Akaitcho

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Akaitcho , Akaicho or Ekeicho ( 'Big Foot' or 'Big Feet', dt. Large / r foot / feet , literally as: 'like a wolf with big paws, he can walk long distances over snow') (* to 1786 , † 1838 ) was the chief Yellowknife (or T'atsaot'ine) .

His tribe's territory comprised the east bank of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories to the Coppermine River in Nunavut , Canada. The Yellowknife were for looting, raids and killing of neighboring Tłįchǫ groups as well as the K'áshogot'ine of the North Slavey (Sahtu Dene) ("Great Hare People", also Gahwié gotinè - "Rabbitskin People", English Hare Indians , too Peaux de Lievre or Locheaux ) as well as the abduction of women from neighboring hostile tribes.

The chief became known through the expedition reports of the British explorer John Franklin , whom he served as translator, scout, guide and hunter during his first Arctic expedition (so-called Coppermine Expedition from 1819 to 1822), and was regionally important as a peacemaker between the since Decades of warring tribes on Great Slave Lake in northern Canada. Today an area in the area is named after him, in which several of the local Indian tribes settle.

Akaitcho led the Franklin expedition with his tribe in the summer of 1820 to the mouth of the Coppermine River , where they left the expedition to collect food for the winter. When the Franklin expedition failed in the winter of 1823, Akaitcho managed to save the remaining starving expedition members.

Sten Nadolny creates a literary memorial to him and his brother Keskarrah in The Discovery of Slowness .

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personal data
SURNAME Akaitcho
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Big Foot
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chief of the Copper Mining Indians
DATE OF BIRTH around 1786
DATE OF DEATH 1838