Dene

The Dene, the People in Northern Athabaskan tongues, inhabit the boreal, subarctic and Arctic country of northern Canada, above all the Northwest Territories where the Chipewyan, Tlicho, Yellowknives, Slavey, Sahtu and Gwichin form the Dene Nation. Caribou fences, fish weirs, moosehide boats and a technology of spruce root, babiche and bone carried life where winter rules nine months; oral storytelling, not writing, holds law, genealogy and the deeds of Yamoria the law-giver. The fur trade strung Dene rivers with posts, and treaties 8 and 11 papered the land, but the Dene Declaration of 1975 and the land-claim settlements that followed made Denendeh a political fact: Sahtu, Tlicho, Gwichin and Dehcho governments now co-manage mines, pipelines and caribou herds. Drum dances, hand games and the spring goose hunt mark a year still lived, in large part, on the land, and winter storytelling still passes Yamoria's laws to children in the camps.