The People of Denendeh: Ethnohistory of the Indians of Canada's Northwest Territories

CONTENTS

CONTENTS Preface xi Orthography xvii Names of Communities in Denendeh xix 1 Horde, Band, and Tribe Seen from Denendeh, an Introduction 1 Part I community and livelihood at midcentury 21 2 The Bush Community and Trading Fort at Midcentury 23 The Bush Community 23 The Trading Fort 26 3 The Yearly Round of the People of ‘‘Lynx Point,’’ Jean Marie River, 1951–1952 30 The Household 30 Living in and off the Land 35 4 Fish Consumption, Rabbit Uses, and Caribou Hunting among the Dogribs 56 Fish Consumption 56 Rabbits 57 Caribou 63 5 The Security Quest at ‘‘Lynx Point,’’ Jean Marie River, 1951–1952 72 Mode and Standard of Living 72 Economic Problems 79 Part II looking back in time 91 6 Changing Times 95 Effects of the Highway, Rae, 1967, by Nancy O. Lurie 95 News of Jean Marie River after Twenty Years, 1951–1971 100 Current Styles and Material Possessions, Rae, 1971 102 7 The Contact History of the Subarctic Athapaskans: An Overview 104 Stages in Northern Athapaskan Contact History 106 The Trading Post and the Mission 114 Boom Frontier and Settled Frontier 116 The Government-Commercial Era 117 Epidemics and Population Patterns during the ContactTraditional Stage 120 8 Overview Hearing at the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, 1975 124 Survey of Native Peoples and Linguistic Geography 125 Contact History to World War II 127 From World War II to the Present 132 Concluding Overview 138 9 Moving Back through the Full Fur and Mission Period 140 The Influenza Epidemic of 1928 140 Native Occupation and Status in the Fur Trade, 1900 –1925 143 The Signing of Treaty No. 8 at Fort Resolution in 1900 153 The Mackenzie Soul Rush of the 1860s 159 Naedzo Looks Back at the Old Days 163 10 Traditional Leadership 167 The Historical Record 167 Bosses, Leaders, and Trading Chiefs among the Dogribs 183 Chiefly Succession among the Rae Dogribs, 1867–1971 187 11 Female Infanticide, European Diseases, and Population Levels among the Mackenzie Dene 192 Nineteenth-Century Observers’ Statements on Female Infanticide 193 Sources of Population Data, 1820s–1920s 194 viii Contents The Censuses of 1829, 1858, 1891, and 1924: Sex Ratios 195 European Diseases and Population Levels 207 Toward Population Models: Discussion and Definition of Terms 212 Four Population Models 216 Conclusion 218 12 Dogrib Oral Tradition As History: War and Peace in the 1820s 220 Dogrib Oral Tradition 220 Naedzo’s Testimony 224 Historicity in Naedzo’s Testimony 226 The Confrontation 229 Akaitcho 231 13 Earliest Contacts 234 Living off the Land with the Chipewyan Indians in 1791–1792 234 When the First Pale Men Came to Lac la Martre 246 14 Looking to the Future 250 The Indian Brotherhood and the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry 250 Dene Dependency and Dene Self-Determination 256 Part III being dene 269 15 Traditional Knowledge and Belief 271 Three Understandings 271 Four Legends 281 16 The Dogrib Hand Game 293 Composition of the Game 295 The Rules of Play 301 The Hand Game in Dogrib Society 304 Action in the Dogrib Hand Game: Photographs 307 17 Enjoyments and Special Times 312 Fun and Deportment 312 Brewing, by Teresa S. Carterette 315 New Year at ‘‘Lynx Point’’ 324 Contents ix Festivities of Treaty Time in Rae 328 Women’s Work, Women’s Art 335 Ninhts’i Netsà 337 18 Being Dene 340 Helene Rabesca, 1897–1996 340 Louis Norwegian, 1907–1977 354 Afterword 365 A Note about the Contributors 367 References Cited 369 Index 385 x Contents ...