Pre-Contact History
Chipewyan
and/or Dene
• tʃɪpəˈwaɪən/,[2] ethnonym Dene Suline, is the
language spoken by the Chipewyan people of
northwestern Canada. It is categorized as part of
the Northern Athabaskan language family. Dene
Suline has over 11,000 speakers in Canada,
mostly in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and
the Northwest Territories,[1] but only has
official status in the Northwest Territories
alongside 8 other aboriginal languages: Cree,
Dogrib, Gwich’in, Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun,
Inuvialuktun, North Slavey and South Slavey.[3]
Chipewyan or Dene
Most Chipewyan people now use Dene and
Dene Suline (Denesuline) to describe themselves
and their language. The Saskatchewan
communities of Fond-du-Lac,[4] Black Lake,[5]
Wollaston Lake [6] and La Loche are a few.
History of the Dene
• The first peoples lived in harmony and respect
with their natural environment. Throughout
this land, groups of people, past and present,
had their own cultures determined by the
languages they spoke, their clothing and
dwellings, the food they are, their methods of
hunting, the tools they used, their means of
transport, their games, music and their stories
and legends. There are similarities and
differences with all.
Resources
• The people were dependant on the availability
of natural resources, adapting to the seasonal
changes. Their use of snow, wood bark, skins,
furs, bone, antler, ivory, animals, fish, birds,
berries and plants was a never-ending circle of
survival knowledge.
http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/archeo
/sites/sowms09e.shtml
Tools
• Everything that they needed had to be
hunted, gathered, fished, snared speared, or
harpooned, and every season required
different survival skills and gear. Their tools,
clothing, qayaqs, canoes, umiaqs, bows and
arrows, spears, sleds and snowshoes, tents,
lodges, snow-houses, brush huts, stone lamps,
baskets and baby carriers all had to be made,
built by hand.
Camps and Movement
• They moved around from various camps,
according to the season: early spring, spring,
summer, early autumn, late autumn and
winter. When the men were hunting game,
the women mended, snared small game, and
made nets and baskets.
Family
• Family units worked as one, each knowing
what to do and how to survive. When the
hunters returned with their moose, bear,
caribou, beluga, whale or seal, there were
feasts and story telling, drumming and
dancing.
Life without the Wheel or $$
• The people had their own lawmakers,
medicine healers and spirituality, as well as
their own creation stories, legends and myths.
Their great storytellers passed the wisdom of
Elders from one generation to the next, which
told of how for thousands of years this
bountiful land had provided for them. They
survived and prospered without the wheel, a
monetary system, or the written word.
Time Immemorial
• In Northern Aboriginal conceptions of their
own history, the Dene and Inuvialuit have
lived on the land now called the Northwest
Territories since the beginning of time. We
know this because stories tell us of a time
when all things in this place were created.
While creation stories may differ from region
to region, the essential elements remain the
same.
The Land & The People
• In all of these stories, an intimate relationship
with the land is present. Human beings are
not put on the earth to exploit the land and
animals, but are dependent upon the natural
world. The relationship between all things
was held in balance because the Dene and
Inuvialuit lived within cultures that respected
the land and animals which they lived with.
• When considering the pre-contact history of
the Dene and Inuvialuit it is important to
remember that change is a constant in all
cultures. The way of life on this land has been
evolving and adapting to changes in the
environment and technology since the
beginning of time.