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The Chipewyan (Denésoliné or Dënesųłiné - ‘People of the barrens’, pronounced as ‘Den-a-sooth-leh-na’ in Chipewyan)^[1] are a Dene Aboriginal people in Canada, whose ancestors were the Taltheilei. There are approximately 11,000 Chipewyan living in the Canadian Arctic regions around Hudson Bay, including Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, as well as northern parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Present-day bands exist in:

Alberta:

• Athabasca Tribal Council
  • Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (Reserves: Fort Chipewyan, Chipewyan #201, 201A, 201B, 201C, 201D, 201E, 201F, 201G, ca. 348 km², Population: 934)^[2]
  • Fort McKay First Nation (Reserves: Fort McKay #174, 174C, 174D, Namur Lake #174B, 174A, ca. 149 km², Population: 696)^[3][4]
  • Chipewyan Prairie First Nation (Reserves: Big Horn #144A, Cowper Lake #194A, Janvier #194, Winefred Lake #194B, ca. 31 km², Population: 739)^[5]
  • Fort McMurray First Nation (Reserves: Fort McMurray #468, Clearwater #175, Gregoire Lake #176, 176A, 176B, ca. 31 km², Population: 632)^[6]
• Tribal Chiefs Association (TCA)^[7]
  • Cold Lake First Nations (Reserves: Blue Quills First Nation, Cold Lake #149, 149A, 149B, 149C, ca. 209 km², Population: 2.482)^[8]
• Akaitcho Territory Government (ATG)^[9]
  • Smith's Landing First Nation (‘Thebati Dene Suhne’, Thebacha - ‘beside the rapids’, the Dene name for Fort Smith, Reserves and communities: ?ejere K'elni Kue #196I, Hokedhe Túe #196E, K'i Túe #196D, Li Dezé #196C, Thabacha Náre #196A, Thebathi #196, Tsu K'adhe Túe #196F, Tsu Nedehe Túe #196H, Tsu Túe #196G, Tthe Jere Ghaili #196B, ca. 100 km², Population: 324)^[10]

Manitoba:

• Keewatin Tribal Council^[11]
  • Barren Lands (Brochet) First Nation (Reserve: Brochet #197, ca. 43 km², Population: 1,021)
  • Northlands (Lac Brochet) Dene First Nation (also known as Northlands Denesuline First Nation, Reserves and communities: Lac Brochet #197A, Sheth chok, Thuycholeeni, Thuycholeeni azé, Tthekalé nu, ca. 22 km², Population: 1,005)
  • Sayisi Dene First Nation (formerly known as ‘Duck Lake Dene’,^[12] Reserve: Churchill #1, ca. 2 km², Population: 729)

Northwest Territories:

• Akaitcho Territory Government (ATG)
  • Deninu Kue First Nation (‘Deneh-noo-kweh’ - ‘People of moose Island’, formerly known as ‘Fort Resolution Dene’, Reserve: Fort Resolution Settlement,^[13] Population: 843)
  • Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation (Lutselk'e ‘Loot-sel-kay’ - ‘place of the Łutsel-fish’, formerly known as ‘Snowdrift Band’, Reserve: Snwodrift Settlement, Population: 725)
  • Salt River First Nation#195 (Reserves: Fort Smith Settlement, Salt Plains #195, Salt River #195, Fitzgerald #196 (Alberta), ca. 230 km², Population: 879)

Saskatchewan:

• Meadow Lake Tribal Council (MLTC)^[14]
  • Buffalo River Dene Nation (the reserve is about 84 km northeast of Île-à-la-Crosse, Reserve: Buffalo River Dene Nation #193, ca. 83 km², Population: 1,234)^[15]
  • Clearwater River Dene Nation (most populous reserve Clearwater River is about 24 km east of La Loche, Reserves: Clearwater River Dene #222, #221, #223, La Loche Indian Settlement, ca. 95 km², Population: 1,691)
  • English River First Nation (English River First Nation is located at Patuanak, and signed under Chief William Apesis Treaty 10 in 1906, the name originates from the English River where the poplar house people ('Kés-ye-hot!ínne') inhabited the area for periods during the year, formerly the reserve was known as Grassy Narrows reserve, most families, which now reside in Patuanak, had traditionally lived down river at Primeau Lake, Knee Lake and Dipper Lake, Reserves: Patuanak, Cree Lake 192G, Porter Island 192H, Elak Dase 192A, Knee Lake 192B, Dipper Rapids 192C, Wapachewunak 192D, LaPlonge 192, ca. 200 km², Population: 1,414)^[16][17]
  • Birch Narrows First Nation (located at Turnor Lake, most populous Reserve #193B about 124 km northeast of Île-à-la-Crosse, the reserve originated from Treaty 6 in 1906, Reserves: Churchill Lake #193A, Turnor Lake #193B, #194, ca. 30 km², Population: 670)
• Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC)^[18]
  • Black Lake Denesuline First Nation (located at Black Lake, most populous reserve Chicken #224 about ca. 170 km southeast of Uranium City, formerly known as ‘Stony Rapids Band’, Reserves: Chicken #224, #225, #226, ca. 322 km², Population: 1,984)
  • Hatchet Lake Denesuline First Nation (also known as Lac la Hache Denesuline First Nation, located at Wollaston Lake, ca 354 km north of Flin Flon, Reserve: Lac la Hache #220, ca. 110 km², Population: 1,607)
  • Fond du Lac Denesuline First Nation (located at Fond-du-Lac, most populous reserve Fond Du Lac#227 east of Lake Athabasca, Reserves: Fond Du Lac #227, #228, #229, #231, #232, #233, ca. 368 km², Population: 1,805)

Historical Chipewyan Regional Groups[link]

The Chipewyan moved in small groups or bands, consisting of several extended families, alternating between winter and summer camps, hunting, trapping, fishing and gathering in the Taiga and around the many lakes of their territory. Later with the emerging North American fur trade they organized themselves into several major regional groups in the vicinity of the European trading posts, in order 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 neighbors 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 (‘willow flat-country up they-dwell’, lived on the western shore of Lake Athabasca at Fort Chipewyan, their tribal area extended northward to Fort Smith on Slave River and south to Fort McMurray on Athabasca River)^[19]
• Kés-ye-hot!ínne (‘aspen house they-dwell’ or ‘poplar house they-dwell’, lived on the upper reaches of the Churchill River, along the Lac Isle 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 on at Lac Isle à la Crosse established European trading forts, which were built with Poplar or Aspen wood)
• Hoteladi (‘northern people’ 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 (‘lowland they-dwell’, lived in the Reindeer Lake-Region, witch drains south into the Churchill River)
• Etthen eldili dene (Etthén heldélü Dené, Ethen-eldeli - ‘Caribou-Eaters’), lived in the Taiga east of Lake Athabasca far east to Hudson Bay, at Reindeer Lake, Hatchet Lake (also Axe Lake), Wollaston Lake and Lac Brochet
• Kkrest‘ayle kke ottine (‘dwellers among the quaking aspens’ or ‘trembling aspen people’, lived in the boreal forests between the Great Slave Lake in the south and Great Bear Lake in the north)
• Sayisi Dene (or Saw-eessaw-dinneh - ‘people of the east’, 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 (‘jack-pine home they-dwell’, lived in the taiga east of Lake Athabasca and were particularly centered along the eastern Fond-du-Lac)
• Des-nèdhè-kkè-nadè (Desnedekenade, Desnedhé hoæé nadé hoþünö - ‘people along the great river’, were also known as Athabasca Chipewyan, lived between Great Slave Lake and Lake Athabasca along the Slave River near Fort Resolution (Deninoo Kue - 'moose Island')
• Thilanottine (Tu tthílá hoþünö - ‘those who dwell at the head of the lakes’ or ‘people of the end of the head’, 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)^[20]
• Tandzán-hot!ínne (‘dwellers at the dirty lake’, also known as Dení-nu-eke-tówe - ‘moose island up lake-on’, lived on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake and along the Yellowknife River, and before their expulsion by the Tłı̨chǫ along Coppermine River - were often regarded as a Chipewyan group, but form as Yellowknives historically an independent First Nation and called themselves T'atsaot'ine

Ethnography[link]

Historically, the Denesuline were allied to some degree with the southerly Cree, and warred against Inuit and other Dene peoples to the north of Chipewyan lands.

An important historic Denesuline is Thanadelthur ("Marten Jumping"), a young woman who early in the 18th century helped her people to establish peace with the Cree, and to get involved with the fur trade (Steckley 1999).

• Louis Riel was a grandson of a Chipewyan

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, government relocated them to the port of Churchill on the shore of Hudson Bay and a small village north of Churchill called North Knife River, joining other Chipewyan Dene, and becoming members of "Fort Churchill Dene Chipewyan Band". In the 1970s, the "Duck Lake Dene" opted for self-reliance, a return to caribou hunting, and relocated to Tadoule Lake, Manitoba, legally becoming "Sayisi Dene First Nation (Tadoule Lake, Manitoba)" in the 1990s.^[21]

Language[link]

Denesuline (Chipewyan) speak the Dene Suline language, of the Athabaskan linguistic group. Dene Suline is spoken by those First Nations members whose name for themselves is a cognate of the word Dene ("people"): Denésoliné (or Dënesųłiné).

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 (ᒌᐘᔮᐣ), "pointed skin", from cīpwāw (ᒌᐚᐤ), "to be pointed"; and wayān (ᐘᔮᐣ), "skin" or "hide" - a reference to the cut and style of Chipewyan parkas.^[22] Many Chipewyan believe that the name is derogatory.

Despite the superficial similarity of the names, the Chipewyan are not related to the Chippewa (Ojibwa) people.

Notable Chipewyan[link]

• Thanadelthur
• Matonabbee

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Chipewya
• The Indigenous Maps and Mapping of North American Indians

Andrew Nikiforuk is a Canadian journalist who has won multiple National Magazine Awards.^[1] His work has appeared in Saturday Night, Maclean’s, Canadian Business, Report on Business, Chatelaine, Alberta Views, Equinox,^[2], Alternatives Journal and Canadian Family, and in both national newspapers. In 1990 the Toronto Star newspaper awarded him an Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy to study AIDS and the failure of public health policy.^[3] His books include Tar Sands, Pandemonium, Fourth Horseman, and Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig’s War Against Oil, which won the Governor General’s Award in 2002.^[4]

In 2010, he became the Tyee's first writer in residence.

Books[link]

Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America's Great Forests, Greystone Books, August 2011, paperback, 240 pages, ISBN 978-1-55365-510-7

Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, Greystone Books, April 2010, paperback, 208 pages, ISBN 978-1-55365-555-8

Pandemonium: Bird Flu, mad Cow Disease and Other Biological Plagues of the 21st Century, Viking Canada (AHC), Hardcover, 320 pages, 978-0-67004-519-8

Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig's War Against Big Oil, Macfarlane, Walter & Ross, 2002, Paperback, 296 pages, 978-1-55199-101-6

Fourth Horseman: A Short History of Epidemics, Plagues, Famines & Other Scourges, Viking Canada, 1991, Hardcover, 200 pages, 978-0-67083-122-7

School's Out: The Catastrophe in Public Education and What We can Do About It, Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 1993, Hardcover, 207 pages, 978-0-92191-248-4

External links[link]

• Andrew Nikiforuk's website at www.andrewnikiforuk.com

References[link]

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