of that trade in imperial expansion. The impact of the trade on the First Nations who participated was not considered important until the late 1960s, when pathbreaking studies like A.J. Ray’s Indians in the Fur Trade began to appear. Similarly, regional histories have only recently challenged the assumption that the west and the north formed a tabula rasa upon which central Canada etched its image. Northerners have not always accepted Ottawa’s policies with passive resignation. They have fought for recognition and fair treatment, and sometimes they succeeded in forcing the politicians and policy makers to re-evaluate their positions and ad¬ just their proposals. What was of importance for northerners was not always what Ottawa considered to be important for Canada as a whole, and the ongoing tension between region and nation has been as much a part of northern Canadian history as it has been for any other region of the country. This book, then, is an attempt to readjust the balance of historical writing. In order to understand northern history, Canadians must begin with an understanding of the people who have been there since ancient times. I make no claims to have written a history of the Dene according to the Dene definition of history. That task can be done only by the Dene themselves, and I hope that someone will at¬ tempt it soon. Rather, this is a history researched and written within the parameters of the European tradition so that it will speak clearly to Canadian society as a whole and broaden our understanding of an important region. In several ways this book is not “traditional” history. Traditional history may suffice for history as it traditionally has been defined, but with respect to the Dene, the standard questions and sources are not always appropriate. Instead, an attempt has been made to con¬ struct a more holistic view of Dene history so that the reader can ap¬ preciate the interaction of social, political, and economic forces within a particular time and space. I would hesitate to call the study ethnohistory,” but I have followed the lead of ethnohistorians in consulting a broad range of source materials. Archival documents, oral testimony, archaeological findings, linguistic studies, and folk traditions together provide a rich resource base from which clues about the past may be extracted. Neither is this an anthropological study. The point of the research was not to prove or disprove particular theories of culture change, or to establish or challenge models of social structures and functions. The major anthropological debates about the Dene (kinship pat-

xi

Preface

terns, historic periodization, and rates of economic change) are noted only in passing. Through the process of research, I discovered that insufficient evidence has survived to allow me to address these debates in any new way. Neither oral tradition nor the records of early European visitors provide enough clues about ancient family systems or regional economies to permit meaningful comparisons with the immediate pre- or postcontact periods. These are interest¬ ing questions, but without evidence, discussions of them must re¬ main speculative and theoretical. The point of this study is not to develop new interpretive models. This book is intended instead to reconstruct some important mo¬ ments in Dene history in order to answer the question of how these northern people have been able to maintain a sense of cultural dis¬ tinctiveness in the face of overwhelming economic, political, and cul¬ tural pressures from the European newcomers to their homelands. Nineteenth-century settlers were convinced that the aboriginal pop¬ ulation of North America was doomed to extinction and that small band societies with hunting and gathering economies were particu¬ larly vulnerable. The Dene, making their homes in a region of harsh climate and extraordinarily delicate ecosystems, would seem to have been susceptible to the disruptions of the colonizers. Instead, the Dene have persevered. In recent years they have moved beyond concerns at home to make major contributions to the political move¬ ment for aboriginal rights in Canada, including the ideological im¬ pact of the Dene Declaration in 1975, the leadership of Georges Erasmus in the Assembly of First Nations, and the innovative exper¬ iments of the Northwest Territories government. This book is an ex¬ amination of the process through which the Dene have been able to defy the confident predictions of those nineteenth-century doomsayers. Such an undertaking would not have been possible without the support of many people. The Social Sciences and Humanities Re¬ search Council of Canada provided funds for two years of the re¬ search. The Department of History and the Faculty of Arts at the University of Manitoba financed much of the travel costs involved. Judith Beattie, Anne Morton, Debra Moore, and Michael Mooseberger at the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives kindly chased after hundreds of documents and somehow remained cheerful through it all. Mrs Shirlee Anne Smith, keeper of the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, provided much practical as well as moral encouragement. The staff at the nwt Archives in the Prince of Wales Northern Her¬ itage Centre and Chris Hanks of the Archaeology Division made a number of helpful suggestions. Thanks are also due to Terry

xii

Preface

Thompson and Anne ten Cate of the Anglican Archives in Toronto, the Archives Deschatelets (omi), the staff of the Provincial Archives of Manitoba, the staff of the Provincial Archives of Alberta, and, of course, the staff of the National Library and the National Archives in Ottawa. My colleagues in the Department of History at the Uni¬ versity of Manitoba and at St John’s College, Winnipeg, sat patiently through my discussions of parts of the “work in progress” and asked very helpful questions. Particular thanks go to Jean Friesen, Jen¬ nifer Brown, John Kendle, E.C. Moulton, Gerald Friesen, and, at Queen’s University, Donald Swainson. I would also like to thank two of several anonymous readers who made some very helpful sugges¬ tions that I have chosen to incorporate. Finally, I would like to thank Christine Earl of the Department of Geography, Carleton University, for her fine work in the prepara¬ tion of the maps, and Judith Turnbull for her thorough and helpful editorial work.

Introduction

Three canoes slipped silently across the calm waters of the bay. A warm purple haze had settled across the lake on this summer’s eve¬ ning, wrapping the sky and the land in a magical veil. The sun had dipped briefly below the horizon, but its light lingered behind, sil¬ houetting the spruce trees against its promise of return. A raven called from one of the tree tops, urging the canoeists to join the group that had gathered on the lakeshore. The rich, warm smell of a crackling campfire had reached the newcomers even before they rounded the point, and the throbbing of a drum could be heard well before they were close enough to hear the voices accompanying it. Then, suddenly, they were there among the dancers, caught in the rhythms of the drums and the feet and the voices, their bodies bound up in the mass of humanity, but their spirits released by the music. The dancing, feasting, and storytelling would go on for three days in celebration of the successful fishery and the pleasure of one another’s company. Children would hear tales of great hunters and courageous warriors, of travels through another world, and of clever women who had overcome adversity in its many forms. Sto¬ ries from the past would colour the present and shape the future. And beating throughout them all is the drum. As one visitor to Denendeh once wrote, those drum songs “express the spirit of the people, and their melodies possess such subtleties as to defy imita¬ tion ... the tea-dances and gambling songs of the Dogribs will haunt me for the rest of my days.”1

xiv

Introduction

Who are the Dene? The name, which means simply “people,” has been applied to a variety of groups. Outsiders may first have learned of the name from Alexander Mackenzie’s account of his travels in the northwest, published in London in 1801. He supplied the word “Dinnie” as Chipewyan for “man” and noted that the Gwich’in (Kutchin) were called the “Deguthee Dinees.”2 Nearly thirty years later, the reading public learned from Sir John Franklin that these northern people called themselves “Dinneh” to identify the larger population, and then distinguished separate groups by adding the name of the river or lake associated with the hunting grounds of each. Thus, he recorded, the Dogrib were known as the Thlingchadinneh.3 Father Emile Petitot, omi, also recognized the name, which he rendered into French as “Dene-Dindjie” in the 1870s. The DeneDindjie, according to Petitot, were a family of peoples who could be divided into numerous “tribes”; his names and definitions of those groups varied considerably over the course of his long writing ca¬ reer. Roughly speaking, Petitot applied the name Dindjie to the more northerly people known today as the Gwich’in (Loucheux or Kutchin), and the name Dene to the southern groups, including the Slavey, Dogrib, Chipewyan, and Hare. A second term was introduced in the United States by an early ethnographer, Albert Gallatin. In 1836 he published an essay in the journal of the American Antiquarian Society that identified the Natives of the northwest as “Athapascas.”4 Henry Schoolcraft, in his massive study of American aboriginals prepared for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and published in the 1850s, adopted the term Athapascas to refer to a class of tribes’ living north of the Churchill and Saskatchewan rivers, but he explicitly excluded the Gwich’in from the culture group.5 Other scholars rejected the name “Athapascas.” In 1915 Father A.G. Morice published an extended essay in which he dismissed the term as being a foreign one imposed by American scholars. He preferred to follow Emile Petitot in promoting the use of the Dene’s name for themselves, but he broadened its application to include the western Sekani, Carrier, Chilcotin, and Sarcee as well as the south¬ ern Navajo and Apache.6 The Canadian government also adopted the name in its attempt to describe and categorize the First Nations of Canada in a handbook published in 1913, although the authors of the book entered the spelling as “Tinne.”? Both Athapaskan and Dene continue to be used. Some contempo¬ rary anthropologists prefer to call the people Northern Athapaskans (to differentiate them from their southern relatives, the Navajo and

xv

Introduction

Apache) on the basis of linguistic similarities among the various sub¬ divisions/ Other anthropologists have adopted the term “Dene.”9 1 he people themselves, of course, continue to prefer their own names, a fact demonstrated particularly through the formation of the Dene Nation organization. The Dene today are applying the term in a more limited sense than did Morice, however. The Dene Nation recognizes its members as the Gwich’in, Bearlake (or SahtuDene), Hare, Dogrib, Slavey, Chipewyan, and Mountain people, and sometimes those Cree who live in the vicinity of Fort Smith and Hay River.1" It is this contemporary definition that is used here. This is the story of the people who make their homes in the drainage system of the Mackenzie River, or as the Dene call it today, the Deh-cho. I he Mackenzie drainage system includes an area of over 1.8 mil¬ lion square kilometres in Canada’s western subarctic. The boreal forest gradually gives way on its northeastern margins to the lichen woodland and eventually the Barren Grounds, or tundra. The rocky ridges of the Cordilleran region in the west meet the sedimentary layers of the interior plains along the Mackenzie Valley proper; to the east are the rocky outcrops of the Precambrian Shield. Summers are short but comfortably warm, while winters are long and cold. There is only light precipitation. Thousands of lakes and rivers dot the landscape, giving the Northwest Territories 9 percent of the world’s fresh water. The fish found in these waters grow slowly but are renowned for their fine taste. Principal species include whitehsh, trout, pickerel, and pike. Big game resources include bear, barren ground and woodland caribou, moose and wood bison. Small game includes muskrat, hare, beaver, and marten. There are dozens of species of birds and edible plants as well. In short, while many imag¬ ine the subarctic as a desolate, inhospitable land, there are adequate resources to provide a comfortable living for human inhabitants if those resources are used with care. The Dene are not a homogeneous people. Half a dozen different languages are spoken throughout their homeland, some of which are as different as French and Spanish. People have specialized in different resource-harvesting activities and identify with distinct so¬ cial groups. The exact nature of the differences among groups has been a subject of considerable debate among anthropologists. Do commonly used names represent indigenous distinctions, or were they labels applied by fur traders and non-Dene aboriginal neigh¬ bours? How did the Dene organize their societies? Anthropologists have argued over whether the Dene should be divided into regional

xvi

Introduction

“bands,” resource “task groups,” “clans,” or simply family units. Nu¬ merous maps have been produced that purport to indicate the terri¬ tories inhabited by each culture group at given points in time. These divisions can be problematic because they oversimplify a complex and historically fluid situation. Classification schemes devised by so¬ cial scientists can be helpful devices for some purposes, but they have sometimes also served to obscure what life was truly like for the people, or what the people themselves considered to be their social organization. Even in general terms, classifications of language, cul¬ ture, or economic base are not always useful distinctions, since the many opportunities for interaction among peoples serve to tran¬ scend these differences. Trade, intermarriage, military excursions, and travel all bring separate groups together temporarily and some¬ times permanently. It is because of this complex web of activity that this book addresses the history of the Dene as a whole, rather than attempting to trace the story of any particular group. Nevertheless, certain general population divisions are in common use today. The largest Dene group is the Chipewyan. The name is usually said to be derived from the Cree word meaning “pointed skins,” which described the clothing once worn by these people.11 Today, the Chipewyan live in a wide area across northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta; north along the Mackenzie Valley; and east to the Barren Grounds. Many Chipewyan groups continue to make use of resources in both the boreal forest and the barrens, relying on the migrating caribou in particular but also fishing in the many lakes and streams. Closely related to the Chipewyan, and sometimes described as part of the same nation, are the Yellowknife. These people were so named because of their access to copper, which they traded with their neighbours. They were once reported to be a large and powerful group, but by the end of the nineteenth century, they had almost disappeared. Today they are considered by some to have vanished as an identifiable group,12 while others argue that they still exist as a small regional division of the Chipewyan.13 Another subdivision of the Chipewyan was the Caribou Eater nation, so called by nineteenth-century travellers because of their reliance on the caribou for all their food and shelter needs. The name is no longer in common usage. The Dogrib are found today between the Great Slave and Great Bear lakes. Like the Chipewyan, they based their economy on cari¬ bou and fish, with summer excursions onto the Barren Grounds and winter camps in the shelter of the trees. Today most live in and around Rae-Edzo, Snare Lake, and Lac la Martre. Their name is de¬ rived from a story told widely throughout the north about a woman

xvii

Introduction

who married a magical dog that appeared to her as a man. Their off¬ spring became the ancestors of the Dogrib people. Early fur traders often described the Dogrib together with an¬ other large population group called the Slavey, or Slave. Today, however, the Slavey are always distinguished as a separate group. They are found along the Mackenzie between Great Slave Lake and Fort Norman, along the Liard River to Fort Nelson, and through northern British Columbia and Alberta to Hay River. Large wood¬ land game, fish, birds, and small game form the basis of their econ¬ omy. The early fur traders heard the name “Slave” loosely applied by the Cree and Chipewyan to many different groups, including a band of Plains people who are unrelated to the northern Slavey. For a time in the mid-nineteenth century, a pidgin form of the Slavey language known as “broken Slavey” was widely used along the Mackenzie as a universally understood trading language. The Hare people live west and northwest of Great Bear Lake, with their main community centre at Fort Good Hope. They received their name because of their use of rabbit skins for clothing and for shelter, but they also hunted larger game. Close links were devel¬ oped with their western neighbours, the Gwich’in, and for a time, fur traders referred to a distinct population that appeared through intermarriage as the “Batard-Loucheux,” who lived to the north of the Hare and east of the Gwich’in. The Gwich’in people have also been called the Loucheux and the Kutchin. T hey live along the lower Mackenzie, in the Yukon River valley, and along the Peel River. The name “Loucheux” comes from the French translation of the Chipewyan name for these people and means “squint-eyed.” The name “Kutchin” applies to the larger pop¬ ulation of which the Loucheux are an eastern branch, while the spelling “Gwich’in” is now preferred by the people themselves. As noted, Emile Petitot also referred to them as “Dindjie.”14 The Gwich’in have a number of customs that are quite distinct from other Dene groups because of their long-term interactions with coastal peoples like the Tlingit, including a clan system and potlatch tradition. To the south, the Mountain people live on the slopes west of the Mackenzie and north of the Liard. Most live today in the communi¬ ties of Fort Norman and Wrigley. The name was once applied to a much larger group of mountain dwellers, including the Kaska, Nahanni, Tahltan, and Sekani/s but today the name is usually ap¬ plied to the more specific population. Among other resources, they made use of mountain goats and sheep. Today the Fort Norman and Wrigley people are renowned among their neighbours for their

xviii

Introduction

songs, dances, and medicine powers. I hey are also credited as the inventors of the moose-skin boat.1,1 The people who live around Great Bear Lake are known today as the Bearlake people, or Sahtu-Dene. They are recognized as a mix of Slavey, Dogrib, and Hare who came together during the fur trade to form a distinct group. Although the Dene Nation does not include the Beaver in its list of member groups, these people are culturally and linguistically re¬ lated. They live south of the Slavey and west of the Chipewyan in northeastern British Columbia and northwestern Alberta. These then are the people with whom this history is concerned. The first two chapters will reconstruct as much as possible of their ancient past, drawing on oral traditions, archaeological findings, and linguistic evidence to trace the movement of populations and build a tentative image of what life was like before the arrival of the white men. In chapters 3—5, the story turns to the impact of the arrival of fur traders to the east and south. Long before any Europeans or Ca¬ nadians arrived in the Mackenzie Basin, their presence was being noted. Rearrangements of trade patterns and territories, the impact of unknown disease, and the political responses of the people will be discussed. Once the competitive energies of the Hudson’s Bay Com¬ pany (hbc) and the Montreal fur trade partnerships were directed into the Athabasca country, life changed irrevokably for the Dene. As will be noted, the trade brought both significant improvements and serious challenges. Before 1821 the ferocious disputes among the Euro-Canadian traders had important implications for the Dene; after the hbc and North West Company merged in 1821, the fur trade itself entered a new period of economic and political stabi¬ lization, although relationships among the various nations contin¬ ued to be uneasy. Chapter 6 examines a new element that was introduced into this economic partnership at mid-century, when the first of the Christian missionaries arrived to spread their message. The interaction of the Dene with these newcomers provides a fascinating glimpse into the dynamics of culture contact. People reacted in a variety of ways to the missionaries and their ideas about religion and society, and these reactions will be examined in some detail. Many of the new Christian ideas were directly analogous to traditional Dene concepts, while others were very different. Individuals and communities struggled to come to terms with these ideas, and in the process, other impor¬ tant changes were introduced into their lives. I he missionaries also brought more than a vision of a new religious and social order. They helped to draw the attention of the Canadian governments towards

xix

Introduction

the region and acted as champions of what they believed were Dene interests in their encounters with that government. Chapter 7 looks at the 1880s and i8gos, when the Dene found themselves dealing with a third group of newcomers from “outside.” While they had worked for many years alongside Metis freetraders who operated independently (or semi-independently) of the hbc, they now were meeting white traders, trappers, and prospectors who had been attracted by the promise of quick wealth. Most did not plan to remain in the north and so had very different attitudes about resource harvesting. For the first time, the Dene were forced to com¬ pete for food and furs with outsiders, and disputes inevitably arose. The Canadian government was drawn reluctantly into a more active administrative role in the north in an attempt to deal with these con¬ troversies and address the obvious problems that were developing. As northern resources became more important to Canadians as a whole, the government was finally forced to recognize that its claim to the north involved more than a statement of fact. Treaties 8, 10, and 11 are examined in chapter 8. These treaties were produced as part of the government’s “solution” to the sover¬ eignty issue. The history of these treaties and the subsequent chal¬ lenges to their validity form an important part of the recent Dene past and therefore merit attention. How did the Dene interpret the treaty-making process? Have they benefited in any way? Chapter 9 explores the most recent history of the Dene, which has two main focal points: technological change and economic innova¬ tion. Aviation was introduced to the north by prospectors and trap¬ pers; it has become both a destructive and constructive thread in the socio-economic fabric. Radio and then television have been received with a similar mix of results; for better or worse, they are now an integral part of many lives. Society has also been crucially affected by the institution of the family allowance and old age security programs. The secularization of school curricula and the increased involvement of government in directing the school system as a whole have had a profound impact on everyday life in the north as well. Modern economic changes like the availability of wage employment and the declining overseas fur market must also be considered as important aspects of recent history. Finally, chapter 10 examines what might be called the renaissance of Dene society. A new political awareness, developed during the months of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, may prove to be the most enduring legacy of that episode. Effective use of the Cana¬ dian political system is already producing important results, and or¬ ganizations like the Dene Nation are directing considerable energy

xx

Introduction

towards promoting an awareness of the people’s history and culture. Dim predictions made only a generation ago that the northern Na¬ tive peoples were vanishing seem highly unlikely today. As the Dene struggle to be recognized as a people, it is hoped that an understand¬ ing of the past will help contribute to an enduring plan for the fu¬ ture. The drum songs of the past carry many messages for the children of tomorrow.

A caribou hunt camp. The hunters are displaying the skins in front of them, while the meat is drying on the racks to the rear,

(na pa

19699)

Gwich’ in fish-drying racks. Enormous quantities of fish could be preserved this way for use throughout the winter,

(na pa 101120)

Bloody Falls, near the mouth of the Coppermine River, the probable site of Matonabbee’s attack on the Inuit camp as described by Samuel Hearne.

(na pa

120590)

A Dene woman tending her bsh weir near the family campsite. Women could contribute significant amounts to the diet through gathering close to home, (na pa 42048)

A member of the Mountain people at Fort Norman with the winter’s fur catch. Europeans were outraged that women were expected to carry such heavy loads, but to the Dene it was only natural, since women were believed to be the stronger of the sexes. (Anglican Church of Canada, General Synod Archives

GS-75-103-S3-113)

A cache (probably Chipewyan). The toboggans are loaded and ready for winter, placed on a high platform to prevent damage from animals. (na pa 20010)

Francois Beaulieu, the famous Metis trader who was a thorn in the side of the hbc and a member of a large extended family among the Chipewyan. (na pa 18924)

omi mission at Providence with the recently expanded hospital, circa 1900. The mission garden, in which vegetables, flowers, and herbs were grown, is to the right, (paa)

Snowshoe manufacture, or “knitting,” as the

hbc

sometimes called it. Men

shaped the frames and women prepared and wove the lacing. Snowshoes were a vital trade commodity,

(na c

38174)

A moose-skin boat. Invention of these large and practical boats is attributed to the Mountain people. They were once a common sight along the river routes to Fort Norman,

(na pa

18578)

Group of Grey Nuns and children en route to Providence School, circa 1927—29. The man on the right is Father Vacher, who had served

in the area since 1895. The other is lay brother Tafreielle.

The

hbc

(paa)

steamer Wrigley docking at Fort Simpson. The boat represents

the beginning of a new era for the region, facilitating local communi¬ cations, but also providing easy access for non-Native “outsiders.”

(paa)

A Dene woman preparing a skin. Larger frames for moose or caribou hides are still found in the north today,

(na pa

42104)

A camp on Great Slave Lake, circa 1902. The European clothing, French Canadian sashes and caps, and indigenous housing provide an interesting combination. Note the absence of women,

(paa)

The famous Dogrib hand game. To the accompaniment of the drum, the seated men are attempting to trick their opponents regarding the number of objects under the blanket,

(na pa

102486)

1

When the Earth Was New

Who were the first people to make their homes in the Mackenzie Valley.^' When did they arrive? Archaeologists have been debating these questions for many years, and the answers are as yet by no means certain. The puzzle of ancient Dene history is an important part of the larger puzzle of the ancient history of North America as a whole. Ever since people from Europe and America first met, there have been discussions about population origins. Faced with the biblical interpretation of human origins, Europeans attempted to explain how people had reached the New World. Some suggested that the aboriginal peoples were one of the lost tribes of Israel. Others argued that they had come from Egypt or even from the leg¬ endary city of Atlantis. Nineteenth-century anthropologists devel¬ oped their own ideas. Perhaps the first people of North America had come from Japan, China, or Polynesia. Of course, none of these the¬ ories took into consideration what the aboriginal peoples themselves believed about their origins. Rather, each was promoted to serve the purpose of a particular cause: to provide “scientific” proof of the va¬ lidity of the book of Genesis; to justify seizures of Native peoples’ lands and enforced acculturation; or to provide evidence for cur¬ rent theories of human development. If theologians and early anthropologists were unable to agree on the ancient history of North America, modern archaeologists are no more unanimous. Until relatively recently, many believed that peo¬ ple had lived in North America for less than 2,000 years. Arguments were then raised by a few to suggest that people could have been

4

Drum Songs

living here in very ancient times indeed, well before the last ice age and at a time when homo erectus or homo neanderthalensis lived in Africa and Europe. No conclusive evidence has yet been produced for such ancient habitation of the Americas. Rather, most archaeol¬ ogists now agree that it was probably modern human beings (homo sapiens sapiens) who spread across Africa, Europe, and Asia. Then, as the climate warmed and the glaciers of the last ice age retreated, people also began to settle in North America. The most recent glacial advance in North America began some 70,000 years ago and is referred to by geologists as the Wisconsian phase. Contrary to popular belief, the ice did not “advance” once and then “retreat,” but rather the ice sheets went through several fluctuations. There were two main sheets of ice covering North America: the eastern Laurentide sheet and the western Cordilleran sheet which grew along the western mountain ridges. During the greatest advances of these sheets, they could have merged and co¬ alesced, but during warmer periods, they did not meet, leaving an ice-free land corridor in between. Geologists are still debating the dates at which such a corridor might have been “open,” but there is general agreement as to its periodic existence. Other areas of the northwest have also not always been covered by glaciers. Parts of the Yukon interior and the northern highlands of Yukon and Alaska did not have much more glaciation than at pres¬ ent,1 although much of what is now land was then covered by several glacial lakes. The other important land mass to be exposed during the Wisconsian phase was a vast plain where Bering Strait now exists. Because much of the seawater was held as ice, the sea level was lower than it is today and the level had dropped sufficiently to expose an area of land now referred to as Beringia. Grasses invaded the lands and animal populations undoubtedly followed. Human habitation was therefore at least theoretically possible in some areas of the northwest as early as 40,000 years ago, about the same time as homo sapiens sapiens was appearing in Europe. However, archaeologists have not yet uncovered conclusive evidence of human populations at this very early date. It is now believed that people were living in Alaska and Yukon about 14,000 years ago. These peo¬ ple lived along the ice-free corridor and spread out across the centre of the continent as the glaciers melted and the vegetation and wild¬ life became established. Thus, the first areas in the northwest to be settled were Alaska\ukon and the land strip between the glaciers, which would have been located roughly along the eastern slopes of the mountain ranges and into what would later form the Mackenzie River Valley.

5

When the Earth Was New

The land resembled tundra rather than forest, with several large glacial lakes. Habitation of these areas is now generally dated at 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. However, one find that appears to con¬ tradict such dating was the caribou fleshing tool discovered at Old Crow in the Yukon. I he bone, which was apparently worked by human hands, was dated originally at an age of 23,000 to 28,000 years. Several serious questions have been raised recently about the artifact. Was the radiocarbon dating technique used accurately? Was the bone already ancient before it was made into a tool? Were the cuts and fractures in the bone actually made by human beings or were they the result of animal and weathering impact? Until other materials of similar antiquity are found, the Old Crow bone will un¬ doubtedly remain a focus of controversy. About 7,000 years ago, ice no longer covered the main part of what is now the subarctic regions of the Northwest Territories, and vegetation distribution was forming the more modern patterns. Ev¬ idence of human habitation across the region dating from this pe¬ riod has been discovered. Where did these settlers originate? Some archaeologists have argued that they were people from the northern plains.2 Once the glaciers had melted and the permafrost receded, the land was probably covered initially with grass or tundra-like veg¬ etation, and the climate would have been relatively dry. People who had already adapted to this type of environment to the south would have found it a relatively easy matter to expand northward. A number of archaeological sites found north of Great Slave Lake and east of Great Bear Lake provide some hints of what life was like for these people who lived on the ancient taiga-tundra about 7,000 years ago.3 Their tools were worked from stone, bone, and wood. A wide range of resources was used, including fish, birds, and both large and small game. People were mobile but returned regularly to certain important sites where they probably gathered for the fall fishery or to quarry stone for tools. Their projectile points and blades resemble those of the Plano people more closely than do those of later populations in this area. Many points were made from locally quarried quartzite, which may have been heat treated in the manufacturing process. The climate continued to warm until about 4,000 years ago. The boreal forest extended across the northern plains and northward be¬ yond even where it is found today. While ancient giants like the mammoth had become extinct, other game animals like the caribou and bison became important resources. Three distinct culture groups emerged in the northwest. The first group, sometimes called Shield Archaic, lived in what is now Keewatin District and parts of

6

Drum Songs

Manitoba. They relied on caribou and fish; some lived in partially subterranean homes with caribou-skin covers.4 I he second group lived in the boreal forest to the north and west of Great Slave Lake. Like the Shield Archaic people, they based their economy on cari¬ bou and fish, but developed slightly different tool-making tech¬ niques, which has led archaeologists to classify them as a distinct culture. The third group lived to the west and south of Lake Athabasca, hunting bison and living in a manner more like the northern Plano people. About 4,000 years ago, the climate in the northwest began to turn cooler and wetter. One of the most important results of this change was a gradual retreat of the tree line to the south. Over time, people would have had to adapt to the changing vegetation and resources. The second important change during this period was the arrival of the “Palaeo-Eskimo,” or ancestors of the Inuit. Coming from Asia about 4,000 years ago, they settled along the coastal regions of the Arctic, hunting marine mammals as the basis for their economy. In some areas they also hunted land mammals like the muskox, which brought them into contact with the interior peoples. In other areas, the Palaeo-Eskimo occupied lands that had once been occupied by the Shield Archaic people before the climate had cooled. Meanwhile, it appears that another new group was moving in from the northwest. Archaeologists have identified a tool-making tradition that they have called “Northwest Microblade,” believed to have appeared first in Alaska and then in the Yukon and possibly the Northwest 1 erritories. There is insufficient evidence to draw many conclusions about the origins of this tradition or the economy upon which it was based. By about 3,000 years ago, however, microblades were apparently no longer produced by the interior peoples. Regardless of the disputes about classification of tools at particular sites, general agreement is possible on some broad outlines of what life was like for the peoples of the northwest about 3,000 years ago. The forest dwellers used antler, bone, stone, and wood for fash¬ ioning a variety of tools, including projectile points, knives, scrapers, and sewing materials. In some areas, they also had access to copper, obsidian, red paint stone or ochre, and possibly jade.5 People lived in small regional groups, making use of local resources and develop¬ ing unique regional adaptations, but also enjoying the benefits of trade. A particular stone material quarried near the confluence of the Mackenzie and Keele rivers, for instance, has been found in sites as far apart as Maxhamish Lake in northeastern British Columbia and Chick Lake, north of Norman Wells.6 Although archaeological

7

When the Earth Was New

sites have not produced much evidence of fishing, the location of campsites on lakeshores and along rivers suggests that fish played an important part in the economy. Caribou appear to have been killed primarily by spearing as they passed through river narrows or along regular migration paths. Like the caribou, people who lived in the forest-tundra transition zone moved out onto the tundra in summer and back into the woodland in winter. Woodland bison were hunted by people to the south and west, where that species enjoyed a far broader range than it does today. Very little else can be deduced about these ancient populations. Did they have canoes or other water transport? How large were their bands? What languages did they speak? Unfortunately, archaeologists have been unable to agree whether these forest and tundra dwellers of 3,000 years ago were the direct ancestors of the Dene. At many sites, occupation appears to have been continuous and one technological tradition blends gradually into the next. At other sites, however, there are abrupt changes or breaks in the sequences. As a result, most archaeologists are reluc¬ tant to ascribe any remains older than about 2,000 years to direct Dene ancestors.7 There has been no agreement on whether a partic¬ ular tool-making technique is uniquely Athapaskan and therefore might be used as a “diagnostic marker” at an archaeological dig. Re¬ gional variations in material culture appear to have been strongly pronounced in ancient times, suggesting that bands or family groups lived relatively autonomously from one another. Language might provide a clue about the ancient population spread of the Dene. Linguists have observed that grammar and vo¬ cabulary change with time and geographical distance, and some argue that these changes can be used as indices for measuring pop¬ ulation movement and antiquity.8 Languages spoken today by the Dene are classified as part of the Athapaskan “linguistic phylum,” or group, which has been subdivided into Northern Athapaskan, Southern Athapaskan (or Apachean), and Pacific Athapaskan. While there is considerable disagreement among linguists about the history of these languages, most agree that the differences between Athapaskan languages and other North American aboriginal lan¬ guages constitute evidence that the Dene and their relatives arrived on this continent at a more recent date than other Indian groups, but before the Inuit.9 There is also agreement that the Athapaskan language probably formed a single, unified language until about 2,500 years ago.10 The theory is that these early Athapaskan speak¬ ers lived in central Alaska, from where they began to spread across the mountains to the east and south.

8

Drum Songs

If the linguistic theories and archaeological evidence are com¬ bined, a third theory about ancient Dene history can be advanced. This theory proposes that the Mackenzie Basin was populated orig¬ inally by Plano people as the ice receded, beginning some 10,000 years ago. This population was joined a few thousand years later by descendants of another group with ancient roots in Siberia, who had scattered from east-central Alaska. Whether the newcomers drove out the old or whether the two populations merged peacefully is not explained by this theory. At any rate, it implies that the aboriginal population of the Mackenzie River Valley today could well represent the results of a culture contact situation that occurred over 2,000 years ago.11 It seems unlikely that these various theories could ever be proven or disproven on the basis of archaeological or linguistic evidence alone. It is from the traditions of the Dene themselves that the clear¬ est detail of ancient history can be discovered. According to Dene stories, the very ancient world was a much different place from the world as we now know it. “When the earth was new,” it was popu¬ lated by giants and dwarfs, animals who behaved like people, canni¬ bals, and people who possessed the power to transform themselves at will. This magical world was changed gradually into the world as it now exists. Natural features such as mountains and lakes were formed through the activities of people and animals alike, animals were given their distinctive features, and people moved about the landscape to occupy the lands on which their descendants now find themselves. Probably the most widely known story throughout the north is the story of the great flood. While many versions are told, the most com¬ monly repeated tells us that there was once a terrible winter in which much snow fell and everyone was miserably cold. The animals, de¬ termining to put an end to the winter, discovered seven great bags that held different types of weather. It was the mouse who finally opened the bag of warmth, but the snow melted so fast that the earth was flooded and all land was lost to sight. The animals huddled to¬ gether on a raft, and one by one they attempted to dive to find the earth again. Different versions of the story credit different animals with the final success, but most report that it was the muskrat who at last returned from his dive with a handful of mud. The earth was re¬ built, the waters receded, and the world became as it is today.12 Most Dene groups also tell stories about how their people moved from one land to another. In fact, one of the most persistent themes in Dene oral tradition is the discussion of splits among population groups. One Dogrib story tells of two brothers who were separated

g

When the Earth Was New

after their childhood, one travelling north to the Arctic coast, and the other to the bush country of the Mackenzie.'3 In 1789 the Chipewyan told Alexander Mackenzie that “in ancient times their ances¬ tors lived till their feet were worn out with walking.” They had once lived in another country, they explained, “inhabited by very wicked people.” I hey had emigrated from this country “and had traversed a great lake, which was narrow, shallow and full of islands, where they had suffered a great misery, it being always winter, with ice and deep snow.” *4 Emile Petitot recorded that the Hare told him that “in the beginning,” the Chipewyan, Gwich’in, Beaver, Dogrib, and others were a single people, but a flaming star or comet appeared in the southwest, and the Chipewyan and others broke from the group and travelled to another country.15 A Slavey story reports that peo¬ ple once lived in the mountains and did not know of the riches of the Mackenzie River until an old man showed them the fish it contained and how they could make use of those fish.'6 Since many societies around the world have stories of migrations, folklorists have sometimes interpreted these as allegorical or repre¬ sentative of deep-seated anxieties about separation from loved ones in a dangerous environment. In the case of the Dene, however, one can correlate unique elements in some of these stories to dateable events in order to provide an understanding of what was probably the most important event of ancient Dene history. Using oral tradi¬ tions, archaeological evidence, linguistic theories, and the geological record, one can argue that the ancestors of the Dene lived as a single people in the mountains of what is now the Yukon-Alaska border¬ lands, and that a catastrophic natural event precipitated their dis¬ persal to the east, north, and south in search of new lands. Anthropologists and linguists since the late nineteenth century have accepted the fact that the Navajo and Apache are close relatives of the northern Dene. On the basis of language differences, the split between the groups is now believed to have occurred sometime be¬ tween 500 and 800 ad. William B. Workman of the University of Alaska once proposed that this upheaval may have been caused by a major volcanic eruption in the St Elias Range that occurred at about that time.'7 He later began to doubt the theory because there did not seem to be sufficient archaeological evidence to support it and because, among the people of Alaska with whom he worked, there was no oral tradition of such an event.18 Nevertheless, the theory is a compelling one. Today there is ample evidence available to sup¬ port the fundamental idea that a volcanic eruption forced the Dene to seek new lands. In fact, two eruptions in the St Elias Range would have affected any people living in the region. The volcano is now

io

Drum Songs

referred to as the White River Volcano, and geologists date its most recent eruptions at about 310 ad and 525 ad.19 The second erup¬ tion was the most devastating, since it produced an explosion of enormous violence, equal to or greater than any other volcanic eruption in the last thousand years of earth history.20 It produced a massive ashfall that accumulated to a depth of over a metre in areas south of the White River valley itself, while ash up to 30 centimetres deep has been found in the Yukon River valley. Traceable amounts of ash cover an area of some 324,000 square kilometres downwind from the crater.21 Noxious gases are produced in an eruption of this type, while mudslides, heavy rainfalls of acid rain, and other related phenomena would have created havoc in areas surrounding the volcano. It is hardly surprising that such a devastating event would be com¬ memorated in a people’s history. What is surprising, perhaps, is that these stories would continue to be told for a period of almost 1,400 years. There are versions told by the Hare, Mountain, and Slavey as well as stories with indirect references that might be interpreted as partial memories of the catastrophe. Father Emile Petitot was the first to record stories with references to an exploding mountain. In 1869 one of the Mountain people told him how people had once taken refuge on a mountain after the great flood, hoping to save themselves from future disasters. Instead, “the ground which smoked around them caught fire, the rocks exploded, the mountain opened up and out of it came an enormous fire. Then it exploded with a great fracas, and in its place there was nothing but a vast plain, smoking with debris.” The people fled in terror in all direc¬ tions, unable to understand one another because their languages had changed. This collapse of the high ground happened in the west,” Petitot was told.22 A Hare story also links an exploding moun¬ tain with the prolif eration of languages and the scattering of people. In this version, a magic arrow carries two brothers to the top of a mountain; they hear voices coming from within the mountain, mocking them and saying, “But your languages are not the same, you speak differently from one another.” As more and more people began to arrive at the mountaintop, the brothers settled in to make themselves comfortable. But just as they had lit a fire to cook their food, “the rocks exploded, the people took fright; suddenly the great mountain destroyed itself, collapsed and was transformed into a vast plain. The people found that they could no longer under¬ stand one another, and scattered in all directions, forming the dif¬ ferent nations. 23 A more recently recorded story about the volcano was told by a Slavey storyteller at Fort Simpson in the 1950s: “At the beginning of

11

When the Earth Was New

the world it was winter all the time. Ashes falling like snow. People made caves in the ground and by lakes and lived there ... then when the fire passes, green trees. For everything was burned.”24 Of course, dozens of other stories might be interpreted as containing references to the White River eruption, but these are less obvious and more controversial. For instance, several of the great flood sto¬ ries mentioned above contain suggestions that the flood followed an unusually long and cold winter in which “the air was dark, and thick clouds always covered the sky.”25 Such a description would certainly be apt for conditions following a volcanic eruption. Whether or not the White River volcano contributed to the split between the Northern and Southern Athapaskans, it seems highly likely that it was responsible for significant Dene migration out of the White River region and into a much broader territory that in¬ cluded the Mackenzie drainage system. Life in the new areas re¬ quired adaptations to the new environments. For a number of groups, fish became a more significant item in the diet. As one Hare story explains, “In the beginning ... we did not yet know the Nakotsia-kotcho [Mackenzie River] and we lived amidst the Rocky Mountains. Then an old man went as far as the river and in it saw fish swimming. He set out a net in the rapids and gathered many fish. He then returned to tell us the good news and the people went to settle along the Nakotsia-kotcho.”26 Roman Catholic missionary and early anthropologist Emile Petitot accepted the oral traditions of the Dene as evidence that the Chipewyan in particular had “a primitive home” in what he believed to be the Rocky Mountains. Hence, he and the French Canadian fur trad¬ ers occasionally called them “Montagnais,” in spite of the fact that by the mid-nineteenth century they lived on flat country.27 This ques¬ tion of population movement has been the subject of discussion in more recent studies. Anthropologist James G.E. Smith observed that it was once commonly believed that the Chipewyan had moved east¬ ward from the Peace River region at a much more recent date: in the early eighteenth century following the establishment of the hbc trading posts on Hudson Bay. Smith and Beryl Gillespie challenged this idea of a west-to-east movement.28 While they may indeed be correct about the impact of the fur trade, Petitot was arguing in fa¬ vour of an earlier west/east migration from the mountains, and his remarks seem to have been misunderstood. The other major population movement to which allusion has al¬ ready been made was the migration southward by the ancestors of today’s Navajo and Apache peoples. The history of their travels is a fascinating one, but it remains to be told elsewhere. It is interesting to note, however, that the northern and southern groups continued

12

Drum Songs

to be well aware of each other’s existence. As Father Leopold Osternmann wrote in 1905, the Navajo called their northern relatives the “Dene nahodloni,” meaning “they who are also Navajos.” The Na¬ vajo had a tradition that a party once set out to meet the Dene, but after living with them briefly, the Navajo returned home, unable to convince the Dene to come south with them.29 Another important population shift occurred at a more recent date, when the ancestors of the Sarcee people left their northern homelands for a new life on the plains. The Sarcee have several ver¬ sions of the event. In one, the people were said to have been crossing a frozen lake when they discovered a live elk, frozen into the ice. The elk struggled to free himself and in the process broke up the ice. Many people were drowned, but one group survived because of its position on a floating ice pan. They drifted away from their rela¬ tives, the Beaver, and found a new home in the south.30 Besides these forced migrations, people also moved by choice. Trade networks were established for precious commodities like cop¬ per, which was apparently derived from two main sources: the Cop¬ permine River and the White River (also known as the Copper River) area of Yukon-Alaska. The copper was pounded into sheets that could be folded, pressed, and formed into the desired shapes. Copper blades, hooks, and awls, as well as decorative items such as beads and bracelets, have been found over a wide geographical area, indicating that considerable trade and contact between groups must have occurred.31 The oldest copper implement found in the Mackenzie District has been tentatively dated at 700 to 400

bc,

but

most copper tools date from more recent sites.32 It is not clear whether those who gathered the copper also manufactured the items for trade, or whether the copper was exchanged before it had been worked. According to at least one oral tradition, the copper was worked into tools before it was traded, so the miners were also manufacturers.33 Oral tradition is also very specific about the discovery of copper. Two of the published versions dealing with the Coppermine site credit copper’s discovery to a Dene woman who was living among the Inuit but became lonely for her own people. With the assistance of a wolf, she began to make her way home. Along the route, she found the copper, and realizing its value, she marked her pathway home from the site by dropping stones as she went. Her own people treated her badly, however, so she determined to return to the cop¬ per source and prevent evil doers from gaining access to it. There she remained for the rest of her life, gradually sinking into the ground. 34 As one version of the story has it, “It is said that she made

13

When the Earth Was New

metal with her lungs and her heart and if she was given meat she would give metal in return.”35 Her people became known as the Yel¬ lowknife, and their role as traders of copper continued into the eigh¬ teenth century. More stories have survived about the discovery of the copper along the White (Copper) River. In one of these, credit for the dis¬ covery is again given to a woman who had been seized by enemies, but in this case she finds the copper on the top of a high mountain, then continues to travel east to find her people. It is interesting that in the two versions of this story transcribed by Emile Petitot, refer¬ ences are made to a “flaming mountain” and a volcano.3® Since the White River volcano is located near the source of the copper, these stories provide further evidence of the significance of that site to Dene history, even though the copper trade from this source even¬ tually came to be controlled by other groups.37 Dene stories also tell of people who no longer exist. The Dogrib told

Emile Petitot that many years earlier a group called the

“Tp-une,” or “Lake People,” lived at Great Bear Lake. The Dogrib wanted their lands and so launched a surprise attack on the Tp-une, killing all the people.38 Clearly, many important events that oc¬ curred hundreds of years ago have now been forgotten, and we may never know exactly how the ancestors of the Dene lived in the days before the Europeans arrived. Nevertheless, archaeological clues do provide some idea about everyday life for the Dene over the 1,000 years preceding the arrival of Europeans. Stone tool manufacturing ceased to dominate the ma¬ terial culture in this period; although stone tools continued to be used, new tools made of bone and antler became increasingly impor¬ tant. The manufacture of microblade-style tools was replaced with that of medium-sized tools of fine workmanship. Snaring and spear¬ ing game continued to be the most important hunting techniques, but an innovative weapon began to be adopted; evidence suggests that bows and arrows were first used in the eastern Chipewyan lands about 500

ad

and reached Great Slave Lake about 600 years later.39

Some people continued to hunt caribou and fish in the forest lands and along the forest-tundra transition zone, while others continued to rely on the bison in the forest-parkland zones. Scrapers are the most common tool found at many sites, indicating the importance of hide preparation. Many stone tools were not made from locally available materials, leading archaeologists to speculate that either there was considerable population movement or a large and active trade network was in place. To the north, interaction between Inuit and Indian produced an exchange of tools and manufacturing tech-

14

Drum Songs

niques, while in the west similar cultural exchanges were occurring between the mountain and coastal peoples. A wide variety of food resources was used. At one site between the modern communities of Arctic Red River and Inuvik, faunal remains were analysed and found to include the common loon, arctic loon, red-throated loon, red-necked grebe, trumpeter swan, “oldsquaw,” white winged sco¬ ter, moose, caribou, muskrat, beaver, and dog or wolf. While no re¬ mains of fishing gear were positively identified at this site, fish bones were found and these were of sufficient size to indicate that they had not been caught in shallow water close to shore, which would suggest that the people must have built boats.40 Archaeologists have been unable to confirm what those boats would have looked like, however. All of the thousand-year-old campsites discovered so far have been relatively small, and hence they were probably used by no more than a few families who travelled and fished together. Each site was used repeatedly, however, as people returned seasonally to favourite fish lakes or hunting territories. Different housing styles developed in different regions. Skin tents were common in the south and cen¬ tral regions, but in northern Yukon several excavations have uncov¬ ered “housepits.” A hole was dug into the ground of one metre or more in depth and several metres across. Poles or logs were appar¬ ently arranged to form a roof frame, which was then covered with bark or branches. Inside, the earth floor might also have been cov¬ ered with bark or branches, while an open fireplace was established in the centre. To date, only one subterranean house site has been found in the Mackenzie District, and it appears to have been built much more recently. Around these houses, archaeologists have found small holes dug in the ground to the frost line. These pits may have been used as fish caches in the way some people still store per¬ ishables today. Containers for storage appear to have been manufac¬ tured from birch-bark sewn with root material, a technique also still known today. Few charred bones have been found at any of these old campsites, leading to speculation that most food was prepared by being boiled in containers rather than by open roasting, an observa¬ tion substantiated in oral tradition. Rocks were heated in the fire and then dropped into the cooking vessel.41 Regional variations in material culture were apparently signifi¬ cant, but clearly, much is not known about Dene history during the years of population expansion before the arrival of Europeans. Equally clear, however, is the conclusion that that momentous event was not preceded by thousands of years of unchanging existence for the peoples of the subarctic. The term “aboriginal baseline” was once used by social scientists to describe Native societies before their con-

15

When the Earth Was New

tacts with Europeans, but the concept is very misleading. It implies that all changes in aboriginal societies have occurred since their con¬ tacts with Europeans; before that date, by implication, aboriginal peoples lived continuously in essentially the same way. While we may not know as much about ancient times as we do about the recent past, it is clear that many changes occurred. Some people moved to new lands as the climate modified and influenced the natural re¬ sources available for human use. Other people adapted to new con¬ ditions in their old lands. Trade brought new ideas about the world as well as new tools and techniques for manufacturing them. Com¬ petition for land and resources precipitated warfare in some cases and brought about agreements in others. The Dene adapted suc¬ cessfully to an environment that demanded detailed knowledge and specialized skills.

Map 1 The Dene Homeland

2 Life in the Eighteenth Century

Direct contact between the eastern Dene and Europeans began sometime in the late seventeenth century in the Hudson Bay Low¬ lands. Nevertheless, even before such contacts had occurred, the presence of newcomers among neighbours to the east and west had precipitated changes. New trade contacts were incorporated into some already-existing patterns and caused disruptions in others. Re¬ distribution of wealth and power occurred in some areas, while in others little would change. New reasons for conflict developed as people adapted to changing economies or new territories. The im¬ pact of new diseases also became a significant part of life. Scholars once referred to this period in a people’s history as the “protohistoric” era, meaning the period immediately before the “historic” era, or period of direct interaction with Europeans. Not only is such an interpretation highly ethnocentric, implying that before the arrival of Europeans, Native peoples did not have a recordable history, but it is based on a very limited definition of the term “history.” Many historians have come to recognize that there is more to the past than what has been recorded in the written documents of nations or leaders; other scholars must follow that lead in modifying their understanding of the definition of history. Instead of being termed “protohistoric,” this period of the Dene’s past might better be re¬ ferred to as the period of indirect contact. Because it is relatively re¬ cent, more details about people’s lives and the distribution of Dene groups can be determined. What was the nature of Dene society on the eve of contact with Europeans?

18

Drum Songs

Two major culture groups can be distinguished, much as archae¬ ologists have suggested for the earlier period described in the last chapter. The forest and mountain people made their homes in the full boreal forest along the shores of rivers and lakes and in the mountains west of the Mackenzie River. The caribou hunters lived in the transition zone between the forests and the Barren Grounds, following the great caribou herds seasonally back and forth across their lands. Each of these groups was made up of bands of people united by bonds of kinship, political agreements, and economic ties. Both the composition of these bands and their territorial distribu¬ tion have been matters of considerable debate. Anthropologist John Ives has devoted an entire book, A Theory of Northern Athapaskan Pre¬ history, to an analysis of what he calls the “principles of group forma¬ tion” in the precontact northwest. He argues that kinship relations and economic strategies were important variables in the ways local groups were formed.1 Because he draws his evidence from ethno¬ graphic studies and the scattered observations of fur traders, his theory is interesting and provocative but bound to remain contro¬ versial. Very little direct evidence, either oral or written, has sur¬ vived to tell us much about Dene social life in the distant past. Much will necessarily remain speculative. Nevertheless, some clues do re¬ main about life in the eighteenth century. Flexibility and adaptabil¬ ity were perhaps the central characteristics of Dene society. The Dene themselves recognized distinct nations among their people, each associated with a specific geographical region. Each na¬ tion was named for an important characteristic of its lands or for the major resource upon which it based its economy. Thanadelthur, a Chipewyan woman who played a major role in initiating contact be¬ tween the Dene and the Hudson’s Bay Company, told the English in 1717 that these nations included the Marten People, the Buffalo People, the Fish People, the Ice People, and the Partridge People. Although language differences existed, they could all understand one another. The Dene nations had also established relations with five other nations who lived in the lands around their borders. Thanadelthur reported that although her people did not under¬ stand the languages of their neighbours, they were “friends” and had the custom of marrying “one amongst another” to perpetuate that friendship.2 The size of each band varied according to its purpose, the time of year, and the nature of the available food supply. Sometimes a single family, consisting of a man, a woman, and possibly up to five or six

children,3 would set off on an expedition for berries, small-game hunting, or trade. More often, families grouped together around a

lg

Life in the Eighteenth Century

successful hunter or an able shaman who would watch out for their interests. Lents at these campsites were large (13 to 16 metres in di¬ ameter)^ which suggests that more than one family could be accom¬ modated in each. Samuel Hearne noted one such camp composed of two tents that was home to over twenty women and children, plus an unrecorded number of men who had gone off to trade.5 Caribou hunting was a group activity involving all members of the band; the herds were certainly large enough to feed a sizeable population, and the more hands available, the more could be taken, as will be de¬ scribed. In the west, where people relied more heavily on solitary game like moose, smaller bands appear to have been the rule during the hunt, but people gathered in larger groups to fish in the spring and fall, when the rich aquatic resources could support a much larger concentration of people. It will never be possible to determine the total Dene population through the eighteenth century, but it is clear that the “Northern In¬ dians” (as the first Hudson’s Bay Company traders called them) were more numerous than has been popularly believed. Thanadelthur re¬ ported to James Knight that she had seen “above a 100 Tents of her Country Men” while she was attempting to negotiate a peace in the lands of the Churchill drainage system east of Great Slave Lake.6 Given Hearne’s observations about camp size, 100 tents might mean at least 1,000 people.7 While Thanadelthur may have been exagger¬ ating to pique Knight’s interest in trade with her people, records of the numbers of Northern Indians who eventually visited Churchill would seem to confirm a significant population in the eastern dis¬ tricts. Between 1719 and 1735, over 1,100 Northern Indian visits to Churchill were recorded in the post journal, averaging 62 people per year, of which about one-third were men without their families.8 The largest band included

130 people. Some forty years later,

Hearne was able to gather a band of 150 men and a few women for his journey to Coppermine. When they rejoined the main group, Hearne reported there were more than fifty “tents.”9 Since it is rea¬ sonable to assume that not all Northern Indians had contacts with the Englishmen at the coast, these figures would suggest that Thanadelthur’s reports of the population in the Churchill hinter¬ land may not have been far wrong. How many Yellowknife, Dogrib, and others lived beyond them will never be known. Links between the smaller bands were forged through marriage and adoption processes. While some anthropologists have argued that kinship was traced bilaterally (that is, through both the father and the mother), the evidence for such a conclusion is limited. Few traders were interested in recording how people identified their

20

Drum Songs

families, and glimpses of evidence from one region and time cannot be generalized to cover all places or times.1" At any rate, relation¬ ships must have provided important ties as well as a means of distin¬ guishing one’s group identity, but blood kinship was not the sole determinant of who was considered a Northern Indian and who was not. Marriage, adoption, and exchanges of children from outside the group were also important ways in which an extended network of allies and partners could be established. Hence, Yellowknife and Cree might be found living with a Chipewyan band. In the case of important leaders such as Matonabbee and Keelshies, who traded at Churchill, these networks could be surprisingly wide¬ spread. Matonabbee’s band, for instance, apparently maintained contacts all the way from Churchill to Coppermine, and Matonab¬ bee himself knew the geography of that vast area very thoroughly indeed. While ties of kinship and political agreement united the bands in a common sense of identity with a larger region, local identity seems to have been more important in daily life. When the fur traders first encountered the Dene, the traders could not distinguish local iden¬ tities and referred to all as “Northern” Indians. Later, they became more precise in their designations. It was once believed that this change in their observations meant that the Dene had become more socially differentiated because of the impact of the fur trade econ¬ omy, but such an interpretation stems from a misunderstanding of the written records. The changes in the fur trade journals on this point probably reflect a more sophisticated understanding on the part of the traders rather than a sudden change in Dene social orga¬ nization. Changes did, in fact, occur in Dene society because of the fur trade (as will be examined), but shifts in band identity do not seem to have occurred until a much later date. The family was the basic unit around which bands were orga¬ nized. Marriage partnerships were generally arranged by parents, although men sometimes took wives from enemy bands and mar¬ riage bonds were sufficiently flexible to permit personal choice. A very successful hunter might have more than one wife (Matonabbee was reputed to have had seven), but polygamy was less common than was reported by nineteenth-century missionaries. Marriages could be dissolved for many reasons: a bad character, poor health, loss of interest in one’s spouse, or a woman’s unfaithfulness.11 Children were very highly prized. At the birth of a child, Chipe¬ wyan women would retain a portion of the umbilical cord, which they would place in an elaborately decorated cover and hang about their necks.12 In the west, both parents would change their names

21

Life in the Eighteenth Century

after the birth of a son to reflect their new status in the community. Gah (The Hare), who fathered a son named M’biss (The Knife), would become M’biss-tah (The Knife’s Father). A man who had no children might be known as the “father” of a favourite possession, such as a dog; a woman who had no children might be given a de¬ rogatory name. *3 These naming practices were followed by some of the Mackenzie River people as well. The Hudson’s Bay Company ac¬ count books reveal, however, that the custom had disappeared in that region by the mid-nineteenth century. Children were spaced two or three years apart, so families were not large, although Samuel Hearne recorded that they generally included five or six children.14 Female infanticide was practised across the north in times of hard¬ ship; desperate conditions necessitated desperate responses and boys were valued more highly, since they would grow up to hunt for the group. As W.F. Wentzel reported, people believed that “it is a great deal of trouble to bring up girls, and that women are only an encumbrance, useless in time of war and exceedingly voracious in times of want.”*5 European observers were amazed at the lack of concern paid to childbirth and the speed with which the new mother resumed her duties or travel with the group. Alexander Mackenzie concluded that their “continual and regular exercise must contribute to the welfare of the mother, both in the progress of parturition and in the moment of delivery.”16 Dene children, like those of many other North American aboriginal societies, were given great free¬ dom and were never disciplined or treated harshly. They were, how¬ ever, expected to assist in the work of the band. Girls in particular would begin to help their mothers at about age five.*7 The most elaborate coming-of-age ceremony in Dene society was reserved for women. At puberty, the young woman would remain for the duration of her first menstruation (and sometimes longer) in a small tent or hut isolated from the others, eating only certain types of food and using special vessels and a drinking tube, wearing spe¬ cial clothing, and often receiving the visits of only one female rela¬ tive. Among some groups, a further ceremony involving the entire community might follow.'8 Throughout the rest of her life, she would observe this and other menstrual customs, including special rules about the handling of men’s tools and crossing hunters’ paths. Although European observers later interpreted these taboos as evi¬ dence of women’s inferior status in Dene society, Dene women themselves did not see them this way. Menstruation was the sign of a potent power particular to women, and from a sense of responsi¬ bility to the community, women felt obliged to be cautious and to avoid causing harm at those times. Menstrual customs could also be

22

Drum Songs

a highly practical means to assert control over one’s life, as Samuel Hearne recorded: It is also a piece of policy with the women, upon any difference with their husbands, to make that an excuse for a temporary separation ... This cus¬ tom is so generally prevalent among the women, that I have frequently known some of the sulky dames leave their husbands and tent for four or five days at a time, and repeat the farce twice or thrice a month, while the poor men have never suspected the deceit, or if they have, delicacy on their part has not permitted them to enquire into the matter.19

Dene women were not only the possessors of special spiritual powers, they were also believed to be physically stronger than men. As Matonabbee explained, “women were made for labour: one of them can carry, or haul, as much as two men can do.”20 Work was clearly divided on the basis of sex. Men were the hunters of large game, and they manufactured boats and hunting tools. Women per¬ formed nearly every other duty, including all meal preparation, clothing and household utensil production, child rearing (to a cer¬ tain age), cutting and carrying firewood, collecting the animals killed by the men, butchering and possibly distributing the meat at camp, as well as hauling all possessions when the band was on the move. As David Thompson later noted, “The women are very heavily loaded; the men with little else than their gun and their fishing tackle, even a girl of eight years will have her share to carry; while the Boys have some trifle, or only their Bows and Arrows.”21 Women also contrib¬ uted a significant portion of the food supply through gathering eggs, berries, and roots as well as fishing and snaring small animals. Among the eastern bands, they also played a crucial role in the kill¬ ing of large game. Later European observers were quite perplexed about the role of Dene women and the heavy demands placed on them, since in their own culture women were believed to be the “weaker” sex. A portrait of subservient and submissive Dene women emerges from the fur trade literature, leaving the historian with the task of deciding whether this image reflected reality or simply European value judg¬ ments. Certainly, the Europeans read their own assumptions about inferior’ tasks into the First Nations’ social organization, but the available evidence suggests that the Dene considered men’s and women s work to be different but not of relatively higher or lower value. Furthermore, because of the clearly defined separation of men s and women s worlds, Dene women seldom discussed women’s topics with male European traders or missionaries. Thus, the written

23

Life in the Eighteenth Century

record is out of balance in favour of men’s interests. Clearly, in purely economic terms, women’s contribution to the Dene economy was equal to that of men, and perhaps even of greater importance to the subsistence of the family or the band. But while women’s eco¬ nomic contribution may have suggested an egalitarian society, other evidence suggests that women’s status in precontact Dene society may have been lower than that of men when it came to widely held attitudes. Female infanticide was practised, but rarely male infanti¬ cide; men could share or exchange their wives without taking the women’s views into account; and childless women were disparaged, while childless men were not. Some oral traditions also suggest that women were not accorded status equal to that of men. Elderly women today sometimes recall the hardships of their old way of life as unique to them as women, and are grateful that their grand¬ daughters no longer must work constantly at such physically de¬ manding tasks as those that filled their days when they were young. Certainly, the importance of women in precontact Dene society has been very much underestimated and overlooked in the literature, but one must not go so far as to suggest that precontact life was a sort of egalitarian “golden age” in which men and women were equally valued. The elderly in Dene society also lived with considerable uncer¬ tainty. Highly valued as knowledgeable advisers, they had a key role to play in educating the children and assisting with plans for the hunt or for warfare. However, in times of scarcity, they could be considered as liabilities and left to die if they could not keep up with the rest of the band in its travels. Death customs appear to have var¬ ied. In some areas, the dead were buried or wrapped in skins. In others, the bodies were placed on platforms in trees. It was a wide¬ spread custom, however, to abandon or destroy all the belongings of a person who had died, and to move camp to a new site. Mourning might be brief and personal or prolonged and public, including selfmutilation (such as cutting off one’s fingertip to symbolize the enor¬ mity of one’s loss). Some western groups believed that the spirit of a dead person could be reborn in a new baby, continuing the cycle of life. The importance of the caribou to the eighteenth-century Dene has been widely recognized. There are actually four subspecies of caribou in the north, three of which are harvested by the Dene. The largest population is the Barren Ground caribou, found in the tun¬ dra between Hudson Bay and Great Slave Lake, and north to the Arctic Ocean. To the west in the boreal forest zone are found the woodland caribou, while a herd of Grant’s caribou (found primarily

24

Drum Songs

in Alaska) may be found in the northwestern regions of what is now Yukon. Scientists believe that the ranges of these caribou herds have remained relatively consistent since the late precontact period, al¬ though numbers may now have declined and the territorial range shrunk somewhat in recent years. Barren Ground females give birth to single calves during the first two weeks of June on the calving grounds; then the herds gradually congregate and begin to move across the land. As summer draws to a close, the large herds begin to divide and head south towards the trees. By late October the rut is under way as the males battle one another for the females. After the rut, the herds continue to move into the shelter of the bush, where they spend the winter foraging before beginning the cycle anew.22 The relatively predictable movements of these animals en¬ abled the eastern Dene to develop effective harvesting methods for a regular and dependable supply of food and of the raw materials used for clothing, shelter, and tools. Several methods were used in taking caribou. The most elaborate involved the construction of a caribou surround (pound), sometimes referred to as a “deer hedge” by European observers. A site was cho¬ sen where the caribou passed regularly within easy distance of a wooded area, which would supply the poles and roots needed for construction. Samuel Hearne described the process as follows: The pound is built by making a strong fence with brushy trees, without ob¬ serving any degree of regularity, and the work is continued to any extent, according to the pleasure of the builders. I have seen some that were not less than a mile around, and am informed that there are others still more exten¬ sive. The door, or entrance of the pound, is not larger than a common gate, and the inside is so crowded with small counter-hedges as very much to re¬ semble a maze; in every opening of which they set a snare, made with thongs of parchment deer-skins well twisted together, which are amazingly strong.

Rows of brush were then established leading to the opening of the pound so that the caribou would be guided into it from a distance. The people camped at a convenient nearby location until the ap¬ proaching caribou were sighted. Then, men, women, and children walk along the lake or river-side under cover of the woods, till they get behind them [the caribou], then step forth to open view, and proceed towards the pound in the form of a crescent. The poor timorous deer ... run straight forward in the path till they get into the pound. The Indians close in, and block up the entrance with some brushy trees ... the women and children walk round the pound, to prevent them

25

Life in the Eighteenth Century

from breaking or jumping over the fence, while the men are employed spearing such as are entangled in the snares, and shooting with bows and ar¬ rows those which remain loose in the pound.23

Archaeologists have reported a variety of types of these pounds, in¬ cluding a V-shape, straight lines with openings where snares could be set, and more circular arrangements.24 Once a pound had been constructed and proven successful, people might return to it over many seasons. According to oral tradition, the building of a pound was very much a community effort, since as many as fifty people might be needed for a large hunt. Among the Gwich’in, one man made the decision about the location of the pound, but all shared in its construction and in the meat thereby obtained.25 There has been some debate over whether these pounds were used year-round or seasonally,26 but the evidence of Samuel Hearne is clear on the point that caribou were taken throughout the year. In March of 1771, he visited a camp of Chipewyan “who had resided there [a] great part of the Winter, snaring deer.”27 Nevertheless, caribou killed in Au¬ gust or September were preferred because the winter skins were too thin and full of warbles to be useful for clothing, while meat har¬ vested during the rutting season was considered to have an unpleas¬ ant flavour. European observers were amazed at the numbers of caribou taken by the Dene in these pounds. They “Sett an Incredible Number of Deer Snares and ketch abundance of Deer in them,” recorded James Knight in 1716,28 while Samuel Hearne noted that it was “almost in¬ credible” how many animals were taken and yet the numbers were apparently never reduced.29 In fact, people who built caribou pounds were able to secure sufficient meat to enable them to live rel¬ atively sedentary lives, contrary to popular belief about nomadic hunter-gatherers.30 Hearne explained that this method of hunting was “sometimes so successful, that many families subsist by it without having occasion to move their tents above once or twice during the course of a whole winter.”31 The pound was only one of a number of techniques for killing car¬ ibou. Snares might be set along paths used regularly by the caribou, and frequently the hunters would lie in wait alongside narrow river crossings, where the swimming animals could be speared easily. In winter the caribou might be driven across the ice of a frozen lake into snares set along the shores across the caribou trails.32 These snares were made from strips of unprocessed moose or caribou hide. Ten to thirty strands were tied into a long cord of up to three “fathoms” (about five and a half metres) in length for large animals

26

Drum Songs

and shorter cords for small game like hare and partridge. The snares were thus cords of relatively small diameter strong enough to hold any animal that became caught in them.33 It was also observed that caribou could be attracted by the sound of ringing produced by hammering stones together; people may have been able to draw the animals to within shooting range with such a ruse.34 Alexander Mackenzie commented that while caribou taken through a group ef¬ fort were considered communal property by the Chipewyan, those caught in snares were considered the private property of the person who had set the snare. Nevertheless, an unsuccessful hunter was en¬ titled to help himself as long as he left the prime cuts of meat for the snare’s owner.35 The combination of snare and spear was highly effective and less¬ ened considerably the risk of a miss by an unskilled marksman. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the eastern Dene did not make ex¬ tensive use of the bow and arrow for hunting. Samuel Hearne com¬ mented: “I never knew any of them who could take those weapons only, and kill either deer, moose or buffalo, in the common, wander¬ ing and promiscuous method of hunting.”36 David Thompson re¬ corded the fact that, unlike all other North American First Nations, the Chipewyan held their bows horizontally (rather than vertically) so that “with the Bow string thus drawn to the breast, which does not allow to the Bow two thirds of its force,” the aim was excellent, “but the arrows are feeble in effect.”37 It would hardly have seemed to matter, given the efficiency of the snare and spear method. The caribou was important particularly to the Chipewyan and Gwich’in not only for its meat, but also for its hide, which provided the raw material for clothing and shelter. Samuel Hearne estimated that each individual needed an average of twenty skins a year for clothing and other uses, not counting the skins required for tents, bags, and other shared items. A single suit of winter clothing for an adult used eight to eleven skins.38 It has been estimated that a lodge (housing eight to ten people) would have required forty to fifty skins.39 Caribou sinews were important for sewing and construction of domestic utensils. Bones were smashed or split and then boiled to release the marrow fat, while all parts of the carcass and inner organs were used for food. Woodland caribou do not appear to have played a role of equal significance in the economy of the boreal forest bands, although they were also hunted. In summer this species ranges along the tree line in the mountains, then moves to lower areas in the winter if food suPP1y is limited at higher altitudes. Herd sizes tend to be smaller, and there is as yet no evidence that Woodland peoples built caribou pounds.

27

Life in the Eighteenth Century

1 he importance of caribou as a resource has led a number of an¬ thropologists to the conclusion that band identity was based on use of specific caribou herds rather than on geographic location gener¬ ally. Bryan Gordon has argued that the Chipewyan hunted what are now called the Beverly and Kaminuriak herds, the Yellowknife and Dogrib hunted the Bathurst herd, and the Sahtu-dene hunted the Bluenose herd.40 By extrapolation, the Gwich’in would be linked to the Porcupine herd. Such an interpretation is based on the assump¬ tion that the territories inhabited by each herd have not changed sig¬ nificantly over time, a point not yet proven conclusively. Some of the caribou meat was eaten fresh, but preserving it for later use was an important art that women began to learn at an early age. The roughly butchered parts were hauled back to camp, where the women sliced the meat thinly and spread it on drying racks. Sometimes the sun and wind alone would be sufficient, but at other times slow-burning fires would be kindled to assist in the process. In times when travel was urgent, people could improvise, as Samuel Hearne observed his Chipewyan companions do in the spring of 1772. “We fastened it on the tops of the women’s bundles, and dried it by the sun and wind as we were walking,” he wrote, “and strange as it may appear, meat thus prepared is not only very substantial food, but pleasant to the taste.”41 Hearne also appreciated one of the finest Chipewyan delicacies, prepared solely of caribou parts, which he called “beeatee”: It is a kind of haggis, made with the blood, a good quantity of the fat shred small, some of the tenderest of the flesh, together with the heart and lungs cut, or more commonly torn into small shivers; all which is put into the stomach, and roasted, being suspended before the fire by a string ... When it is sufficiently done, it will emit steam, in the same manner as a fowl or joint of meat; which is as much to say, Come, eat me now: and if it be taken in time, before the blood and other contents are too much done, it is certainly a most delicious morsel, even without pepper, salt, or any other seasoning.42

While it is undeniable that the caribou played a significant role in the eighteenth-century Dene culture and economy, its importance should not be overstated. People made use of a variety of resources. Fish were a vital food source, the value of which has often been over¬ looked in studies of the Dene economy. One of the problems has been the fact that most archaeological sites have not produced much evidence of fish use even though oral traditions indicate otherwise. One possible explanation was offered by anthropologist Robert Jarvenpa. Observing contemporary Chipewyan use of fish, he noted that “most fish remains are purposely disgarded away from major

28

Drum Songs

centres of activity, either into nearby lakes and rivers or into off-site muskeg areas” (for obvious reasons!), furthermore, nets, hooks, and related materials were carefully curated, and eventually re¬ moved in the process of site abandonment. 43 It is also clear that since fragile fish bones deteriorate rapidly in the acidic northern soils, evidence of the extent of fishing at any older sites will be limited. Early European travellers recorded a well-developed fishing tech¬ nology across the north. Fish were caught in nets or by individual line angling with hooks. The people with whom Samuel Hearne travelled made their nets of strips cut from unprocessed caribou hides, while other bands are known to have constructed their nets from willow or spruce roots. Hearne’s companions were very partic¬ ular about attaching the bills and feet of certain birds along the top and bottom of the net, while the jawbones and feet of otters were tied to the four corners. These amulets were chosen for their ability to attract the fish. Conservation measures were also important. Hearne noted that while these nets could have been easily tied to¬ gether to span the river channel completely, people preferred to set their nets widely scattered apart so as not to overfish each stream. Amulets were equally important in line angling. Fish skins were used as bait, but wrapped inside was a collection of items of significance to the fisherman, such as parts of a beaver tail, otter teeth, human hair, or squirrel testicles. Hearne was told that different articles were nec¬ essary in different lakes and rivers.44 Clearly, detailed and extensive knowledge of these techniques was an important survival skill. Al¬ though Hearne did not mention it, fish were also speared while they swam through shallow waters and some groups of people probably constructed fish weirs to simplify the task. The techniques of ice fish¬ ing were also well understood. Setting the nets was apparently a man’s task, but gathering the catch was done by women to a consid¬ erable extent. The potential harvest was extensive. Samuel Hearne reported trout “of the largest size I ever saw” and pike “also of an incredible size in the eastern arm of Great Slave Lake.45 Other important spe¬ cies included whitehsh, pickerel, and a fish later to be named “inconnu” by white visitors. Roe was apparently as much valued as the meat; the Chipewyan dried certain types for easy transport and used it dry or fresh in the preparation of a thick white broth, which was considered a great delicacy.4b Some of the more northerly Chipe¬ wyan bands apparently had adopted the Inuit custom of eating raw fish and considered it delicious in that state.4? Alexander Mackenzie reported extensive drying racks built by the Gwich’in and in-ground pits for winter storage of the catch.

29

Life in the Eighteenth Century

Cei tain lakes and streams were known as better sources for fish than others, and many of the sites still used today as gathering places have been used as such for many generations. There has been some debate, however, about whether the Mackenzie River itself was used extensively for hshing before the fur trade was introduced. There is scant archaeological evidence for extensive use, and oral traditions in some areas suggest that Mackenzie’s banks were relatively unin¬ habited. 48 On the other hand, nwt archaeologist Chris Hanks has argued that the eddies along the shores of the Mackenzie provide excellent hshing conditions and “the existence of a well developed aboriginal net technology at contact” is strongly suggestive of lengthy use.49 When Alexander Mackenzie travelled along the river in 1789, he did not meet many people but saw ample evidence of oc¬ cupation, including a number of fish camps.50 Fish, therefore, were like caribou in that they probably provided a significant proportion of the diet as well as a focal point for social gatherings. Also like caribou, they were not a guaranteed resource. Fluctuating water levels, changing weather conditions, and other unexplained events caused variations in the numbers of fish; there¬ fore, a range of food sources was not only prudent but even neces¬ sary. Other large game of particular importance to the forest people were the moose and the woodland bison. Since moose are solitary rather than herd animals, moose hunting was more difficult and less certain of success than caribou hunting. The skill and power of indi¬ vidual hunters were thus of greater importance, and fewer people could rely on moose hides or meat as a major source of protein. Moose were snared like caribou, but could also be tracked and shot with bows and arrows.51 Wood buffalo ranged through the parklands of what are now the Prairie provinces west to the mountains and north to Lac la Martre. There is evidence that they may have been found in southeastern Yukon,52 and in 1831 two were seen in the vicinity of Fort Simpson, though their appearance there was noted as highly unusual.53 Even the Chipewyan had knowledge of bison-hunting techniques, as Samuel Hearne noted in 1772.54 Un¬ fortunately, there is little record (written or oral) of exactly how the Dene hunted bison. Black bear were taken primarily in winter, when the hibernating bear could be speared easily in its den. Although elk are found in Dene lands, they do not appear to have been popular prey unless other game failed, according to Hearne.55 Small game were also important to the Dene. Snaring small ani¬ mals was considered to be women’s work in the eighteenth century, and a great variety of meat and skins could be gathered in this way, making women’s contribution to the food supply a crucial one. A

30

Drum Songs

number of bands, for instance, used hare so commonly for their gar¬ ments that they became known as the Hare people. Porcupine quills were used for elaborate ornamentation, and young boys developed hunting skills by catching squirrels. Samuel Hearne reported that the Chipewyan would not eat foxes, wolves, or wolverines, however, because these were scavengers that fed upon the bodies of the dead.56 Nearly all small game appear to have been taken by snaring; traps were introduced only very gradually. Birds were killed for their feathers as well as their flesh; eagle feathers were particularly prized for arrows. I he story of the man who hid in an eagle s nest to obtain some particularly powerful feathers is known widely across the north. Geese, partridges, and a variety of small birds were re¬ nowned as good eating, and their eggs were also gathered for food. A knowledge of migration routes could ensure a plentiful supply of birds in spring and fall. One of the most interesting questions regarding Dene resource use is the role played by plants in the diet. Anthropologists once be¬ lieved that in hunter-gatherer societies, big game provided the bulk of the calories, protein, and other dietary requirements. In the last twenty years, however, studies of such societies around the world are coming to the inescapable conclusion that plant products played a far greater role than previously understood, and in some cases may even have provided the larger part of the diet. While the predomi¬ nantly male activity of hunting might have appeared more glamor¬ ous to ethnologists and while it dominated the oral traditions told by men, it was the female activity of harvesting berries, roots, nuts, and leafy foods that really supported the group. Certainly a wide variety of edible plants was available to the Dene and there is ample evi¬ dence of their use, but the overall significance to the diet cannot yet be fully determined. The fact that many berries ripen in mid¬ summer (between the major fishing and birding seasons) indicates that berry picking constituted a major activity at that time, as at least one Chipewyan story records.57 The berries were dried and stored for winter use. Emile Petitot noted the popularity of wild licorice and pond-lily roots in the nineteenth century; it seems likely that their uses were known before contact as well.58 One of the most complete listings of northern plant use was prepared by Edward Curtis, who argued that the more northerly groups used fewer such resources than the more southerly bands. His descriptions of the processing methods and food preferences of the early twentiethcentury Chipewyan at Cold Lake are interesting, but it is not clear to what extent these practices represent much older knowledge.59 Many early observers commented on the use of rock tripe (a black li-

3i

Life in the Eighteenth Century

chen) by bands travelling across the Barren Grounds. If meat was not available and other sources of food had failed, the lichen was scraped off the rocks and boiled to produce a thick, gelatinous soup that was considered very nourishing. It might be modified by the ad¬ dition of other ingredients; Hearne noted it was particularly enjoy¬ able when cooked with “hsh-hquor.”6° Of course, plants were also important for their medicinal value, but again there is little evidence from precontact times about prefer¬ ences or extent of use. Father A.G. Morice wrote in detail about Car¬ rier and Sekani herbal knowledge in the nineteenth century,61 but both oral tradition and early observations leave the impression that northern Dene medicine emphasized shamans’ ceremonies and physical manipulation rather than herbal medicine. Another crucial part of survival knowledge in the north was the ability to make a fire. Everyone, including men and women, young children, and the elderly, carried a small bag containing flint, pieces of stone to strike against the flint, and dry moss or other kindling material with which to get a fire started.62 These firebags were some¬ times beautifully decorated. It is a common misconception that the Dene were a “Stone Age” culture when they first encountered Europeans. In fact, as has been noted, metal also played a role in the tool kit and decorative arts. The Dene were aware of two sources for copper: the Coppermine River and the valley of the White River. The copper was not smelted but merely had to be pounded between two stones to flatten and shape it into the required form. Leaves of flattened copper could be worked together to make large objects of considerable beauty as well as utility. Thanadelthur reported that her people knew others who had “hoops about there heads & handcuffs” made of copper, while those who obtained copper in the west produced knives, lances, and even dishes.®3 A Chipewyan boy reported the method of collecting the copper to James Knight in this way: “They go into the River the water is up there Knees they put down there hands and take up handfulls of Land and amongst that Land bitts of copper some bigg some Small... they hammer it with 2 Stones and Rubb it on Stones & so make it bright and in the Shape [required].”®4 Samuel Hearne noted some years later that a variety of tools were fashioned from the copper, including “hatchets, ice-chissels, bayonets, knives, awls, arrowheads, See,” and that even after the introduction of iron tools through the fur trade, the Yellowknife continued to prefer their own copper tools.®5 Because the Coppermine site also lay within Inuit territory, the Yellowknife were not the only people interested in obtaining the metal, which the Inuit apparently put to similar

32

Drum Songs

uses. This situation resulted in a see-saw of relations between the Inuit and Indians through the eighteenth century. In 1720, for in¬ stance, the Chipewyan reported that a peace had been made with the Inuit and a trade for Inuit “small Copper Lances & arrow heads” had taken place.66 At other times, relations were less tranquil. The famous massacre at Bloody Falls witnessed by Hearne in 1772 may have been part of the ongoing tensions. The extent of copper use has probably been underestimated by archaeologists and anthropol¬ ogists. Even Hearne was surprised to note on his visit to Coppermine that “numbers of them from all quarters used every Summer to re¬ sort to these hills in search of copper ... The many paths that had been beaten by the Indians on these occasions ... is surprising.”67 Copper was not the only metal the Dene had access to before the days of the fur trade. It was a series of accidents that first brought iron to the eastern Chipewyan. In 1619 a Danish expedition under the command of Jens Munk landed at what would later be called Churchill. The winter proved to be an utter disaster. Sixty-one members of the crew perished in the bitter cold amidst an epidemic of scurvy before the three survivors attempted a return to Europe in the spring. When Nicholas Jeremie arrived at York Factory almost one hundred years later, he was told the story of how a band of Na¬ tives had come upon the scene and, overcoming their terror at the sight of so many bodies of strangers, discovered the iron objects that had been left behind. According to Jeremie, the iron was not easily obtained on that first visit, however, for “unfortunately there was [gun] powder, and knowing nothing of its properties or its power, they foolishly set fire to it, with the result that they were all killed, and the house and everything in it were burnt up.”68 It is not clear whether these casualties were Cree or Chipewyan, but by Jeremie’s time the Chipewyan had become regular visitors to the harbour. Jeremie (who called them the Dogrib) recorded that “they think themselves well repaid for their trouble if they find three or four small rusty nails about as long as one’s finger. And sometimes they come on foot more than four hundred leagues.”69 A fascinating Chipewyan story recounts these events in a slightly different way. As told by Frangois Mandeville at Fort Chipewyan in 1928, a band fol¬ lowing a man named Beaver Orphan travelled a long way into Inuit territory and found itself at the ocean, where a young man discov¬ ered a mysterious substance on the beach that looked like stone but was not. Beaver Orphan explained that he had dreamed about this substance, and by blowing and singing he was able to split it into many small pieces, which the people then manufactured into arrow¬ heads and spear-tips.70 It is quite possible that the Cree and Chipe-

33

Life in the Eighteenth Century

wyan were raiding one another over access to the iron well before the Hudson’s Bay Company became established in the region.71 Iron may also have reached the western Dene through a series of trade networks reaching ultimately to Alaska and Siberia. A story told by the Hare explains that they once purchased small pieces of iron about the size of a little finger from the Epa-tpa-Gottine who lived “on the other side of the mountains.”72 The Inuit (Eskimo) of eastern Siberia and western Alaska had apparently been making use of iron since about 1 ad while the Russians had been trading with Si¬ berians since at least the mid-seventeenth century,73 and it is there¬ fore not unlikely that iron and a few iron goods could have been passed along the old routes to the interior Dene. Tracing the nature of other elements of Dene material culture in the eighteenth century is not an easy task. Important changes were occurring as Europeans brought new goods to trade at the coast; by mid-century, some of these items had penetrated areas where Euro¬ peans had not yet travelled.74 Band territories were changing as some were drawn into direct or indirect trade (as will be discussed in chapters 3 and 4), and contacts with new ideas led to changes in tech¬ nique as well as technology. Thus, it is almost impossible to deter¬ mine what cultural features predated the upheavals of the early contact period and what features represented adaptations to chang¬ ing circumstances. Earlier fur trade contacts far to the east had also brought more Cree and Ojibwa travellers into Dene lands, and ideas, stories, and technology all accompanied these new contacts. Eighteenth-century Dene culture represented a mixing of tradi¬ tions, particularly among the eastern Chipewyan but to some extent also among western Dene groups. Regional variation and adaptation are evident in all aspects of Dene material culture, including shelter. In the mid-nineteenth cen¬ tury, naturalist Robert Kennicott claimed that “the Slave Indians and Chipewayans did not use any kind of skin lodges or wigwams till within a comparatively recent period, when they appeared to have borrowed the custom from the Crees.” In fact, he argued, most still preferred to live in open camps with spruce-brush shelters.75 Cer¬ tainly, lean-to shelters and conical lodges made of spruce were con¬ structed by a number of Dene groups,76 but archaeological, archival, and oral evidence suggests that many shelters were, in fact, covered with animal skins and leather. The Chipewyan, Yellowknife, and Dogrib tents were domes (rather than the “tepee” shape of some southern nations) and constructed of poles covered with caribou hides. The poles, about two and a half metres long, were cut when the band was camped in a wooded area, and transported for use on

34

Drum Songs

the Barren Grounds in the summer. As fall set in, at least some groups converted the tent poles to snowshoe frames for winter travel.77 The caribou skins, with hair left on, were sewn together into pieces of easily transportable size and then assembled at the campsite. Moose-skin tents were used by people like the Slavey and Mountain bands who lived in the forest regions year-round. At a Dogrib-Slavey camp just below the outlet of Great Bear Lake, people built frames of poles arranged in a semicircle supported by a “fork,” then covered with branches or bark. The lodges were erected in pairs facing each other across a shared fireplace.78 Archaeological evidence would seem to suggest that in the eighteenth century many people were still erecting the very large, multi-family tents of previ¬ ous generations; the smaller tents more familiar today are appar¬ ently a more recent development. A temporary camp in the bush, however, might have consisted merely of a windscreen constructed of branches. Samuel Hearne reported that the Chipewyan tents were made from caribou skins “in the hair” for both summer and winter, while George Keith at Great Bear Lake reported that dressed skins were used.79 In winter some of the Gwich’in bands constructed a semi¬ subterranean house that could provide shelter for two or more fam¬ ilies. A pit of about a metre in depth and four to six metres across was excavated, with posts erected to support a roof of sewn birchbark sheets and a layer of moss or sod. The floor was covered with spruce boughs.80 Some of the houses had half their floors covered for the sleeping area and the remaining floor excavated further for a hearth and living area, the latter being lined with split logs as flooring. The doorway was built in the middle of one end of the house, with a covered “porch” attached. Driftwood could also be employed in areas where tree growth was limited. Neighbouring Inuit groups constructed similar dwellings, but it is not known if the technique was used by other Dene groups. Transportation technology also varied from region to region. Per¬ haps the most distinctive was the Chipewyan sled, made of caribou skin and wood. Temporary sleds made only of caribou skin were used in the early winter, but in heavier snow conditions a more sub¬ stantial sled was built from a wooden frame covered in caribou skins into which a load could be lashed. The sleds were usually two and a half to three metres long and slightly over a third of a metre wide, although larger sleds were also made. The front end was turned up in a characteristic semicircular form.81 The sled was pulled by a per¬ son (often a woman, since women were considered to be stronger than men) rather than a dog. The Chipewyan did keep dogs, but

35

Life in the Eighteenth Century

loads were packed on the dogs’ backs rather than onto a travois, or sled.82 There is some evidence to suggest that the Dogrib once op¬ posed the use of dogs as beasts of burden, possibly because of their belief in a dog’s role in the origins of their nation.83 However, dogs were used as pack animals by the Mountain, Beaver, BearLake, and possibly Gwich’in people. The question of water transportation technology is an interesting one. Did any of the Dene groups build canoes before they were drawn into the fur trade economy? The evidence is mixed. In the 1690s Nicholas Jeremie reported that the “Dogrib” people (probably meaning the Chipewyan) came to Hudson Bay on foot, “for they never use canoes.The first Chipewyan visitors to the Hudson’s Bay Company post at Churchill in the 1720s also came on foot, drag¬ ging their furs and provisions in sleds overland. Thus their visits were mostly in late fall or early spring, when the temperatures were moderate but there was sufficient snow on the ground to permit the use of sleds.85 The hbc traders were anxious to convince the Chip¬ ewyan to adopt the use of canoes, arguing that larger loads of furs could be carried more rapidly in the canoe, thereby lessening the hardship of travel and increasing the potential returns for the com¬ pany. Arrangements were made for Cree traders to demonstrate the construction and use of birch-bark canoes.86 By the end of the cen¬ tury, Alexander Mackenzie could still remark that “the Chepewyans go North-West from hence [near Portage la Loche] to the barren grounds, which are their own country, without the assistance of canoes.”87 Certainly, it seems unlikely that bands living seasonally on the Barren Grounds or in the woodland transition zone would have access to bark in sufficient quantities to make bark canoes feasible. Nevertheless, other observers commented that the Chipewyan did, in fact, build canoes. In 1689, while searching for the Dogrib and Chipewyan, Henry Kelsey claimed to have found “an old Cannoe of those northern Indians,”88 and in 1717 an hbc search party found the remains of a Chipewyan camp near the future site of Churchill that included “there Canoo cutt all to peices.”89 James Isham provided a partial clue when he recorded, “These Natives has not the conveniency of cannoes, comming cheifly by Land, and mak¬ ing floots [rafts] to cross the Creek’s, and River’s ... tho’ [they] do make cannoes further in Land.”90 According to Andrew Graham, these canoes held only one person and were not suitable for long¬ distance travel.91 Anthropologist Beryl Gillespie is probably correct in concluding that the Chipewyan did have canoes before the advent of the fur trade but that because they did not use them to travel to Churchill, the early traders were misinformed.92 The appearance of

36

Drum Songs

these boats and their construction techniques may only be surmised, since the Chipewyan quickly adopted the Cree building materials and construction techniques, soon passing them along to the Dogrib and others.93 Samuel Hearne’s description of Chipewyan canoes as they appeared in the 1770s suggests that the technology was then in an interesting period of transition. Although built of the same mate¬ rials as the Cree birch-bark canoe, these Chipewyan boats were smaller and lighter, with flat bottoms and “straight, upright sides” that came to a point at each end but were widest at the stern. Hearne’s travelling companions seemed to carry their canoes more than they paddled them, using them primarily for crossing rivers and spearing caribou as they swam. A single paddle was used in most cases, although some people had a double-bladed paddle that Hearne described as Inuit-style.94 Another canoe construction technique known along the Mackenzie River itself was the spruce-bark canoe. Although nineteenth-century traders described it as a temporary substitute for the birch-bark canoe, the spruce canoe may well have predated the birch canoe among the Chipewyan, Dogrib, and Slavey. It clearly suffered disad¬ vantages in comparison, though, so it is not surprising that it faded into obscurity in later years. Its construction was described by Ber¬ nard Rogan Ross of the hbc in this way: For this purpose, a well-grown tree, with thirty feet or so cleared of branches, is chosen; an incision is made down to the wood along one side, and the bark being skilfully raised in one piece, receives the canoe shape by being skewered together, and having a few willows inserted for verrandis to add stiffness. It is serviceable for a short period only, heat and cold alike de¬ structive to this species of raft, by rendering the spruce bark dangerously brittle.95

Perhaps the best known of the northern canoes is the moose-skin boat built by the Mountain people. Experts disagree on whether these boats predated contact with Europeans; some have suggested that they are nineteenth-century developments.9® It may be that the very large moose-skin boats are a recent invention, but it is also pos¬ sible that knowledge of skin construction techniques is very old in¬ deed. Because this canoe was much more versatile and convenient than the spruce-bark canoe, its use continued well into the twentieth century and the secrets of its construction are still known today. The raw moose hide, covering a willow and spruce frame, could be run against rocks in the swift mountain rivers without breaking, and the

37

Life in the Eighteenth Century

skins could be recycled for tents and other uses once the boat had ended its service. Much larger boats could be constructed using the basic techniques, and these proved popular on trading expeditions in the nineteenth century. Smaller skin boats, fashioned like the Inuit kayak, were used by the Gwich’in. It is also possible that the Chipewyan once constructed caribou-skin boats, but the evidence is inconclusive.97 Clothing styles and the decorative arts also mirrored regional var¬ iations. While the word “Chipewyan” allegedly derives from the Cree word meaning “pointed skins,” it was the Gwich’in who were better known for that characteristic style of clothing design. All groups shared the basic design of a two-piece garment consisting of tunic and leggings or trousers. Moose and caribou skins were most widely used, though meticulously woven hare skins also produced warm winter wear. Both Hare men and women wore shirts tapered to a point in the front and back, trimmed with a short fringe and tied at the waist with a belt. The men’s shirts had an elaborate fringe made of leather, and were trimmed with “the stone of a grey farina¬ ceous berry, of the size and shape of a large barley-corn,” which was sewn around the shirt across the shoulders.98 Alexander Mackenzie described the Hare leggings as being very much like trousers with¬ out a waistband and with shoes sewn directly onto the leggings. The Dogrib and Slavey also wore long shirts that extended to mid-thigh and leggings that came up to the thigh to meet the shirt. Unlike the Hare leggings, however, the legs were not attached together like trousers. Many people sewed moccasins directly to the leggings, while in winter, mittens were attached to cords and hung around the neck. A variety of headgear was worn. Headbands ornamented with bear claws and eagle feathers were popular along the Mackenzie River,99 while men in the vicinity of what is now Fort Simpson mod¬ ified the headband into a “cap” when dressed for war.100 A sketch by Emile Petitot dating from the mid-nineteenth century depicts a Slavey woman wearing a pointed cap extending down the back in a shawl-like design, but it is not known if this design was an ancient one or a recent innovation.101 Special caps were worn by young women at puberty in some areas. Hair styles were also important. While Hare women (and some of the men) wore their hair loose to the shoulders, other men preferred an arrangement whereby “that which grows on the temples, or the before part of the skull, is formed into two queues, hanging down before the ears; that of the scalp or crown is fashioned in the same manner to the back of the

38

Drum Songs

neck, and is then tied with the rest of the hair, at some distance from the head. A thin cord is employed for these purposes, and very neatly worked with the hair, artificially coloured. Styles varied regionally as well as seasonally and according to pur¬ pose. Everyday wear was generally plain and utilitarian, while cere¬ monial garments could be elaborately and beautifully decorated. “Every seam” might be ornamented, according to Mackenzie. Fringes were popular around the hems of the shirts. They might be simply leather cut into strips or “fancifully wrought in coloured moose hair & porcupine quills.”103 The hems and seams were often “decorated with an embroidery of very neat workmanship with por¬ cupine quills and the hair of the moose, coloured red, black, yellow, and white.”104 Slavey women were noted for their particularly fine porcupine-quill work. The quills and feathers were also dyed, with red, yellow, and black predominating. Dyes were manufactured from red ocre, cranberry, certain roots, and charcoal. Although the symbolism of colour and pattern has been largely forgotten, it is clear that clothing, tools, and utensils were not deco¬ rated simply for aesthetic reasons. Clothing, as Judy Thompson and Catharine McClellan have noted, was a “second skin” that formed as much a part of a person’s being as the skin with which she or he was born.105 Patterns worked into the leather or painted onto it might represent the owner’s guardian spirit or act as an appeal for protection. Samuel Hearne’s Chipewyan companions painted their wooden war shields with figures of the sun, moon, birds, animals, and imaginary creatures, while Slavey tents were painted with a band of red ocre patterns.106 The “first skin” was also decorated for ceremonial occasions. Slavey men used red paint on the hands and face, while a number of bands practised tattooing with “three or four parallel black strokes marked on each cheek; which is performed by entering an awl or needle under the skin, and, on drawing it out again, immediately rubbing powdered charcoal into the wound.”107 Among the Gwich’in, clothing decoration was also used to display one’s personal prowess and wealth. White dentalium shells, obtained from trade with coastal partners, were worked into elaborate neck¬ laces, headpieces, and tunic yokes; the man or woman who enjoyed considerable spiritual power would be able to acquire more of these shells through trade and was then entitled to a conspicuous display. Those household utensils that have survived also display a variety of ornamentation and exquisite technique. Locally available materi¬ als led to regional variations in technique, although items could be spread through trade networks. Alexander Mackenzie noted that the Slavey and Dogrib traded regularly with the Chipewyan and Yel-

39

Life in the Eighteenth Century

lowknife for small pieces of iron and copper, which they used to make knives, awls, and tips for their arrows. Stone axes were used for splitting wood, while clubs, spears, and daggers were preferred for hunting. Slavey and Dogrib household dishes were made of wood, bark, and horn. In areas where birch grew to sufficient size, bark containers sewn with spruce roots were used for storing and cooking. If the bark containers were to hold liquids, the seams might be sealed with gum, although a skilled woman could make a folded double seam that was watertight in itself. Slavey women manufac¬ tured baskets from spruce roots, woven so tightly and expertly as to be watertight. A variety of bags were made from leather, netted babiche (for carrying game), bird skins, moose and caribou stomachs, and even the pericardium, or covering, of a moose heart. Antlers and horns could be manufactured into a number of useful items, in¬ cluding the lovely horn spoons of the Mountain people and the drinking tubes used by menstruating women. At ceremonial occasions, dancing appears to have been one of the most significant activities, both as a social event and as a spiritual cer¬ emony. While dance techniques appear to have varied regionally, all Dene groups shared the circle formation. Alexander Mackenzie de¬ scribed a dance at one Dogrib/Slavey camp in 1789, in which both men and women formed a circle. The women moved their feet only, but the men carried a stick or bone “dagger” in their right hand, “which they keep extended above the head, in continual motion.” Their left arm was extended horizontally and moved back and forth, “while they leap about and throw themselves into various antic pos¬ tures, to the measure of their music, always bringing their heels close to each other at every pause.”108 Music was very important to the Dene, who had a variety of songs for different occasions. George Keith described the love songs, lamentation songs, and ceremonial songs that were performed at Fort Liard early in the nineteenth cen¬ tury, noting that other songs performed at dance ceremonies were generally sounds made in imitation of animals like the bear and wolverine.109 It is very difficult to form a clear idea of Dene religious beliefs during this period, in part because the spiritual realm of life was (and still is) considered a personal and rather private matter not to be shared with outsiders. Early European visitors often concluded that the Dene had no religion because they seemed to have no prac¬ tices that corresponded to European religious ritual or custom. In fact, spirituality permeated every aspect of life. The natural and su¬ pernatural worlds were one, and every person lived simultaneously in both the spiritual and physical worlds. Events were not randomly

40

Drum Songs

caused or the result of good or bad luck. Rather, the spirits were constantly at work, interacting with each other and with people. The universe was governed by moral rules that might not be openly stated but were nonetheless unbreachable or dire consequences might result. Thus, there were personal as well as community taboos. One person might abstain from the flesh of a certain animal; another might carry tokens of a personal spirit-guide in a “medicine bundle.”110 In the hunt, a man was not “lucky” if he killed a moose; rather, the moose had offered itself to the hunter. In return, as a token of respect, the skull of the animal might be placed on a pole.111 When a person died, his or her possessions had to be aban¬ doned or even burned so as not to be touched by others. There were also blood taboos of various types. Blood spilled from an animal had to be carefully disposed of, and menstruating women could not cross a hunter’s path or step over his weapons because of their particular powers at this time. Laws such as these had to be observed so as to keep the spirits happy, for an offended spirit might bring its power to bear against the law breaker. For example, beaver and bear would not give themselves to the hunter, or a person could become ill or insane. People were certainly not the passive victims of spirits’ whims, however. Men and women who were particularly skilful could travel at will between the seen and unseen worlds and communicate with animals, other human souls, and many unnamed spirits. Dreaming was one of the most important means of travel. While it is not clear whether young people deliberately sought a dream experience at puberty through fasting or means used by other First Nations peo¬ ple, there can be no doubt that dreaming played a crucial part in every person’s life. It was believed that during a dream the soul left the body and travelled to distant lands or to the dwelling place of the spirits. During a dream, people might acquire a personal guardian spii it to whom they would pay special consideration and in return receive guidance throughout their lives. A dreamer might be taught a special song by his or her spirit mentor for private use or for shar¬ ing with the community as a whole. A person who enjoyed particularly effective communication with the spirits might turn that power for the community’s benefit and as a shaman could perform a variety of useful roles. The shaman might cure or prevent disease, answer questions about the future or about distant loved ones, or even invoke spirits against an enemy. In some areas, the shaman also acted as a confessor to whom people could admit breaking a taboo in hopes that they would be spared illness or other retaliation. Since disease was believed to be caused by the

4i

Life in the Eighteenth Century

malevolence of spirits, it followed that if one attempted to appease the spirit, the disease might be cured. There were other important techniques used by shamans to cure disease. Sometimes it was simply a matter of constructing a special tent in which the shaman would fast for several days before the pa¬ tient would be presented to him for a ceremony of special chants whereby the shaman would call upon the spirit who was distressing the patient to withdraw. A more dramatic technique involved the withdrawal of objects from the patient’s body. An incision would be made in the flesh and a small bone or other object, said to be from the spirit causing the illness, would be removed.113 Shamans also provided advice on herbal remedies and in some areas were expert surgeons, adept at setting broken bones, manipulating misplaced organs, or stitching wounds with moose sinew.114 In spite of the importance of the shaman to the community, every person in Dene society had the potential to enter into a personal re¬ lationship with the spirits; hence there was no need for an organized priesthood in the European sense. Both men and women were capa¬ ble of developing contacts with the spirits; some believed that women were particularly powerful during menstruation and that they should therefore live apart from others at such times to avoid causing them harm. Because every person had at least the potential to gain access to considerable power, respect for the individual was fundamental to Dene society. While some people might make better use of their power than others, all had to be given respect or they might decide to use their power against you. The possession of power was an important goal, manifested in many ways. At the most simple level, power could be demonstrated by tricking someone into believing a falsehood or exaggeration. As Europeans quickly learned, “lying” was an art among the Dene, al¬ though dishonesty in other forms (such as theft) was unknown. At a more complex level, power could be demonstrated by the shaman’s ability to draw on supernatural power to assist human ends. Power did not, however, mean the ability to control or dominate other peo¬ ple in the European sense. Authoritarian leadership was unknown; people respected their neighbours but did not submit to them. Com¬ petition between individuals was a means of testing one’s power, and that competition took a variety of forms, ranging from competition in the hunt, to competition for a woman, to such leisure-time compe¬ tition as the popular gambling-guessing games. Because of the emphasis on individualism, social conformity existed only in the broadest sense of the term. The band accepted certain rules, but each individual developed a personal relationship

42

Drum Songs

with the environment that others were expected to respect. People’s choices of personal behaviour were accepted within a wide range of tolerance. It would be wrong, however, to conclude that the individ¬ ual’s rights were paramount. Rather, the community was recognized as an important unit for both survival and social pleasure. Good hunters had a responsibility to assist those who were less capable. As W.F. Wentzel reported, “When an Indian kills an animal, it is not his own, for he receives the smallest share, it is separated among the others who send a piece of their share, when cooked, to the hunter.”115 Reciprocity was equally important in interpersonal, human-animal and human-spirit relations. Thus the Dene valued a balance between individual autonomy and personal responsibility in society. While the individual would ideally be self-sufficient and selfreliant, he or she would also respect the autonomy of others and demonstrate his or her respect for them through generosity and hospitality. As a result, a sense of social cohesion and a recognition of tacit social rules were maintained even though formal social orga¬ nization was limited.116 Dene morality and philosophy were also highly practical. Expedi¬ ency was a major consideration against which choices would be weighed. That which was considered “good” was that which was use¬ ful, and that which was “evil” was that which was counterproductive or harmful in some way. Truth was not an abstract; something might be taken as true only after it had been proven by experience. One’s goal was to make life as comfortable as possible while minimiz¬ ing one’s demands on others. The Dene did not share the Christian belief in the sinful nature of humankind. Nor did they separate the universe into sacred and profane or natural and supernatural spheres. People were meant to live as a part of the universe and not to attempt to dominate over it or to change it. In a complex system of interrelationships in the universe, the Dene found a sophisticated and practical means to deal with the problems of life. Flexibility, adaptability, individual initiative, and social responsibility were in¬ terwoven in a society that coped remarkably successfully in an envi¬ ronment that outsiders were later to describe as hostile and barren.

3 The Stone House People

The first of the Dene to be drawn into the fur trade were those who lived in the easternmost Barren Grounds and the woodland transi¬ tion zone of the Churchill River drainage system. It was a matter of only a generation, however, before people as far west as the Mackenzie River were well aware of the presence of the “Stone House” people in the lands of their eastern relatives and had been influenced in a number of ways by their activities. In order to under¬ stand the important changes of the early eighteenth century, one must first consider the development of the North American fur trade as a whole. During the sixteenth century, large numbers of French fishermen regularly crossed the North Atlantic. Many of them spent time ashore, where they met the peoples of the eastern coasts and even¬ tually developed trade relationships with them. A major trade centre appeared at Tadoussac on the north shore of the St Lawrence River, where the French met the Montagnais from the north and the Al¬ gonquin from the north and near west. The availability of fine northern pelts combined with a growing demand in Europe for fur clothing stimulated the entrepreneurial energies of a number of French merchants and led to the founding of the colony of New France and the granting of monopoly trade rights there to a group of French entrepreneurs. French imperial interests were quickly challenged by the Dutch and the British, and the race to exploit the resources of North America was under way.

44

Drum Songs

A high demand for furs and a willingness of the Native people to supply them put considerable pressure on the animal populations of the east coast, and it was not long before the original trading part¬ ners of the French were looking further afield for their supply. The Algonquin made use of their contacts with neigbours to the north (the Cree) and west (the Ojibwa) who inhabited areas of the Hudson Bay Lowlands and the Canadian Shield. The Algonquin established themselves as middlemen in this trade, gathering furs from the inte¬ rior Indians who had done the actual hunting, then carrying the furs to the French, with whom they were traded at a profit. In order to protect their position as middlemen, the Algonquin controlled the major water routes, discouraged the French from inland trade, and negotiated military and political alliances with the French against the Iroquois, who were also interested in developing a trade with Euro¬ peans. War erupted periodically as the Algonquin, Mohawk, Montagnais, and Huron struggled for the advantage. For a brief time, the Huron usurped the role of primary traders with the French, but then were defeated by a combination of disease and warfare in 1648—50. At about the same time the Algonquin themselves began to scatter, no longer able to maintain their position as middlemen. Now the Ojibwa and Cree were able to make direct contacts with the French. The Jesuits established missions among the Ojibwa in the 1660s and 1670s and among the Cree to the north in the 1680s, partly to maintain the political ties necessary for a trading relation¬ ship. Among the first Frenchmen to trade directly with the Cree and Ojibwa were Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Medart Chouart, Sieur des Groseilliers. Realizing the potential of the new trade, they attempted to convince the French to support their endeavour, but without suc¬ cess. d hey therefore turned to the English and eventually per¬ suaded a group of English merchants and courtiers to provide the financial backing for a major trade expedition from the north into Hudson Bay to meet the Cree, instead from the south, which would have involved a long and difficult overland route. Their voyage of 1668-69 was reasonably successful, and in 1670 the British crown granted a royal charter to the “Governor and Company of Adven¬ turers of England trading into Hudson’s Bay.” The company soon had established posts at strategic points along the coast: Rupert House, Moose Factory, Fort Albany, Severn, and York Factory. While the Biitish and the French fought over possession of these posts and control of the northern trade, the European presence had already initiated changes far from the scene of imperial battles. The Ojibwa began to travel among their neighbours in what is now

45

The Stone House People

southern Ontario, west around the shores of Lake Superior, and northwest through the forests north of the Great Lakes. The Cree, who already lived in the vicinity of the Hudson’s Bay Company posts, established trading relations with the English, and many soon found themselves playing a role the Algonquin had played a century before: that of middlemen. Some Cree remained on their old lands, some became regular suppliers of provisions to the Bay posts, and others formed bands of traders who travelled inland to collect furs. Two of the most important groups to which the Cree turned for their furs were their neighbours to the west and north, the Dogrib and the Chipewyan. Thus, the Dene were brought into the sphere of influence of the fur trade at least a full generation before any of them actually saw a European and almost a century before direct trading relationships were established in the heart of their own countries. It is difficult to trace the events of this period with any detailed ac¬ curacy because the sources (both oral and written) are scarce and often vague. It would seem that when the Cree were becoming in¬ volved in trade with the hbc, the Chipewyan were living in the woodland transition zone west of Hudson Bay and the Dogrib were living in the boreal forest beyond them. In 1694 Jesuit missionary Father Gabriel Marest identified the “Ikovirinioucks” (who can be none other than the Chipewyan) as the people who lived between the Cree and the Inuit in lands located at a distance of about 500 kilometres from York Factory. Beyond the Chipewyan, Marest iden¬ tified the “Alimouspigut,” a “populous nation” allied with the Chip¬ ewyan whose lands extended south to the lands of the Assiniboine.1 Undoubtedly, these were the Dogrib, for in an account of the First Nations of the northwest written by Marest’s contemporary, ClaudeCharles de Bacqueville de la Potherie, “Attimospiquaies” is defined explicitly as meaning “dog’s rib.”2 To the south lived the Assini¬ boine, the Sioux, and the Gros Ventre.3 It is not clear what the na¬ ture of the relations was among these various groups before the appearance of the hbc. Within a few years of the Cree participation in the direct trade, however, the interior was convulsed in violence and bloodshed. The violence has been almost universally attributed to the Cree ac¬ quisition of guns and their determination to prevent other Natives from trading directly with the Europeans. It was once believed that the Cree were attempting to expand their territory, but that inter¬ pretation of the warfare has not been satisfactorily substantiated, since there is still considerable debate about exactly where the Cree lived in precontact times. Certainly, the Cree appear to have become

46

Drum Songs

well armed very quickly. As Arthur Ray has observed, about 420 guns a year were being traded at York Factory between 1689 and 1694.4 While these guns were notoriously unreliable, they did pro¬ vide the Cree with a strategic advantage in warfare over the Dene, who continued to rely on the arrows, knives, spears, and clubs of an¬ other generation. Within a few years of the commencement of hbc trading at the mouth of the Nelson and Hayes river systems, the Cree had apparently travelled to the sources of these rivers in their quest for furs and glory, generating fear among the inhabitants of the interior. The Chipewyan quickly learned that avoidance was the best strategy. In 1689, a Native companion to Henry Kelsey of the hbc reported that his people “was gone to far to ye northward for fear of ye southern Indians.”5 There were sporadic attempts by the European traders to encour¬ age their Cree trading partners to make a peace with the interior First Nations, but none was successful for at least forty years. In 1689 the hbc sent Henry Kelsey inland to meet them directly and draw them into the trade, but James Knight of the hbc later dis¬ missed this peacemaking attempt as “careless” at best. “Guyer sends out Mr. Kellsey a very Young Man then and a little Indian Boy as if he had sent them for a Sacrifice,” he wrote in disgust.6 When the French captured York Factory in 1694 and renamed it Fort Bour¬ bon, they initially supported the Cree in their warring expeditions against the Chipewyan and Dogrib, probably in order to encourage their own political alliance with the Cree and cement the new trade relationship. James Knight accused the French of providing more than simply moral support for the Cree. They “did not only encour¬ age the Indians in thare wars but Sent Men with them to Assist ym in it,’ he recorded. When Nicholas Jeremie assumed command of Fort Bourbon in 1697, the policy was changed. Realizing that war¬ fare diverted energy that could be put into the trade, and interested in the possibility of drawing the interior Indians into direct trade, he did all that lay in his Power to prevent the wars and make a peace,” according to Knight. Nevertheless, Jeremie was unsuccessful, even though he took drastic measures with the Cree when he “Stopt tradeing wth them and shutt them out from comeing within the fort. ”7 By 1715 warfare between the Southern and Northern Indians was apparently commonplace as far west as the Athabasca country, and James Knight was under the impression that “5 or 6 thousand Mens Fives had been lost in the battles.8 Although this figure is undoubt¬ edly an exaggeration, it is clear that the disruptions were significant. Many of the Dene stories told today describe the events of those

47

T he Stone House People

years in considerable detail, and the names of several great warriors are still remembered. Eh’stontsia (or Ehtsontsie) distinguished him¬ self among the Slavey, while Dza-ghal-iaze and Datsanthi fought for the Chipewyan. Dza-ghal-iaze (“Lower Leg Trembles Little”) lived with his people on the edge of the Barren Grounds. The Cree man¬ aged to surprise them by approaching the camp disguised with the skins and antlers of caribou, but Dza-ghal-iaze’s power enabled him to rally the band and destroy the enemy. He was reputed to have single-handedly killed more than half the attackers in one of his bat¬ tles.9 Datsanthi was the son of a Chipewyan father and a Cree mother who lived “in the border country” between the warring peo¬ ples, identified by Edward Curtis as between Reindeer Lake and Lake Athabasca. Sometimes Datsanthi fought for the Cree, but mostly he sided with the Chipewyan, and he was feared by all as a powerful warrior who could not be killed.10 Numerous stories are told along the Mackenzie about Ehtsontsie. According to one, he was still a boy, considered by his father as too young to fight, when he first distinguished himself in battle. He was discovered by his people in the heart of the enemy camp, swinging his caribou antler club, breaking the enemy’s arms so that they could not shoot their guns. The enemy bullets had merely bounced off his body, so powerful was he even as a child.11 Another story tells of how he singlehandedly raided a Cree camp, bringing back six women and three sleds loaded with guns and other trade goods so that his people could use the power of the Cree against the Cree themselves.12 Besides identifying heroes, these stories tell us a great deal about the nature of the Cree-Dene wars. The fact that the Cree had guns while the Dene did not is a key factor in many stories. As one Slavey storyteller explained, “The Indians got into a bunch to try to stop the bullets. They got into a line of ten trying to stop the bullets, but that way one bullet went through ten Indians and killed all ten.”13 The Dene had to rely on their wits and power. Remaining for any length of time in large gatherings at fish camps was dangerous, so in order to protect their women and children, the men and youths formed war parties that went in search of the Cree. The war parties moved cautiously, sending scouts on ahead and camping each night in spots well disguised by bushy growth. When the scouts finally dis¬ covered an enemy camp, the party would move out silently to sur¬ round it and await the leader’s signal to attack. Generally, the idea was to eliminate all the inhabitants of the tents, but sometimes young women were captured and brought back to join the band. The Dene were also anxious to seize whatever goods the Cree had with them, particularly guns, knives, blankets, and cooking utensils. These

48

Drum Songs

items not only were useful, but were believed to be the source of the Cree power that the Dene desperately wanted for themselves. A suc¬ cessful skirmish was a cause for celebration, but as one story goes, joy was never long-lived, for the people knew there was always war.”14 In spite of the advantages enjoyed by the Cree and their Assiniboine allies, their victory was not automatically assured. The fire¬ arms they obtained from the traders were unreliable, particularly in very cold weather. Once the supply of ammunition was gone, the guns were useless, and a party of warriors far from home and from the source of powder and shot could not easily replenish the supply. War parties that had wandered into unfamiliar territory also faced the danger of food shortages, since they would not be aware of the best places to obtain fish and game. A visitor to York Factory noted the outcome of one such expedition as reported to him by a partic¬ ipant. Of thirty warriors who had set out against the Dogrib, “he was the only one who returned, all the rest being either killed, or perished through Fatigue or want of Food.”15 The Cree faced particular risks when they ventured into the Barren Grounds and woodland transition zones, since they lacked the Chipewyan’s knowl¬ edge of the specialized techniques required to survive in that coun¬ try. It is not surprising, then, that most of the battles took place in the forests and that the Dene were able to retreat periodically to relative safety in the lands of the great caribou herds. Clearly, though, the situation had grown intolerable by the early 1700s. The Dene realized that they would somehow have to reach the source of the Cree supply of guns and other powerful goods. What was to be done? According to tradition, the various Dene bands had not always been at peace with one another. Disputes over women and contests of power had led to ongoing feuds and raids, although these were apparently rather less destructive than the warfare against the Cree. The realization that the Cree represented a common enemy that had to be stopped brought a number of Dene bands together in the summer of 1715- As James Knight of the hbc learned, the Chipewyan made a peace at that time with the Yellowknife and “with other Indians to the Westwards to Join all against there Common Enemy that Destroys them all. 1(1 That alliance was to prove a crucial turning-point in Dene history. Whether or not that sufficient to intimidate series of events at \ ork Dene. About two years

alliance in and of itself would have proven the Cree will never be known, for another Factory played quickly into the hands of the earlier, a Cree party had arrived at the Bay

49

The Stone House People

with two young women who had been captured from the Chipewyan. One of them was named Thanadelthur (“jumping marten” or marten shake ). According to Chipewyan tradition, she was amazed when she realized that the Cree did not make all the weapons and utensils that gave them power, but that these had been obtained from the “Stone House” people in return for furs.17 Thanadelthur, whom James Knight described as a woman with “an Extraordinary Vivacity of Apprehension,”18 quickly realized the potential utility of her discovery. Speaking to Knight through a Cree interpreter, she identified herself and promised that if he would assist her in return¬ ing safely to her people, the Chipewyan would become trade part¬ ners with the hbc, for their country was rich not only in furs but in a wonderful yellow metal of which “heads & handcuffs” were made.19 Thanadelthur could not have held out a better inducement to Knight and the hbc. Ever since Kelsey’s failure to negotiate a peace in 1689, the company had been anxious for opportunities to break the Cree control of trade at the Bay posts. The promise of a copper mine provided additional incentive, as if any were needed. In the spring of 1715, Knight invited the home guard Cree of York Factory to a great feast, at which he persuaded a number of them to agree to make a peace with the Northern Indians in return for gifts and ongoing special trade favours. He then organized an expedition under the leadership of Thanadelthur and William Stew¬ art. By the time the party set off in June, it had grown to about 150 people. They headed northwest to cross the Barren Grounds, but there they encountered considerable privation, so decided to split into smaller groups to save their lives. Only two of the four or five parties chose to continue the expedition. Thanadelthur’s group con¬ sisted of William Stewart, ten men, and a home guard Cree leader named Captain. Things went from bad to worse. Captain became ill and Stewart began to despair for his own life. Two of the best hunt¬ ers were sent off in an attempt to secure the food that would keep them all from starving, but they became permanently separated from the group and eventually made their way back to York Factory without seeing the others again. When the remainder of the group finally discovered a Chipewyan campsite, they learned that a party of Cree had just attacked; nine recently dead bodies were still lying in one of the tents and the other inhabitants had fled. William Stew¬ art and Captain concluded that their months of toil had been in vain, but Thanadelthur took command of the situation. She pressured Stewart to remain at the camp while she went in pursuit of her coun¬ trymen. In fear of being attacked themselves, the Cree peace party fortified their campsite with a palisade and settled in to wait.

50

Drum Songs

Thanadelthur succeeded in locating her people a short distance away in a large camp of some 400 individuals. Initially, they were re¬ luctant to agree to accompany her to meet the white man and his Cree companions, but she continued to pressure them until she “had made herself so hoarse with her perpetuall talking ... that she could hardly Speak.”20 The people finally agreed to take the risk, and she escorted a large group of 160 men back to Stewart’s camp. Her ex¬ pedition had taken ten days, and Stewart and Captain had given up hope of seeing her again; when she at last returned, they had been about to break camp. A long parley followed, which was later re¬ ported to James Knight in this way: Stewart bid the Capt tell them Indians what they were come about and when the woman had told them they had no hand in killing there Country men nor did not know it twill they found them dead nor they did not come upon any other Account then but to make Peace so he pulled out his pipe and Stemm and made a Long harrangue of the Sacredness of that thing

8c

that

it was not to be touched without they ware resolved to be true and perform what it was brought there fore and Smoked in then he Lighted it and handed it about and after everyone had taken so many whiffs as was agreed on and all had takeing it none refuseing it he told them they were now to be perpetuall friends with that they all give thanks and a Shoot and Rised up and stroked them all on the head.21

The parties spent about two days together, exchanging goods and celebrating. When they separated, young men from each nation were adopted into families of the other as a traditional sign of friendship and good faith. Thanadelthur returned with the Cree to York, where Knight welcomed her and gave her full credit for being “the Chief Instrument in finishing of it what has been done.”22 Knight was overly optimistic in his conclusion that a peace had been achieved, as will be seen. But the event was important because it brought the hbc and a large body of Chipewyan together for the first time and made the Chipewyan aware that the hbc was inter¬ ested in trading with them, regardless of what the Cree had led them to believe. The willingness of one band of Cree to participate in the negotia¬ tions indicates that the Cree were beginning to lose confidence in their ability to dominate the interior nations. The reasons for this change of heart are not clear. Knight believed it was because the warfare had reached a point of counterproductivity, with too many Cree and Assiniboine casualties, and because some of the enemy had managed to acquire guns, thereby removing that particular advan¬ tage enjoyed by the Cree.23

5i

The Stone House People

Several of Thanadelthur’s country people had returned with her to York Factory, where Knight spoke to them at length, offering to open a trading post exclusively for their patronage. The Chipewyan were not immediately convinced. They told Knight that they would not trade there, fearing that the hbc would do them harm. But when Knight promised that he would trade guns to them, they quickly changed their minds and guaranteed that if such were the case, many of their people would come to Churchill within two or three years and “would be very gladd of Goods and love us when they came to Understand we were there friends.”24 Two Northern Indian boys brought several pieces of copper to show Knight, and explained how they mined and worked it. Knight was delighted that Thanadelthur’s information had been so accurate. Following this first success, Thanadelthur began to devise a plan for the opening of a regular trade to supply her people with guns and household goods. She suggested that the hbc establish a new post exclusively for the Chipewyan, and proposed a location just to the north at Churchill River. She promised that she would return to her people to tell them about the post and what the hbc wanted in return for its goods. Knight pressed her about the copper mines, and she agreed to go among the people who dealt in copper and copper goods to negotiate with them. Obviously, Thanadelthur con¬ sidered this last mission somewhat less desirable, for in return she demanded that Knight make her brother a trade captain. She antic¬ ipated that these travels would require about two years to complete. Thanadelthur’s determination was based on her recognition of the significance of direct trade between her people and the hbc. Access to guns could tip the balance in the war against the Cree, and the metal tools and household utensils would make the lives of Dene women very much more comfortable in the facilitation of everyday tasks. Throughout the fall of 1716 and into the winter, Thanadelthur and Knight discussed and refined her plan. They also apparently be¬ came close friends. When an unnamed illness broke out among the people at the fort, Knight was not particularly concerned, but when Thanadelthur fell ill in December, he became very anxious indeed. For seven weeks he nursed her in his own quarters. At the beginning of February, she took a turn for the worse. Realizing that she was going to die, Thanadelthur sent for a young English boy she and Knight had chosen as an ambassador, and spent the last four days of her life teaching him about her people and how to go about trading with them. Clearly, the plan was of tremendous personal signifi¬ cance to her. On the fifth of February 1717, she died and was buried at York Factory. James Knight was devastated. “The finest Weather

52

Drum Songs

wee have had any Day this Season,” he wrote in his journal, “but the most Melancholyst by the Loss of her.”25 Meanwhile, the incursions of the Cree against the Chipewyan and other Dene groups had by no means come to an end. Even while Thanadelthur was facilitating the discussions between her people and the Cree, one of the groups that had split from the original peace party was attacking a camp of Northern Indians, later pre¬ tending to James Knight that they had been “forcd to kill some of them in there own Defence.”26 The tension in the countryside was matched by the tension at York Factory itself. Knight was thrown into a state of genuine panic by the deaths of Thanadelthur and all of the other Chipewyan staying at the fort. There were no reliable translators left, and since he had no means to explain the truth to them, Knight was afraid that the Chipewyan would think that their country people had been deliberately murdered. The Cree took ad¬ vantage of Knight’s panic to apply additional pressure on the hbc. They resented the English interference in their warfare against the Northern Indians and hoped to prevent the hbc from opening a di¬ rect trade with the Dene. When Cree trading parties arrived at York in the spring of 1717, Knight held long parleys with them, at¬ tempting to smooth relations and prevent the Cree from setting out on further war excursions. He ultimately concluded that the only so¬ lution was to proceed with the construction of a northern post for the Chipewyan so that they could become as well armed as the Cree and “Strike Such a Terror in ye Rogues that they will lay by all their Designs of ever more going to Warr with them.”2? So highly did Knight value the Northern Indian trade that he even determined to cut off the Cree supply of ammunition if they persisted in their op¬ position to his plans.28 At the end of March, one of the Cree trading captains and his wife arrived at York Factory accompanied by an eighteen-year-old Northern Indian boy who turned out to be the son of a prominent Indian whom I hanadelthur had known. Knight eagerly bargained with the chief in an attempt to get him to leave the youth at the post, but the chief was “not willing to part with him upon no Account.”29 He would not even leave the youth at York Factory temporarily to do some translating. Knight seemed about to lapse into despair again, but early in May another Cree hunter arrived with a North¬ ern Indian woman who had been captured as a slave. The men agreed to part with her for a large number of trade goods, and Knight at last had found the means to communicate with the North¬ ern Indians.30 In the meantime, the company s carpenter was busy constructing a boat to transport the men and supplies necessary for the construe-

53

The Stone House People

tion of the new post that Thanadelthur had proposed for the mouth of the Churchill River. William Stewart was again chosen for the mission, and he set off in June to select a suitable site and to begin construction. In July, Knight himself joined Stewart at Churchill River. One of his immediate concerns involved a rumour that a party of seven Northern Indians had been killed recently at Chur¬ chill River by the Inuit. Knight realized that if such a story proved to be true, establishing the new post would be even more complicated than he had anticipated. As it turned out, however, investigations were inconclusive. Stewart’s men found a canoe that had been cut up, and the Inuit camped nearby had some pieces of red cloth be¬ lieved to have been in the possession of the missing men, but there were no bodies or other evidence of a struggle. Nevertheless, fear of the Inuit was yet another problem with which all traders would have to be concerned. Other parts of Thanadelthur and Knight’s plan began to fall into place. In the early part of June 1717, a Cree named Captain Swan returned from a two-year journey through the interior to Great Slave Lake, reporting that he had made a peace with the people who lived in a land that was “very full of People & a Great many Buffalo Moose & Beavor wth Bears” along a broad river bordering “very high Mountainious Land.” He had spent five or six days with a band of “6 Great tents,” feasting and dancing in a friendly way, until the Northern Indians explained to him that they would invite him to a meeting of all their people in the winter so that the peace could be confirmed through gift exchanges and the adoption of children, as was their custom.31 In August another party of peacemakers re¬ turned with confirmation of Thanadelthur’s information regarding the fur and copper resources of the Northern Indian lands. They also provided Knight with more-detailed information about the ge¬ ography of the lands to the west of the Barren Grounds, including a description of a great river flowing out of the “West Sea” (probably Great Slave Lake) and a second source of “yellow mettle” in a river flowing through the mountains beyond that great river.32 Although Knight apparently believed that this metal was gold, it seems more likely that it was a reference to the copper found in the valley of what is now called the White River. Needless to say, Knight was more anxious than ever to encourage trade with the people whose land held such riches. Knight decided to follow Thanadelthur’s advice and reserve the trade at Churchill exclusively for the Northern Indians. He refused to trade with the Cree and Assiniboine parties that arrived there, and directed them to carry their furs to York Factory. The demand did not sit well with the Southern Indians, who felt that not only was

54

Drum Songs

their economic position being undermined, but so too was the polit¬ ical alliance between them and the hbc, which they regarded as an important part of the trade relationship. It required “a Great Deal of Care in a Man,” wrote Knight, to deal with the Southern Indians, who saw him “Refuse them Goods wch hath traded so long & at the same time sell to them that are Strangers to us wch have been allways their Enemys.”33 The following year, young Richard Norton was sent to winter with the Cree to encourage them to trade at York and to end their war plans against the Northern Indians.34 Ultimately, however, the hbc was unable to prevent the Southern Indians from coming to Churchill, and it was to be many more years before a last¬ ing peace was concluded between enemies. The next phase of the plan was to communicate to the Northern Indians what furs the hbc wanted and how those furs were to be prepared for trade. A Northern Indian boy named James was kept at the post for three years to be instructed in English and Cree and taught “ye ways of hunting & Traping according to ye Southern Meathod” so that he could return to his people and teach them in turn.35 The hbc had been told that the Chipewyan who lived closest to the new post had never trapped small game to any great extent; their economy was based instead primarily on the caribou. Smallanimal snaring was done by women for immediate household needs, particularly food, so preparation of the pelt had not been a major concern. Instruction was also required in the use and maintenance of guns. James remained with his people throughout the summer and winter of 1721-22, but he returned to York Factory in June 1722 with the disappointing news that he had been unable to con¬ vince his people of the value of the trade. He reported that “the Old Men are very Lazy and like Old Woemen so itt must be the Young Men” who were to be convinced to join the trade and “brought to itt by Degrees.”36 Nevertheless, word about the hbc post at Churchill spread very quickly throughout the interior. Within two years, large parties of Northern Indians began to arrive, but most were prompted by curi¬ osity rather than interest in trade. The first group arrived in 1718. Richard Staunton, then in charge of the hbc post, welcomed them with gifts of hatchets, awls, and ice chisels as well as a few precious guns and words of encouragement to hunt the furs that the hbc wanted to trade. The following spring, twenty-three men of this party returned to Churchill, but they brought only a few beaver and four marten pelts, which had not been prepared according to hbc specifications. The English traders concluded that the men had come anticipating gifts and had failed to understand the concept of

55

The Stone House People

trade, but it seems more likely that the Chipewyan were still warily testing the new relationship before committing themselves to any trade. A few days later, a much larger party, about 130 Northern Indi¬ ans, arrived at the new post. Again they were empty-handed, plead¬ ing starvation and a shortage of animals to explain the situation. Trader Richard Staunton, bitterly disappointed, noted in his jour¬ nal, “I admire at the Stupidity of these Northern Indians, to promis verry fair, yett come Eampty handed.”37 He traded with them for any articles of value in their possession and attempted to convince them to return the next year instead of after the two years the Indi¬ ans explained they would need to travel to their far-off lands. He also spoke with one of the men who had announced a plan to travel to the mountain “gold” mine. Staunton asked why none of the peo¬ ple had any copper to trade, and they replied that they had met with the Copper Indians but could persuade them neither to travel to Churchill nor to trade any of their copper on the spot. The informa¬ tion clearly proved to be useful to the hbc, however, for it was one of the first references in their journals to the existence of a distinct group of Northern Indians with whom the English had no direct contact. For the first few years, Chipewyan approaches to Churchill were cautious and limited. They travelled in very large bands of up to 200 people for safety, since they feared attack by Cree or Inuit enemies at any time. These bands arrived in spring, just before or just follow¬ ing breakup, and remained overnight at the post before returning to a nearby camp. The first records of Northern Indians remaining in the vicinity for any length of time date from May 1721, when several men agreed to hunt geese until the end of the migratory season in order to supply the hbc. Once the geese had passed, however, the hbc was anxious to send the hunters on their way so as not to bur¬ den the post with extra mouths to feed. The food supply was a crit¬ ical concern at Churchill. Many of the people arriving at that post did not come to trade but rather to investigate the situation. While this cautious approach irri¬ tated the hbc traders, it made good sense to the Chipewyan. They were clearly interested in the potential opportunities of the trade but were reluctant to become involved without careful consideration. One major concern was a desire to discover the nature of the hbc re¬ lationship with the Southern Indians as well as to determine whether a political alliance was possible for their benefit instead. The North¬ ern Indians were receiving mixed messages in their parleys with the English. On the one hand, the company was attempting to prevent

56

Drum Songs

any sort of warfare between the Cree and Chipewyan (which would, of course, interfere with trapping and trading activities), while on the other hand, the company was only too anxious to supply the Chipewyan with the weapons of war. The Chipewyan must also have been highly suspicious of the fact that the company was attempting to trade with both groups of people. Thus, while Dene women were anxious for the new domestic goods that made life easier, and Dene men for the guns that had given their enemies such power, they were very cautious indeed in their approach to the opportunities at Churchill. The distances that many Northern Indians were willing to travel in order to visit the posts are often surprising. People reported hav¬ ing travelled for between twenty-five days and two years,38 with the result that their visits were infrequent and they did not bring large quantities of furs. The distant Native trade consisted primarily of marten and a few beaver rather than the heavier buffalo robes or moose skins. Distance was only a part of the problem. The first Northern Indian traders at Churchill came on foot, pulling their goods on toboggans.39 Travelling this way was slow, and the North¬ ern Indians frequently pointed out that it was also dangerous, since long travel times made the acquisition of sufficient food supplies en route a major problem, hbc offers of provisions to assist on the re¬ turn journey were not helpful, since these would only add to the load that had to be dragged. To a number of hbc traders, the solu¬ tion seemed to be to convince the Chipewyan to build canoes like those of the Southern Indians. As Richard Staunton recorded in his journal, “I telling then yt they must make Cannues & come in them in ye Summer & then they will gett boath Goods and provisions; showing them ye furrs yt we have here in ye factory, telling them yt one Indian yt comes in his Cannue brings more goods than ten of them.”40 Those Chipewyan who spent their summers on the Barren Grounds did not have access to sufficiently large birch trees for canoe manufacture and thus faced a dilemma. If they wished to par¬ ticipate in the fur trade to any considerable extent, they would have to make changes in their hunting and territorial-use patterns. The decisions made by the Chipewyan in response to the new pressures were highly individual, and one group never presumed to speak for all in its dealings with the hbc. In reply to Staunton’s pres¬ sure to build canoes and hunt beaver, one party replied that they would promise to make Cannues & goe into ye woods in ye fall to Hunt, but that theire is a great many of theire Countrey men yt will not be advisd by them but wil keep out in ye plains and baran grounds. 4 The key issues seemed to be safety and economic re¬ turns. Seeing a party return from a successful voyage to Churchill

57

The Stone House People

without losses from privation or warfare served to convince some people, while others were drawn by good prices for goods. The sub¬ sequent nature of participation in the trade varied as much as did the initial response. Some people living in the vicinity of Churchill took it upon themselves to travel far to the west to inform their relatives and allies about the new post. Others developed personal relationships with Cree bands that enabled them to live and hunt to¬ gether in peace. Scouts from as far away as Great Slave Lake were sent to investigate. Some visitors to the post remained for only a mat¬ ter of hours, while others chose to remain for a season, watching the company’s methods and becoming familiar with the techniques used for preparing skins to be traded. Some of these men and women de¬ cided to devote their energies more fully to the trade. One of the first Yellowknife to visit Churchill followed this last pattern. He arrived in 1722 with a large band of Chipewyan and re¬ mained behind at the post when his travelling companions set off for their own lands. After a winter at Churchill, he struck off in the spring and returned the following June with a band of forty associ¬ ates, none of whom had come to the post before. Although the hbc had been urging him to bring copper from his lands, he consistently refused, explaining that “he thought he could do more Good in Gathering the Indians together to gett furrs.”42 He considered that the time and effort involved in returning to the Coppermine River was too much for the uncertain return, and he therefore made a place for himself as a fur trade leader. It was a matter of only about three years from the founding of the post at Churchill before the Northern Indians developed a new con¬ fidence in the situation. They “are not affraid as formerly,” noted Richard Staunton in 1721.43 In fact, they quickly became aggressors in their contacts with the Inuit, much to the concern of the hbc, which now began to pressure them to keep the peace with the coastal people. Trade visits in which the Northern Indians exchanged knives and awls for Inuit arrowheads and copper lances were inter¬ spersed with more violent encounters in competition for coastal re¬ sources. The Northern Indians were also becoming decidedly more bold in their dealings with the Cree. In 1722 a party of five men trav¬ elled openly to York Factory to compare trade practices with those at Churchill, something they would not have dared to do only a few years earlier. Women and children began to accompany the trading parties more regularly, while the size of the trading bands dropped to smaller groups of five to seven families. The Cree complained bitterly to the hbc, refusing to limit their trade to York Factory and continuing their attempts to dissuade the hbc from further contacts with the Chipewyan. Finally, in the win-

58

Drum Songs

ter of 1724-25, the Southern Indians launched a major military of¬ fensive against several bands of Northern Indians who had been to Churchill to trade. According to one Chipewyan report, “a Vast quantity of their Countreymen” were killed and goods which had been intended for trade in the interior had been seized by the Cree.44 The hbc attempted to keep the Chipewyan from retaliating by offering them gifts to keep the peace, but the Natives were not convinced. As Richard Norton at Churchill recorded, “They askt me whether they must stand still & be knockt on the head Like Doggs or fight in their one Difence.”45 Norton then tried to determine which people were responsible for the attacks and resolved to “use them Accordingly” when they came in to trade. But such measures had lit¬ tle effect. Sporadic skirmishes would continue for another century as the interior peoples pursued their own agendas and not those of the hbc. While distant Dene groups gradually learned of the Churchill trade, not all were interested in travelling enormous distances to participate in it, although the hbc was anxious to encourage them. In the spring of 1723, one of the Churchill regulars brought a “Strange Indian” from the interior to meet the traders, explaining that he had met with these people during the winter to “make a peace” and tell them about the Europeans. Communication was no barrier, “the Language of those Strangers being very much like our Northern Indians.” The hbc gave the “Strange Indian” gifts and en¬ couraged his escort to bring in more of these people next season.46 Instead, a number of the Northern Indians who had established trade contacts at Churchill began to set themselves up as middlemen with the distant bands. At first, the extent of this trade was modest. For example, a Northern Indian who had been given tobacco as a gift traded it for “20 Skins" from a distant band in 1719.47 By mid¬ century, however, more significant exchanges had developed and hbc goods had apparently penetrated as far as the Gwich’in lands. Those Chipewyan who decided to take on the role of middlemen began to form a unique group that took pride in their abilities as traders and saw themselves as distinct from their countrymen as a result. They referred to their relatives who were not interested in trapping for trade as “indolent and mean-spirited,” gloried in “the respect which is shewn to them at the Factory” and willingly risked the hazards of lengthy journeys to obtain furs.48 Some of the Chip¬ ewyan middlemen, like Matonabbee, used gifts and powers of per¬ suasion to induce their countrymen to provide them with furs,49 while others were less particular about their techniques, as Samuel Hearne reported. And though several of the Copper Indians have

59

The Stone House People

Table 3.1 Northern Natives Visiting Churchill, 1719-35 (Based on hbc Post Journal Identification) Women and Children

Year

Men

1719 1720 1721 1722 1723 1724 1725 1726 1727 1728 1729 1730 1731 1732 1733 1734 1735

24

1

48

63

104

116 7

130 23 6

84 79 65 19 12 +

10

80 2

Not Classified

2

23 ?

Total 155 23 117 84 89 65 123 12 + 80 27 P

53 59

53 59

_

_

117 30 51 +

117 146 58 +

Source: hbca B.42/a/l-15.

visited Churchill, in the capacity of servants to the Northern Indi¬ ans, and were generally sent back loaded with presents for their countrymen, yet the Northern Indians always plundered them of the whole soon after they left the Fort ... it is a political scheme of our Northern traders to prevent such an intercourse as it would greatly lessen their consequence and emolument.”50 Another aspect of the trade over which the natives sought to maintain control was the trade in copper. As has been noted, the En¬ glish were as much interested in the mineral resources of the north¬ west as they were in its furs, and considerable energy was devoted to eliciting information about the source of the copper alluded to by the Chipewyan. Initially, the hbc hoped to convince the Chipewyan to bring copper from the Yellowknife in whose lands the deposits lay. The Chipewyan were either unwilling or unable to do so. One Chipewyan visitor to Churchill reported that his party had met with a large camp of “Copper Indians” and had attempted to convince them to go to Churchill but “they would not Condesend to it by any means, neither give them any of their Copper, though they had a great quantity with ’em.”5' The hbc then changed its tactics and

6o

Drum Songs

attempted to deal directly with the Yellowknife through the occa¬ sional visitor at Churchill. These Yellowknife sometimes politely refused to cooperate, explaining that the mines lay at too great a distance; at other times they promised to go in search of the metal but either never returned or returned with stories of starvation and warfare that had prevented the successful completion of their mis¬ sion. “[As] for Copper,” lamented Richard Staunton in 1721, “I doo believe we shall not have any from them or any other Mettle.”52 Finally, the hbc decided that it would have to set off in search of the copper on its own initiative. Having been told that the deposits lay on the shores of the northern ocean, Staunton made arrange¬ ments in the summer of 1722 for the company’s sloop to undertake a voyage of discovery, guided by a Yellowknife, a Chipewyan, and Richard Norton as interpreter. Fresh meat and fish were loaded on board, since the Natives refused to eat the salted provisions that were the standard ship’s fare. Scarcely more than a month later the sloop returned, having collected the usual summer’s whalebone and oil, but without having located any copper along the shore of Hud¬ son Bay. Two years later, the impossibility of the plan seemed con¬ firmed when another Yellowknife explained that a sea passage did not exist, as it was “all a frozen Sea” where the copper deposits were located.53 There are several possible explanations for the hbc failure to con¬ vince the Yellowknife to inaugurate a copper trade at the Bay. The Coppermine River was indeed at a great distance from Churchill, a fact the hbc failed to appreciate until Samuel Hearne’s voyage there some fifty years later. Resources were scarce on the intervening Bar¬ ren Grounds in the winter, when the caribou had retreated to the shelter of the trees, so trips had to be planned carefully according to the season and would interrupt customary band movements. Fur¬ thermore, because the copper was located on the borders of the Inuit lands, unfriendly encounters were likely. In order to be willing to face these obstacles, the Yellowknife would have had to be highly motivated indeed, and clearly the hbc at Churchill was not offering sufficient inducements. It also appears that the Yellowknife people wanted to protect their position as guardians of the copper, a posi¬ tion that gave them power and prestige among their Dene neigh¬ bours. According to the widely known story of the Yellowknife discovery of copper, access to that commodity depended on the peo¬ ple following the advice of the woman who had brought it to them. A sacred trust was a powerful inducement to the Yellowknife not to break with tradition lest unforeseen consequences result.

61

The Stone House People

There were other ways in which the Dene demonstrated they were not the naive traders that observers have sometimes believed them to be. On several occasions they demanded (and received) assur¬ ances of safety from Cree attacks if they were to continue trading.54 They were also price-sensitive from an early date. When fewer Northern Indians than usual arrived to trade in the spring of 1724, Richard Norton learned that the cause was the fact that hbc trader Bishop had been guilty of “Using them so Slitly Last Spring that they beleiv’d there whould no more come this Season” and that the Yel¬ lowknife man who had travelled with them had returned to his own lands because of Bishop’s “Disincouragment to him.”55 In order to encourage the Northern Indians to trade, the Churchill traders briefly attempted to offer better prices than those given to the Southern Indians at York Factory. Pressure from the disgruntled Cree soon put an end to the experiment. When the hbc succeeded in encouraging a few Northern Indians to winter at Churchill for the company’s purposes, the Dene made the most of the situation. Not only did they make it their business to learn as much as possible about the Englishmen, but they capitalized on hbc needs by de¬ manding to be made comfortable. “They are a great Charge in Cloathing,” recorded one disgruntled trader, “as well as Smoking and Eating More food than five of our Men. [We] Could not Keep them Short by reason their Staying was wth our Desire.”56 The Chipewyan and Yellowknife also had very specific demands for goods and could seldom be persuaded to take other items. Guns, powder, and shot were of the highest priority in the first decade of trade. In April 1723 one band took a number of kettles, much to the delight of the company, because “they never traded before but little” in that line.57 Even by the 1740s James Isham observed that the Chipewyan were not like other Native traders, being “not of that am¬ bitious Nature.” They preferred “Dressing very plaine; using their former Custom’s, Seldom trading any finery for Such usses But what they traffick for is Chiefly necessary’s for Life, such as powdr. shott Guns &c.”58 The problems of distance and transportation were partly the cause. Natives acting as middlemen as well as those who had come a great distance to trade for themselves could not afford to be burdened by heavy and bulky goods. In addition, it seems clear that the Northern Indians saw no real need for many of the goods offered by the hbc. It may have been difficult for European observ¬ ers to understand, but the Native peoples lived what seemed to them a comfortable and satisfactory life among the caribou and woodland resources. As Richard Staunton complained, a band of six Northern

62

Drum Songs

men and two women returned from a moose hunt having killed five moose but brought nothing of their produce to the fort,

thay being

as fatt as so many White Bears & so Lasey yt they would not bring ye Skinns.”59 Because of the Cree-Chipewyan tensions and the low level of de¬ mand among the Chipewyan, the

hbc

soon began to question James

Knight’s early enthusiasm about the trade potential at Churchill. In 1723 Governor Thomas McCliesh told the London Committee that only about 200 Native families lived in the Churchill hinterland, and that in his opinion “the trade at Churchill will never answer the charge of sending a ship out of England, and the keeping so many men there” when more business could be done at York Factory. ^ac du Brochet (1799—1800); Fort Chipewyan (1802-1905); Churchill (1718-90); Churchill River (1794—96); Fort Good Hope (1822-34, 1861—62); Fort Halkett (1858— 59); Fort Liard (1860-64); Mansfield and Chiswick House (1803-1806); Fort Norman (1822-34); Providence (1871-74); Reindeer Lake (17981821) Fort Resolution (1818—35); Fort Simpson (1822—1918); Vermilion (1802—1803); York Fort/Factory (1715—17) NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF CANADA, MANUSCRIPT DIVISION

Fort Simpson Journal Fragments Hayter Reed Correspondence James Anderson Papers (1832-63) Lewis and Pelly Lakes Journals (1848—51) nwc

Papers (1798—1820)

Peel’s River Journals (1847-53) Roderick MacFarlane Papers (1834—1918) Simon McGillivray Papers (1814-18) W.F. Wentzel, “Account of Mackenzie River” (1821) William Christie’s Trip Journal (1872—73) NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF CANADA, GOVERNMENT RECORDS DIVISION rg

18

rg

22 Proposed Parks,

rg

45 Fur industry and farming in Canada

rg

85 Advisory Board on Wild Life Protection

rcmp

Fort Resolution Daily Journals (1921-34) nwt

and Yukon (1957-59, 1956-60)

General File re: Administration of the

nwt

Indian and Metis welfare matters Influenza epidemic of 1928 Inspection trip of O.S. Finnie, 1929 Investigation into Grievances of

nwt

Residents and Indians, 1928

Mackenzie District Economic Development (1912—22) Materials relating to the northern fur trade (1926-38) Materials relating to

rcmp

posts and patrols in the

nwt

Nahanni Gold Strike (1922-30) nwt

Census data

nwt

Schools

Petition from Trappers of the Fort Simpson District, 1932 Protection of fur-bearing animals Report on Mackenzie Conditions, 1931 Requests for game preserves

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ordination and Research Centre, Department of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources, 1963. - Athapaskan Adaptations. Chicago: Alcline Publishing Co., 1974. - “Exploration and Contact History of Western Alaska.” In David Damas, ed., Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 5, Arctic, 149—60. Washing¬ ton: Smithsonian Institute, 1984. - Death and Rebirth of the Seneca. New York: Random House, 1969. Wallace, A.F.C.. “Revitalization Movements: Some Theoretical Considera¬ tions.” American Anthropologist 58 (1956): 264—81. Wallace, J.N. The Wintering Partners on Peace River from the Earliest Records to the Union in 1821. Ottawa: Thorburn and Abbott, 1929.

Wallace, W.S., ed. John McLeans Notes of a Twenty-five Years’ Service in the Hudson’s Bay Territory. Toronto: Champlain Society, 1932.

- Documents Relating to the North West Company. Toronto: Champlain Society, 1934Watkins, Mel, ed. Dene Nation — The Colony Within. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977. Wherrett, G.J., and Andrew Moore. “Arctic Survey.” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 11, no. 1 (February 1945): 49-82.

Whitehead, Margaret M. “Missionaries and Indians in Cariboo: A History of St. Joseph’s Mission, Williams Lake, B.C.” ma thesis, University of Vic¬ toria, 1979. Whittington, Michael S., ed. The North. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985. Williams, Glyndwr, ed. Andrew Graham’s Observations on Hudson’s Bay 1767—91. London: Hudson’s Bay Record Society, 1969.

- “Highlights of the First Two Hundred Years of the Hudson’s Bay Com¬ pany.

Special issue of The Beaver, Outfit 301 (Autumn 1970).

- and John S. Galbraith, eds. London Correspondence Inward from Sir George Simpson, 1841—42. London: Hudson’s Bay Record Society, 1973.

- “The Hudson’s Bay Company and the Fur Trade: 1670-1870.” The Bea¬ ver, Outfit 314(1983): 1-86. Williamson, R.G. Slave Indian Legends.” Anthropologica 1 (1955): 119—43, and 2 (1956): 61-92.

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Wales Northern Heritage Centre, 1985. Wolforth, John. The Evolution and Economy of the Delta Community. Ottawa: Mackenzie Delta Research Project, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, 1971. Workman, William B. Prehistory of the Aishihik-Kluane Area, Southwest Yukon Territory. Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey Paper no. 74. Ottawa:

National Museums of Canada, 1978. — “The Significance of Volcanism in the Prehistory of Subarctic Northwest North America.” In P.D. Sheets and D.K. Grayson, eds., Volcanic Activity and Human Ecology, 339—71. New York: Academic Press, 1979.

Wright, James V. The Grant Lake Site, Keewatin District, N.W.T. Archaeolog¬ ical Survey Paper no. 47. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1976. Yerbury, J.C. “The Post Contact Chipewyan: Trade Rivalries and Changing Territorial Boundaries.” Ethnohistory 23, no. 3 (1976): 237-64. — “Duncan Livingston of the N.W.Co." Arctic 30, no. 3 (September 1977): 187—8. — “Prehistoric Canadian Athapaskan Populations: An Ethnohistorical Re¬ construction.” Arctic Anthropology 17, no. 2 (1980): i7~33— “The Social Organization of the Subarctic Athapaskan Indians: An Eth¬ nohistorical Reconstruction.” PhD diss., Simon Fraser University, 1980. Zaslow, Morris. “The Development of the Mackenzie Basin, 1920—1940.” phD

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Index

Beaulieu, Frangois (ju¬

Canoes. See Transporta¬

nior), 74-5, 86, 94-5, 99-101, 146 Beaulieu, Jacques, 74 Beaver (people), xviii, 9,

tion Canol pipeline, 212, 214 Captain Swan, 53 Card, Gerald, 174, 179, i96- !99 Caribou: hunting tech¬

Canada, 120 Anishnabe. See Ojibwa

12, 73, 76, 80, 81, 95-6, 158, 164 Beaver Eyes, 103 Beaver Orphan, 32 Berger, Thomas, 252 Black, Edward H., 162 Bompas, Charlotte

Antoine, Chief, 197 Apache, xv, 9, 11 Archaeological theories,

Selina, 133, 180 Bompas, William Car¬ penter, 119—20, 127—8,

xvi, 84, 192, 204 Carrothers Commission,

Abele, Frances, 261 Advisory Board on Wild Life Protection, 190, 193- 215-16, 221-3 Akaitcho, 86, 91-5 Aklavik, 214, 228 Alaska Highway, 212 Alcohol, 77, 84, 160, 189, 264 Anglican Church of

3-7 Arctic Red River, 14, 97, 104, 186, 207, 237 Arrowmaker, Alexis, 247 Asch, Michael, 261 Assembly of First Na¬ tions, 249, 255, 260 Aw-gee-nah, 75, 110

136, 141, 158, 160-3, 178, 180 Breynat, Gabriel, 137, 176, 178, 181, 186, 199, 208, 240, 253 Brough, Betsy, 140 Bruneau, Jimmy, 216, 219, 250 Buffalo, 5, 29, 191

niques, 7, 23—7, 243- 4; and population divisions, 18, 27; use of, 5-6, 13, 26, 33-4, 37 Caribou Eater Nation,

244- 5 Cazon, Baptiste, 241 Cedar Lake, 68, 71 Charles Camsell Hospi¬ tal, 237 Charlie, John, 259 Charter Communities Act, 260 Chipewyan (people), xivxvi, 9, 13, 20, 25, 29, 30, 31-2, 35, 36-7, 38,

Back, George, 95 Baker, Peter, 207

Cadien, 86, 101, 121,

45. 48, 54-63. 67.

Band size, 18—19 Beaulieu, Alexie Jean

140 Camsell, Charles, 205,

71-8, 81, 83, 85, 90-1, 94, 96, 101, 107, 158,

Marie, 225 Beaulieu, Frangois (elder),

209-10, 225 Camsell, Julian, 160, 162

162, 164-5, i70-1>

86

174-5. »92-3. 250

2l6>

334

Index

Christie, Alexander, 146

Diefenbaker, John

Firth, John, 207

Churchill, 32, 35, 53-9,

George, 239 Disease, 63—4, 109—10, 173, 208, 266;influ¬ enza, 197—8, 208, 235;

Fishing, 5, 14, 19, 27, 29; commercial, 223—4, 226—7; techniques,

62, 67-9, 71, 73-5, 84, '75 Church Missionary Soci¬ ety, 114, 119 Clancy, Peter, 211, 219, 223 Clothing, 37-8 Clut, Isidore, 121, 129, 139. l63 Coates, Kenneth, 167, 268 Commission to Investi¬ gate the Unfulfilled Pro¬ visions of Treaties 8 and 11, 241—2 Conroy, H.A., 172-3, 176, 185-6, 192 Conservation: Dene techniques, 28, 218, 222; government in¬ terest, 190, 211, 214—15, 218, 220 Cooperatives, 227, 253-4 Copper, 6, 12—13, 31—2, 49- 5'. 53-55- 59~6°- 75 Coppermine, 12, 20, 31, 70—1, 262 Crapaud, Chief, 213 Cree, 20, 32-3, 36-7, 44-5- 49-53- 67- 7'76, 169—71, 175, 216 Cumberland House, 71 Cust and Davis, 154—5 Daligasse, James, 175 Davis, H.F., 154—5 Death customs, 23, 85, 107, 143 Deh-Cho Regional Coun¬ cil, 260 De Krangue, Noel, 131, '5' Dene Declaration, 252 Dene Mat, 253 Dene Nation, xv, 252—3, 254—6, 258, 261 Denendeh, 258, 261—3 Dentalium, 105, 147 Devine, Marina, 258 Dewdney, A.S., 232 Dickerson, Mark, 260

scarlet fever, 122-3, '37- 149-51'- sma"pox, 72-3, 109, 157, 197; tuberculosis, 237 Dogrib, xiv—xvi, 9, 19, 32, 36, 38-9, 45, 68-9, 73, 75—6, 91, 103, 122, 131, 158, 164, 196, 216, 219, 246, 250 Dogrib-Yellowknife War, 73, 91-6, 109, 158 Dogs, 130-1 Dominion Wildlife Ser¬ vice, 2 14 Drygeese, Chief, 196—7 Dunne-za. See Beaver (people) Dunvegan, 95, 147, 154

28-9 Fond du Lac, 81, 209 Food preparation tech¬ niques, 14, 27, 203 Forest fires, 177—8, 213 Forget, AmedeeEmmanuel, 168 Fort Chipewyan, 32, 160, 175, 176; disease at, 110, 137; and fur trade, 81, 8g, 90, 99—100, 108; game regulations at, 210; mis¬ sions at, 116, 137; prophets at, 129; pro¬ tests at, 81, 216; schools, 180—3; Treaty 8, 170, 172-3 Fort Good Hope: disputes at, 97, 101; fur trade

Dz-ghal-iaze, 47

at, 93, 98, 103-5; and game regulations, 221;

Echo Bay mine, 243 Economic development,

Indian agency, 199; people, xvii; petro¬ leum, 167; prophets at, 129, 158; protests at, 207; Treaty 11, 186

218—19, 227, 228—9, 242-3- 253-4

Education. See Schools Edzo, 95 Ehtsontsie, 47 Ekerichli, 130 English Chief. See Aw-geenah English River, 72, 100, 108,159 Epidemics. See Diseases Erasmus, Bill, 258 Erasmus, Georges, 255 Evans, James, 115

Fort Liard, 96, 104, 107, 110, 121, 140, 151, 186, 198 Fort McMurray, 170 Fort McPherson, 110, 181, 183, 186, 195-6, 207, 23'- 235. 259 Fort Nelson, 137, 212, 243 Fort Norman: DogribYellowknife War and, 93; economy, 206; fur

Family: size, 18; compo¬ sition, 20

trade at, 91; game man¬ agement station, 214;

Family Allowances. See Social services Faraud, Henri, 115,

game regulations at, 216, 221; Metis dis¬ pute at, 101; and mis¬ sions, 133, 135;

'34-5 Fidler, Peter, 79, 83 Finnie, Richard. 232 Firebags, 31

people, xvii; petroleum, 183; protests, 216; radio, 205; Trappers

335

Index

Association, 228; Treaty 11, 186-7 Fort Providence (old), 91 Fort Rae, 121, 132, 155, 186, 197, 216, 219, 221, 225, 237, 243-4, 250 Fort Resolution: disease at, 110, 198; economy of, 203, 236-7; and fur trade, 81, 82, 85, 90-1, 157; game management station, 214; missions at, 115, 121; police post, 177; protests at, 2og—10, 217, 220, 225; Treaty 8, 171, 209—10 Fort St John, 95—6, 146, 159> 171 Fort Simpson, 10, 29, 93, 212; aviation and, 205-6; co-op, 253; dis¬ ease at, 110, 151; fur trade at, 89-90, 99, 103, 107-8; game regula¬ tions and, 214, 221; growth of, 237; mis¬ sions, 116, 119, 121-3, 125, 133, 135, 138, 140; police at, 167, 177; protests at, 197—8, 210, 217; schools at, 181—3, 234—5; starva¬ tion at, 162; Trappers Association, 228; Treaty 8, 164, 168, 176; Treaty 11, 186—7, 197-8 Fort Smith, 245; people, xv; game regulations and, 215, 221; hospital at, 137; protests at, 192—4; schools, 182—3, 232, 234-5; Trappers Association, 228; Treaty 8, 170, 174, 192-4 Fort Wedderburn, 81 Fort Yukon, 98, 105, M7> >49- i5!-2, 154156 Frobisher, Joseph, 71, 80

Fumoleau, Rene, 171, 176, 185-7, 199. 209, 253 Fur tax, igo Fur trade: Americans and, 152—7, 159; Dene strategies, 54-6, 58-61, 78, 81-3, 89-90, 1o8-9> 153- 156. 207—8; hbc policies, 46, 89, 206—7; middle¬ men, 58, 62-3, 65-6, 68-70, 73, 78, 90-1, 97-8, 157; population movement and, 56—7, 75.79. 103-4, 157-8; preferred goods, 61, 75, 76-7, 104-6, 147-8, 155. i56. 203; prices, 69. 77. 99’ 155-6, 206—8; relations with the hbc, 102, 207; vio¬ lence and, 75, 78, 79-81, 83, 91-3, 95-8, 101-2 Gallatin, Albert, xiv Game preserves, 194—5, 211, 213, 219, 240 Game regulations, 173, 195, 199-200, 210-11, 215—17, 219, 222-3, 267—8 Game wardens, 215 Gathering. See Plant use Geological Survey of Can¬ ada, 167, 212, 228 Gillespie, Beryl C., 11, 35, 95 Glaciation, 4-5 Godsell, Philip, 188, 196, 198, 208 Gold, 146, 167, 176, 267 Goulet, Charles, 197—8 Graham, Maxwell, 191 Grand Blanc, 96, 104 Grand Cheveux, 89 Grand Jambe, 92 Grand Jeune Homme,

82, 86 Grandin, Vital-Justin, 122, 132, 138, 181

Grant, Cuthbert, 74 Great Bear Lake, xvi, xvii, xviii, 5, 13, 84, 92, 1 10, 1'9’ 150 Great Slave Lake, xvi, xvii, 5, 13.28,53,57,63, 71, 77- 81-2, 85, 91, 94-6, 110, 142, 148, 150, 158, 167, 168, 171, 176, 198, 219, 223, 225 Gregory, McLeod and Company, 74 Grey Nuns, 118-9, 125, !33> 135. >40. 150. 180 Grollier, Pierre-Henri, 1 16-7, 136 Gros Pied. See Akaitcho Grouard, Emile-JeanBaptiste-Marie, 121, 125, 131 Guns, 45-8, 51, 54, 61,64, 76-7, 104-5, 203 Gwich in, xiv, xvii, 9, 25, 28, 37, 58, 66, 96-8, 105—6, 109, 110, 120, 130, 141, 147, 151-3, *58.

195’

257-8

Ham^ou, 92 Hanks, Christopher, 29 Hardisty, Allen, 127 Hardisty, William Lucas, 138, 147-8, 150, 154-6 Hare (people), xiv, xv, xvii, 10, 37, 66, 76, 92-3’97.101,110 Harris, T.W., 186, 200, 209 Hay River, xv, xvii, 96, 119, 154, 171, 181, 194, 217, 224-5, 245. 257 Hearne, Samuel, 19, 24-30, 58, 69-72, 110 Helm, June, 95 Herschel Island, 181 Hewitt, Gordon, 190 Homeopathy, 136 Housing: construction techniques, 14, 33-4 Hunter, James, 116-17

336

Index

Hunting techniques: bows, 13, 22, 26, 29; pounds, 24—5; snares, 13, 25-6, 29-30,54,64; spears, 5, 7, 13, 25, 29 Ile-a-la-Crosse, 71, 74, 76, 115, 129, 175, 181 Indian agents, 174, 179, 196, 199-200, 203, 206, 212, 217, 220, 223 Indian Brotherhood of the nwt, 246-52 Indigenous Survival Inter¬ national, 253 Infanticide, 21, 23, 120, 142 Ings, Dr George, 197 Inuit, 31-3, 37, 53, 55, 60, 62, 65, 81, 96-7, 109> !58- 197> 243261, 262 Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, 261 Inuvialuit, 262 Inuvik, 14, 234-5, 243 Irene Training School, 180 Iroquois, 79—80 Ives, John, 18 Jarvenpa, Robert, 27-8 Jeremie, Nicholas, 32,

Lac la Biche, 79, 159

Mackenzie River, xv,

Lac la Martre, xvi, 29, 86, 90, 92, 93-5, 99, 107, 231, 253

xvii, 6, 9, 2 1, 29, 75 Mackenzie Valley Pipe¬ line Inquiry, 252 McLeod, Alexander R.,

Lacombe, Albert, 169 Laird, David, 168—70 Lake Athabasca, 63, 69, 71, 73-4, 78, 80, 83, 151, 155, 158, 193, 223, 227

Macrae, J.A., 171 Mandeville, Francois, 32 Mangeur de Lard, 90

Lamalice, Casimir, 194, 216-18, 224 Land claims, 187, 255—8 Lange, Linda, 237 L’Anglois, 96

Marest, Gabriel, 45 Marriage customs, 20, 79 Martin, Calvin, 63—4 Matonabbee, 20, 22, 58, 68—71, 74

Language: groups, 7, 18; and culture, 264; in schools, 181—2,

Medical services, 136—8,

249-5° La Pierre’s House, 98, 152, 154 L’Association des Metis d’Alberta et des tno, 209 La Verendrye, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, 67 Laviolette, Alexandre, 170-1, 173 Lebeaux, Albert, 188 Legislative Assembly of the nwt, 245, 247,

93 McQueston, Leroy, 154

Mayo, Alfred, 154 i5°- *73- !97- !99 Mellor, Arthur H.L., 176 Mercredi, Pierre, 170 Methye Portage. See Por¬ tage la Loche Metis, 76, 83, 85—7, 88—9, 98—102, 110, 113, 116, 140-2, 145-6, 158, 168—70, 172, 175, 187, 209, 227, 237, 243, 251-2, 256 Metis Association of the nwt, 249, 255-6, 258, 261 Metis Nation, 258 Migratory Birds Conven¬ tion Act, 190

35- 46 Julius, Chief, 195-6

255. 259-61 Leroux, Laurent, 77 Liard River, xvii, i, 159, 168, 215

Kanoobaw,91, 93 Kaska, xvii

Livingston, Duncan, 81 Loucheux. See Gwich’in

239> 243 Mis-ta-poose, 78 Montagnais, 11 Moose, 29

Keelshies, 20, 69—70 Kelsey, Henry, 35, 46, 49

McClellan, Catharine, 38 McDonald, Kenneth,

Morice, Adrien-Gabriel, xiv, 31

Kin-oo-say-oo, 164 Kirkby, David North,

>53- 157 McDonald, Robert, 120,

Morris, Augusta, 136 Morrison, William R., 167

Keele River, 6

122, 126, 132, 139, *49 Knight, James, 25, 31, 46, 48-54

>4»- 153 McGillis, Cuthbert, 145-6

Koe, James, 241

Mackenzie Air Service, 205, 212

Krech III, Shepard, 105 Kutchin. See Gwich’in

Mackenzie, Alexander, xiv, 9, 26, 28, 35, 38-9,

La Butte, 85, 86

73- 74- 77- 86, 110 Mackenzie, James, 78

Mining, 211—12, 213,

Morrow decision, 251 Morton, Arthur Silver, 79,

88 Mountain (people), xv, xvii, 10, 36, 66, 96, 103 Mourning. See Death cus¬ toms Munk, Jens, 32

337

Index

Murray, Alexander Hunter, g8 Music, xiii, 39, 133 Nahanni (people), 84 Nahanni National Park, 247-8 Naming practices, 20—1 Native Communications Society of the nwt, 254 Natural Resources Transfer Agreement, 210 Nau-derri-cho, 104 Navajo, xiv, 9, 11—12 Nelson, Walter H., 241 Nelson Commission. See Commission to Investi¬ gate the Unfulfilled Provisions of Treaties 8 and 11 Nerysoo, Richard, 259 Nielsen, Erik, 248 Norman Wells, 6, 214 Northern Co-operative Fisheries, 227 Northern Traders Lim¬ ited, 189, 193, 196, 205, 207—8, 216 Northern Transportation Company, 214 North West Company, 75-6, 78-80, 83, 84, 85, 86-7, 109 Northwest Game Act, 190-1, 196 Northwest Microblade tradition, 6 North-West Mounted Police, 167, 168 Northwest Territories

Oblates of Mary Immacu¬ late, 114, 118—19 Oil and gas. See Petroleum Ojibwa, 33, 44, 79, 131 Old Crow, 5 Onion, Julian. See Camsell, Julian Oral traditions, 86, 198—9; origin stories, 8; on population move¬ ments, 8—9, 10—11, 12; on resources, 12—13, 30, 32, 66; on warfare, 47-8. 73. 94-5; on the fur trade, 49, 74—5 Orphanages, 118, 119, 142, 150 Oul-ly, 68 Palaeo-Eskimo, 6 Parker, John H., 244, 250 Paulette, Francois, 251 Peace River, 73, 78—9, 90, 95, 146, 155-6, 158, 167, 168, 193, 205 Peace treaties, 48, 73 Peel River, xvii, 97, 110 Peterson, Jacqueline, Petitions, 191, 209, 216-17, 224 Petitot, Emile, xiv, xvii, 9, 10-11, 30, 37, 74, 101, 117, 129, 132-3, 135 Petroleum, 161, 167, 183-4, 211, 214, 242, 250 Phressie, Pierre, 225 Plano culture, 5-6, 8 Plant use, 30-1, 38, 39

Council, 209, 212, 214,

Poitras, 90

218-19, 223, 225—6, 232, 237, 245, 247,255,

Pond, Peter, 71, 74-7, 80 Population: groupings,

259 Northwest Territories Forest and Game Man¬ agement Service, 214 Norton, Moses, 68-70 Norton, Richard, 54, 60-1 Norwegian, Joseph, 187 Norwegians, 176

xv- xvi, 6; distribution,

Port Radium, 211, 214 Portage la Loche, 72, 80, 100, 102, 129, 159 Pouce Coupee, 86 Prince of Wales’s Fort. See Churchill Prophets, 107, 128—31, 158 Providence, 118, 121, 150, 156, 180—2, 186—7 Radio, 205, 237 Rae-Edzo, xvi, 250 Red Leggings, 152 Red River, 99—101, 110, 114-16, 140, 145, 154 Reeve, William Day, 121, 122, 123, 127, 136, i4!-2. 149 Reindeer Lake, 80-1 Relief, 163, 165, 179, 187 Religion: Dene, 39—42, 123. See also Shamans; Prophets; Women — and religion Reserves, 168, 170, 173-4, 186-7, ‘93. 240-1, 251 Roads. See Transportation — overland Roads to Resources pro¬ gram, 239-40 Robertson, Gordon, 236 Ross, Bernard Rogan, 36, 100, 117, 121 Ross, James, 257 Rotstein, Abraham, 139 Round, H.B., 169—70 Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 190, 197-200, 205, 216 Royal North-West Mounted Police, 176-7, 179 Rundle, Robert, 115

xvi- xviii; precon¬ tact numbers, 19; eighteenth-century

Sahneuti, 153, 157 Sahtu-Dene, xv, xviii,

numbers, 19; twentiethcentury numbers, 238

258 St Germain, Pierre, 95 Salt River, 86, 100, 174

Porritt, Robert, 245 Porsild, A.E., 222

Sarcee, xiv, 12

338

Index

Saskatchewan: govern¬ ment programs, 220, 227 Schoolcraft, Henry, xiv Schools: Dene participa¬ tion, 124, 144, 182-3, 23!-5. 238-9. 248-50, 266; government funding for, 180-2, 232, 234; government policy and, 180—2, 234-5; mission day, 119, 120, 160, 180-3; mission boarding, 118, 119, 181-3, 232-3; res¬ idential, 232—4 Schultz, John Christian, 160 Schultz Committee. See Senate committee to enquire into the re¬ sources of the Great Mackenzie Basin Scrip, 168-9, 172, 175, 187 Sekani, xiv, xvii Senate committee to en¬ quire into the re¬ sources of the Great Mackenzie Basin, 160-2, 167, 267 Shamans, 19, 40-1, 121, 123. 129, 132, 137 Shield Archaic tradition,

5-6 Sibbeston, Nick, 259 Sifton, Clifford, 168 Simpson, George, 86, 88, 116, 145 Slavey (people), xiv, xv, xvii, 9, 10, 36, 38-9, 67, 75-6, 90-1, 94, 125, 164, 210

South Nahanni River, 176, 239 Spendlove, William, 124-6, 130, 133, 135,

137. 151 Starvation, 93—4, 104, 107, 111, 150, 162—3 Staunton, Richard, 55, 56—7, 60—1 Stewart, William, 49—50,

53 Surveys, 173—4 Syllabics, 117, 119 Tache, Alexandre A., 115, 118, 129 Tausigouai, 92 Thanadelthur, 18, 49—53, 64

Treaty 11: controversy, 187-8, 217, 240—2, 253; negotiation of,

l85-7 Tree of Peace, 249 Tribal councils, 260 Trout Lake, 90, 110, 151 155, 186 Trudeau, Pierre Elliott, 246, 247 Turnor, Philip, 72, 76, 78 80

The Butte. See La Butte The Pea, 82

Usher, Peter J., 236

Thibeauit, Jean-Baptiste,

Valentine, Victor F., 241 Vermilion, 96, 104, 110, 119, 148, 155, 170, 180—1

1 '5 Thompson, Judy, 38 Tourangeau, Francois, 146

Volcanoes, g—11

Trade, precontact, *3-14. 38-9 Trade chiefs, 71, 78, 81, 82, 89, 91, 96, 97, 103—4, 1C)8, 110, 153, !57 Transportation, 14; avia¬ tion, 205—6, 211—12, 243; barges, 184, 211, 229; canoes, 35—6, 204-5; moose-skin boats, xviii, 36—7; over¬ land, 34—5, 56; rail¬ ways, 184, 229; roads, •59. l84, 211, 224, 229, 239-40; steam¬ boats, 159, 204, 211

Slaw-ealth-el-ene, 108 Smith, David, 198-9 Smith, Edward, 89, 91, 103, 110

Trapline registration, 210-11, 218-20

Smith, James G.E., 11 Snare Lake, xvi Snowdrift, 143, 254

Trapping regulations, 190-1

Social services, 235—7

Treaty 6, 164 Treaty 8: controversy, 171—4, 200, 210, 217, 253; negotiation of, 164, 167, 169—72 Treaty 10, 175

Trappers’ associations, 228, 231-2

Treaty boycotts, 196-7, 209-10

Wah-Shee, James, 246, 248, 255, 258-9, 262 War: Cree-Chipewyan, 45-8, 62, 68, 73; Dogrib-Yellowknife, 73, 91-6, 109, 158; other, 96—7 Watkins, Mel, 254—5 Welfare. See Relief Wentzel, Willard Fer¬ dinand, 21, 42, 83, 89, 110 Wesleyan Methodist mis¬ sions, 115 White River, 10-11, 13,

53 Women: cultural tradi¬ tions, 20-3, 38, 111; economic role, 23, 29, 78-9, 84, 86, 103-4, 110, 203, 237-8; and politics, 101; and reli¬ gion, 40-1, 127,

*33-6. 140

339

Index

Wood Buffalo Park, 191-3, 216 Workman, William B., 9 Wrigley, xvii, 162, 186

Xavier, Antoine. 164 xy Company, 80

Yellowknife (city), 211-13, 229, 232, 245, 246 Yellowknife (people), xvi,

Yukon River, xvii, 10, 65,

19, 20, 31, 48, 59-61, 68, 75, 90-5, 109, 164, 192 Yendo, Julian, 187 York Factory, 44, 46,

Zaslow, Morris, 205

51 4, 57. 61-2, 71, 74, Yakalaya, Johnny, 216

>75

98, 147, 152, 159

DRUM SONGS (^Wmpsej o/-Qene H.stod Kerry Abel Drum Songs examines the history of the Dene from ancient times to the present. Tracing key themes and reconstructing important moments in Dene history, Abel demonstrates how the Dene have maintained a sense of cultural distinctiveness in the face of overwhelming economic, political, and cultural pressures from European newcomers. Abel stresses the adaptability of the Dene and their ability to make rational and satisfying choices when faced with a variety of external pressures, challenging the standard perception that aboriginal peoples in Canada have been passive victims of colonialism. "Sweeping, detailed, intelligible, and persuasive ... a fine example of scholarly interpretation and presentation." J.R. Miller, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan.

Kerry Abel is Assistant Professor of History, Carleton University.

McGill-Queen's Studies in Ethnic History

ISBN 0-7735-1150-4

McGill-Queen's University Press

Cover designed by Rasa Pavilanis

780773 511507

Cover illustration Rasa Pavilanis

9