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Sahtu

Sahtu is located in Northwest Territories
Colville Lake
Délįne
Fort Good Hope
Norman Wells
Tulita
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Sahtu communities in the Northwest Territories

The Sahtú or North Slavey (historically called Hare or Hareskin Indians) are a Dene First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group living in the vicinity of Great Bear Lake (Sahtú, the source of their name), Northwest Territories, Canada. The Sahtú peoples live in Colville Lake, Deline, Fort Good Hope, Norman Wells and Tulita which form the Sahtu Region of the NWT.[2][3] The Dene of the region are represented by the Sahtu Dene Council who, in 1993, signed the Sahtu Dene and Metis Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement. Sahtú groups include the Hare Dene[4] (K'ahsho Got'ine District, today: Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope), Bear Lake Dene (Déline District), and Mountain Dene (Tulit'a District).[5] They call themselves also Ɂehdzo Got’ı̨ne (Trap People).

Ethnography

An early description of Sahtú cultures is given in Alexander Mackenzie's journal of his voyage down the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean in 1789.[6]

Although there are close interrelationships among the Dene communities, they are culturally and linguistically distinct. The K’ahsho Got’ine (Hare(skin) Dene) are now centred in Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake. The Shita Got’ine (Mountain Dene) have joined with the K’áálǫ Got’ine (Willow Lake Dene) (they lived around K’áálô Tué – ″Willow Lake″, today known as Brackett Lake) in the community of Tulit’a. The Sahtúot’ine (Sahtú Dene or Great Bear Lake Dene) are named after Sahtú/Great Bear Lake, and are based in Deline. Métis people, descendants of relationships established between Dene people and fur traders, reside in all five communities of the region. The Hareskin Dene called themselves K'a so Got’ine/Katoo Got’ine ("big willow people") or K’ahsho Got’ine/K'áshot’ Got’ine (″big-arrowhead-people″, mistranslated as Hareskin people, an English rendering of Gahwié Got’ine – ″Rabbit(skin) People″).

The Déline community of the Sahtú Dene experienced great loss during Canada's participation in the Manhattan Project. The need for radioactive materials, (such as radium), to create atomic weapons was met with the deposits mined from the Eldorado Mine at Port Radium on Great Bear Lake. The Sahtú Dene were hired to transport the ore containing radium from the Northwest Territories to be processed in Ontario or the United States. Since much of the uranium that existed in Europe was under Nazi control, the radium deposits in Canada were vital to the creation of the first atomic bombs. Unaware of the radiation's effects, the Sahtú Dene used "cloth sacks" to transport the ore.[7][8][9]

The number of deaths caused by radiation is disputed by the Government of Canada. The government report says that the people of Deline did not handle yellowcake but sulfur powder. The level of exposure to uranium ore without modern safety standards is expected to cause a small number of excess cancer deaths. [10]

Ultimately, the devastating effects of radiation poisoning impacted the Déline community severely. A 1999 documentary by Peter Blow entitled Village of Widows detailed the experiences of the Sahtú Dene.[11][12]

Today's Sahtu Dene First Nations

Sahtu Dene Council[13]

Language

Sahtú speak the North Slavey language, which belongs to northwestern Canada group of Northern Athabaskan languages.[5]

Notable Sahtu people

See also

References

  1. ^ North Slavey
  2. ^ Sahtu Communities
  3. ^ About MACA - Sahtu Archived 2012-08-24 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Robert Gordon Latham (1850). The natural history of the varieties of man. J. Van Voorst. p. 303.
  5. ^ a b "Sahtu North Slavey". firstnationseeker.ca. Archived from the original on 2007-06-07. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
  6. ^ Voyages from Montreal Through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in 1789 and 1793
  7. ^ The Dene People of Great Bear Lake Call for a Federal Response to Uranium Deaths in Deline
  8. ^ Deline Poisoned? Past area mining linked to cancer
  9. ^ Nuclear Genocide in Canada
  10. ^ CDUT Final Report Summary
  11. ^ "Documentary chronicles how Canada's role in the atomic bomb affected an indigenous community". 25 October 2017.
  12. ^ "Peter Blow, 'A Village of Widows' | Peace News".
  13. ^ The Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated (Sahtu Dene Council
  14. ^ Website of the Deline First Nation
  15. ^ "The Fellows: 1999." Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art. Accessed 4 May 2014.

Further reading

External links