Chipewyan


The Chipewyan, are a Dene group of Indigenous Canadian people belonging to the Athabaskan language family, whose ancestors are identified with the Taltheilei Shale archaeological tradition. They are part of the Northern Athabascan group of peoples, and hail from what is now Western Canada.

Terminology

The name Dënesųłı̨né, also written Denésoliné or Dënë Sųłınë́, means "the original/real people". The term Chipewyan is an exonym from the Cree language meaning 'pointed hides', referring to the design of their parkas.
The French-speaking missionaries to the northwest of the Red River Colony referred to the Chipewyan people as Montagnais in their documents written in French. Montagnais simply means 'mountain people' or 'highlanders' in French and has been applied to many unrelated nations across North America over time. For example, the missionaries also referred to the Neenolino Innu of northern Quebec as Montagnais.

Ethnography

Historically, the Denesuline were allied to some degree with the southerly Cree peoples. They warred against Inuit and other Dene peoples to the north of Chipewyan lands.
An important historic Denesuline is Thanadelthur, a young woman who early in the 18th century helped her people to establish peace with the Cree, and to get involved in the fur trade.
The Sayisi Dene of northern Manitoba are a Chipewyan band notable for hunting migratory caribou. They were historically located at Little Duck Lake and known as the "Duck Lake Dene".
In 1956, the government forcibly relocated them to the port of Churchill on the shore of Hudson Bay and a small village north of Churchill called North Knife River. There they joined other Dene and became members of the "Fort Churchill Chipewyan Band".
In the 1970s, the "Duck Lake Dene" opted for self-reliance, and a return to caribou hunting. They relocated to Tadoule Lake, legally becoming recognized as "Sayisi Dene First Nation " in the 1990s.

Culture

The Chipewyan used to be largely nomadic, organized into small bands and temporarily lived in tepees. They wore one-piece pants and moccasin outfits. However, their nomadic lifestyle began to erode in 1717 when they encountered English settlers. The Chipewyan subsequently became important in the subarctic trade by exchanging furs and hides for metal tools, guns and cloth.
Modern Chipewyan are either fluidly sedentary or semi-nomadic in lifestyle. Many still practice their traditional lifestyle for subsistence including fishing or caribou hunting although this process is modernized with the use of modern nets, tools, transportation and more.

Language

Denesuline speak the Denesuline language, of the Athabaskan linguistic group. Denesuline is spoken by Indigenous peoples in Canada whose name for themselves is a cognate of the word dene : Denésoliné. Speakers of the language speak different dialects but understand each other. There is a 'k', t dialect that most people speak. For example, people in Fond du lac, Gąnı kuę́ speak the 'k' and say yaki ku while others who use the 't' say yati tu.
The name Chipewyan is, like many people of the Canadian Prairies, of Algonquian origin. It is derived from the Plains Cree name for them, Cīpwayān, "pointed skin", from cīpwāw, "to be pointed"; and wayān, "skin" or "hide" - a reference to the cut and style of Chipewyan parkas.
Most Chipewyan people now use Dene and Denesuline to describe themselves and their language. The Saskatchewan communities of Fond-du-Lac, Black Lake and Wollaston Lake are a few.
Despite the superficial similarity of the names, the Chipewyan are not related to the Chippewa people.
In 2015, Shénë Gahdële-Valpy, a Chipewyan woman in the Northwest Territories, challenged the territorial government over its refusal to permit her to use the letter in her daughter's name, Sahą́ı̨́ʔą. The territory argued that territorial and federal identity documents were unable to accommodate the letter. Sahaiʔa's mother finally registered her name with a hyphen in place of the, while continuing to challenge the policy. Shortly afterwards, another woman named Andrea Heron also challenged the territory on the same grounds, for refusing to accept the letter in her daughter's Slavey name, Sakaeʔah. Náʔël, the sister of Sahą́ı̨́ʔą, faces the same issues.

Demographics

Chipewyan peoples live in the region spanning the western Canadian Shield to the Northwest Territories, including northern parts of the provinces of Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan. There are also many burial and archaeological sites in Nunavut which are part of the Dënesųłı̨ne group.
The following list of First Nations band governments had in August 2016 a total registered membership of 25,519, with 11,315 in Saskatchewan, 6,952 in Alberta, 3,038 in Manitoba and 4,214 in the Northwest Territories. All had Denesuline populations; however, several had a combination of Cree and Denesuline members.
There are also many Dene -speaking Métis communities located throughout the region. The Saskatchewan village of La Loche, for example, had 2,300 residents who in the 2011 census identified as speaking Dene as their native language. About 1,800 of the residents were Métis and about 600 were members of the Clearwater River Dene Nation.

Commemorations

The relocation of the Sayisi Dene is commemorated by the Dene Memorial in Churchill, Manitoba.

Historical Chipewyan regional groups

The Chipewyan moved in small groups or bands, consisting of several extended families, alternating between winter and summer camps. The groups participated in hunting, trapping, fishing and gathering in Canada's boreal forest and around the many lakes of their territory. Later, with the emerging North American fur trade, they organized into several major regional groups in the vicinity of the European trading posts to control, as middleman, the carrying trade in furs and the hunting of fur-bearing animals. The new social groupings also enabled the Chipewyan to dominate their Dene neighbours and to better defend themselves against their rifle-armed Cree enemies, who were advancing to the Peace River and Lake Athabasca.
  • Kaí-theli-ke-hot!ínne lived on the western shore of Lake Athabasca at Fort Chipewyan. Their tribal area extended northward to Fort Smith on the Slave River and south to Fort McMurray on the Athabasca River
  • Kés-ye-hot!ínne lived on the upper reaches of the Churchill River, along the Lac Île-à-la-Crosse, Methye Portage, Cold Lake, Heart Lake and Onion Lake. The tribal name is probably a description of adjacent Chipewyan groups for this major regional group and takes literally reference to the Lac Ile à la Crosse established European trading forts which were built with Poplar or Aspen wood.
  • Hoteladi Hótthę̈nádé dëne lived north of the Kés-ye-hot!ínne between Cree Lake, west of Reindeer Lake on the south and on the east shore of Lake Athabasca in the north.
  • Hâthél-hot!inne lived in the Reindeer Lake region which drains south into the Churchill River.
  • Etthen eldili dene lived in the taiga east of Lake Athabasca far east to Hudson Bay, at Reindeer Lake, Hatchet Lake, Wollaston Lake and Lac Brochet
  • Kkrest'ayle kke ottine lived in the boreal forests between Great Slave Lake in the south and Great Bear Lake in the north.
  • Sayisi Dene traded at Fort Chipewyan. Their hunting and tribal areas extended between Lake Athabasca and Great Slave Lake, and along the Churchill River.
  • Gáne-kúnan-hot!ínne lived in the taiga east of Lake Athabasca and were particularly centred along the eastern Fond-du-Lac area.
  • Des-nèdhè-kkè-nadè were also known as Athabasca Chipewyan. They lived between Great Slave Lake and Lake Athabasca along the Slave River near Fort Resolution.
  • Thilanottine lived along the lakes of the Upper Churchill River area, along the Churchill River and Athabasca River, from Great Slave Lake and Lake Athabasca in the north to Cold Lake and Lac La Biche in the southwest.
  • Tandzán-hot!ínne lived on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake and along the Yellowknife River, and before their expulsion by the Tłı̨chǫ along the Coppermine River. They were often regarded as a Chipewyan group, but form as "Yellowknives" historically an independent First Nation and called themselves ''T'atsaot'ine.

    Governance

The Dënesųłı̨ne people are part of many band governments spanning Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories.

Alberta

Manitoba

Northwest Territories

Saskatchewan

Notable Chipewyan