Indigenous peoples of Northwest Territories

The Indigenous peoples of Northwest Territories (NWT) are the inhabitants of the Canadian territory whose descendants lived in the region before the arrival of European settlers. The Canadian government considers Indigenous peoples to be members of First Nations bands, Métis, and Inuit. Métis are mixed-race descendants of First Nations people and Europeans, while the Inuit are Indigenous residents of the northernmost regions of North America. In the 2021 national census, 20,040 people in the Northwest Territories identified as Indigenous, a figure representing approximately half of the territory's population. The overwhelming majority of First Nations people in the NWT were Dene, a common linguistic group of the subarctic regions.

Demographics

The Northwest Territories, along with Yukon and Nunavut, is one of three territories in Canada. Territories differ from provinces in that they are not granted power under their own constitutions but receive authority from the federal government in Ottawa. The NWT is the third-largest of Canada's provinces or territories with a total area of about 519,734 square miles (1.35 million square kilometers). Most of the territory is part of the Canadian mainland, but it also extends into the islands of the Arctic Archipelago. The NWT borders Saskatchewan, Alberta, and parts of British Columbia to the south, Yukon to the west, and Nunavut to the east and northeast. The territory is bounded by the Arctic Ocean to the northwest.

The northern islands of the NTW are a treeless Arctic environment locked in ice for most of the year. The northernmost part of the mainland is also beyond the North American treeline—the edge of the habitat in which trees can grow—and is a region of rocky tundra known as the Barren Lands. The southern section of the territory is a lake-dotted region of heavy forests. The NWT is home to two of the largest lakes in North America. Both the 12,095-square-mile (31,328-square-kilometer) Great Bear Lake and the 11,030-square-mile (28,568-square-kilometer) Great Slave Lake are larger than two of the five Great Lakes. Temperatures in the Arctic Archipelago are extremely cold, with winter averages of about -19 degrees Fahrenheit (-28 degrees Celsius). Summer averages top out at about 44 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius). Temperature on the southern edge of Great Slave Lake near the border with Alberta average about -7 degrees Fahrenheit (-22 degrees Celsius) in winter and 61 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius) in summer.

The Northwest Territories had a 2021 population of 41,070, with 20,340 living in its capital and largest city, Yellowknife. Its second-largest community was Inuvik near the Arctic Ocean with a population of 3,137. According to the 2021 census, 12,315 people in the NWT reported a First Nations identity, 2,890 identified as Métis, 4,155 as Inuit, and the remainder claimed other Indigenous identities.

Background

The first humans are believed to have arrived in North America over a land bridge in the Bering Strait about 13,000 to 15,500 years ago. The hunter-gatherer ancestors of the Dene people were among the first to enter the region of the NWT, following the migration patterns of the caribou to the area around Great Slave Lake. Even after the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago, the Arctic north remained too harsh for human habitation. By about 5,000 years ago, the climate had warmed enough to allow a group known as Paleo-Eskimos to migrate east from the region of modern Siberia. They settled in the Arctic and developed into the fishing and hunting Dorset culture that lasted for thousands of years. About the year 1000 CE, another group called the Thule moved east and took control of the region. The Thule were the ancestors of the modern Inuit.

British explorers ventured into the area in the early seventeenth century and the NWT became British property in 1680, but it was more than a hundred years later that European fur traders established the first settlements in the region. The nomadic lifestyle of the Dene was well-suited to the fur trade and many native peoples shifted from hunting to fur trapping for their livelihoods. As the fur trade flourished in the nineteenth century, many Métis moved north to act as guides and translators.

Three years after the British confederated their North American colonies to form the Dominion of Canada in 1867, the NWT was incorporated into the nation. At the time, the NWT had an Indigenous population of about 150,000 and included almost all of western and northern Canada from modern-day British Columbia, east to Saskatchewan, and north into parts of Quebec and Labrador. British Columbia became a province in 1871, the territory of Yukon was created in 1898, and Alberta and Saskatchewan were carved out of the NWT in 1905. In 1999, a large section of the eastern Arctic became the territory of Nunavut, forming the modern-day boundaries of the NWT.

By the late nineteenth century, western Canada was being eyed for its natural resources and the federal government began negotiations to open up more native lands for settlements. Between 1871 and 1921, the government and several First Nations peoples signed a series of land-claim agreements known as the Numbered Treaties. In 1899, the Dene lands southeast of Great Slave Lake were included in Treaty 8; in 1921, much of the remaining Dene lands of the NWT were part of Treaty 11. For most of the next century, the Dene maintained that the agreements were invalid because they never intended to sign over their territory to the government. In the late twentieth century, changing attitudes toward its Indigenous people prompted the Canadian government to begin negotiating the return of some native lands. In 1984, Ottawa agreed to a land deal with the Inuit in the northern section of the territory. In the 1990s and early twenty-first century, agreements were also reached with the Gwich'in, the Sahtu Dene and Métis, and Dogrib peoples.

Overview

The First Nations population of the NWT is predominantly made up of the Dene, a subarctic people who reside south of Inuit lands in the NWT, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and parts of Alaska. The Dene are part of the Athabaskan language family, the largest Indigenous language group in North America. Their traditional homeland is called Denendeh, or "land of the people." The Dene share a common culture but are divided by dialect and geography into numerous subgroups. Many of the groups are closely related and the demarcation line between them is often blurred. In the NWT, the main Dene groups are often considered to be the Chipewyan, Dogrib, Slavey, Yellowknives, and Gwich'in.

Traditional Dene spiritual beliefs were similar to those of other native peoples of the northern regions. They believed that the animals and objects of the natural world were inhabited by spirits and that communication with the spirit world was only possible through a human intermediary called a shaman. When a person died, the Dene would wrap the body and place it on a wooden scaffold several feet above the ground. After a year of ceremonial mourning, the body was taken down and buried in the ground.

Chipewyan

In the NWT, the Chipewyan, also known as the Denesuline, live primarily between the southeastern shores of Great Slave Lake and the northern borders of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Traditionally, the Chipewyan were semi-nomadic caribou hunters and fishers, who followed seasonal migration patterns in search of food. Their society was based on loose family units rather than a central tribal authority. During the fur trade years, the Chipewyan acted as mediators between the other Dene peoples, the Cree, and English traders.

The Salt River First Nation in the NWT with a 2019 registered population of 1002. Its 102,400-acre reserve located in Fort Smith near the Alberta border was negotiated as part of an $83 million settlement with the federal government in 2002. Other Chipewyan communities include the Deninu K'ue First Nation in Fort Resolution with a registered population of 974, and the Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation in Lutsel K'e with a population of 870 as of 2021.

Dogrib

The Dogrib people get their name from a tribal legend that their ancestors were born from a woman and a sorcerer who could transform into the shape of a dog at night. Their traditional name, Thlingchadine, or "dog-flank people," is often shortened to Tlicho. They were primarily a hunting society that lived between Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake. Their traditional homeland was turned over to Canada as part of Treaty 11; however, in 2003 they negotiated a land-claim agreement to reacquire 25,000 square miles (64,750 square kilometres) of their territory. They were granted self-governing status and also received $152 million in compensation. The Dogrib administrative center of Behchokò on the northern arm of Great Slave Lake was the largest Dene community in the NWT with a 2021 population of about 4,000. Other communities included Wha Ti with a population of 543 and Gameti with 252.

Slavey

The Slavey is a widespread Athabaskan group that resides from Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake down through Alberta and into British Columbia. In the NWT, the Slavey people are sometimes divided into the Deh Cho and the Sahtu Dene. The Deh Cho, or South Slavey, primarily resided in ten communities in the southern section of the territory. The largest of these were the Liidlii Kue First Nation in Fort Simpson with a registered population of 1,337 and Deh Gah Got'ine Dene First Nation in Fort Providence with 779 in 2021.

In the nineteenth century, a group of Dogrib merged with the Slavey and the K'asho Got'ine, or Hare tribe, near Great Bear Lake to form the Sahtu Dene. Sometimes called the Bear Lake people, the Sahtu Dene or North Slavey primarily lived in four communities near the Arctic region. The largest was in Deline on the western shore of Great Bear Lake with a registered population of 573; Fort Good Hope on the upper Mackenzie River had a population of 507.

Gwich'in

The Gwich'in reside in four communities in the northwest corner of the NWT on the border with Yukon. The name Yukon itself is taken from the Gwich'in word Yu-kun-ah, meaning "great river." The Gwich'in remain reliant on caribou hunting for their livelihood and their traditional homeland extends from the NWT through Yukon and into Alaska. Gwich'in communities are usually named after a geographic feature of their location. In their native tongue, Gwich'in means "the people of." The Teetl'it Gwich'in, or "people of the headwaters," live in Fort McPherson, which is near the source of the Peel River. Fort McPherson was the largest Gwich'in community in the NWT with a 2021 registered population of 647. The Gwichya Gwich'in, or "people of the flats," live in Tsiigehtchic. The Edhiitat Gwich'in, or "delta people," live in Aklavik on the Mackenzie River delta. Nihtat Gwich'in translates as "mixed nations" and refers to several Gwich'in tribes that make their home in Inuvik. Inuvik is also the administrative center of Inuit lands in the western Arctic.

Yellowknives

The Yellowknives, or T'atsaot'ine, are closely related to the Chipewyan. They were one of the original peoples of the southern Great Slave Lake region. During the fur trade, the Yellowknives were a powerful group who were often at war with the neighboring Dogrib. Europeans gave them the name Yellowknives because of their distinctive copper tools. The Yellowknives Dene First Nation community in the capital of Yellowknife had a 2021 registered population of 1,719.

Métis

During the height of the fur trade, the Métis who traveled north into the NWT were primarily descendants of French trappers and their Cree or Ojibway wives. Other Métis of British mixed heritage came in the years that followed. In the modern era, the Métis have settled in communities in the southern region of the territory near Hay River, Yellowknife, and Fort Smith. The Métis have been recognized by the government as Indigenous peoples since 1982, but they were not granted the same rights as the First Nations and Inuit. In 2016, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that the Métis and non-status Indians—First Nations people not registered with the Canadian government—would receive the same federal protections as other Indigenous peoples.

Inuit

The Inuit of the NWT and Yukon are known as the Inuvialuit. They are part of a wider population of about 145,000 Inuit that resides across the Arctic regions from Russian Siberia to Greenland. Most live in a traditional Inuit homeland called Inuit Nunangat that stretches from northern Labrador to parts of the NWT and Yukon. About 4,155 Inuit lived in the NWT in 2021 while 70,545 lived throughout Canada.

The Inuit language is part of the Eskimo-Aleut language family which is spoken by people across the Arctic and into southern Alaska. The Inuvialuit of the NWT speak a dialect known as West Inuktitut. They reside in several Arctic communities, the largest of which is Inuvik. Their most northern community is Sachs Harbour on Banks Island in the Arctic Archipelago. Traditional Inuvialuit societies were built around hunting, fishing, and whaling. Even in the twenty-first century, many Inuit continue to practice these activities for their livelihoods.

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