Yellowknife (people)

The Yellowknife or T'atsaot'ine (also Tatsanottine 'people of the water-expectoration', a pictorial description of the copper occurring in the river) are a Canadian first nation and belong to the five groups of the Dene (Dené) , who linguistically belong to the Northern Count athapasques of the Na Dené language family . The Dene ( Dene is the common term for 'people' among Athapasques) of the Canadian Northwest Territories and in Nunavut , include the Yellowknife, the Chipewyan ( Denesuline ), Dogrib ( Tłı̨chǫ or Thlingchadinne ), the South Slavey ( Deh Cho ) and North Slavey ( Sahtu Dene or Sahtu ).

The Diné ('Navajo') and Apaches ( T'Inde , Inde , N'de , N'ne ) have similar names to the Dené, as they belong to the Southern Athapasques .

The Yellowknife lived in the forest and lake areas north and east of Great Slave Lake (Great Slave Lake), along the Coppermine and Yellowknife River northeast to Contwoyto Lake , Nunavut . Their territory bordered that of the Copper and Caribou Inuit along the Back River in the north and the Thelon River in the northeast. In the west, the hostile Dogrib lived along the northern shore of the Great Slave Lake as far north as the Great Bear Lake.

Origin of name

The name Yellowknife ('Yellow Knife'), Red Knife ('Rotmesser') or Red Indians ('Red Indians') gave European fur traders to the Tatsanottine, because they used copper knives , the blades of which shimmered red-yellow. Since there were large deposits of copper in their traditional area, especially along the Coppermine River , they were often referred to simply as the Copper Indians . But you are not allowed to join the Ahtna ( Ahtena , Atna ), who also belong to the Athapasques , who lived as semi-nomads along the Copper River ( Ahtna-kohtaene 'Copper River') in southern Alaska, and who are also referred to by the Europeans as Copper Indians have been confused. The Yellowknife often referred to themselves simply as Dene ('people') or also as Acha'otinne ('woodland people').

Culture and way of life

Like neighboring subarctic peoples, the Yellowknife moved in small groups (English bands ), consisting of one or more extended families , nomadic through their tribal area, hunted game ( caribou , musk ox , elk ), lived off fishing ( especially salmon ) as well as collecting roots, berries and lichens. They also hunted wolverines , minks , ermines , beavers and otters for their clothing and later as a commodity in the fur trade . Although the Yellowknife were one of the most important and most populous Dene tribes next to Chipewyan until the 19th century, they did not form “tribes” in the colonial sense and were only loosely organized in small groups.

In their way of life they were very similar to their traditional enemies in the west, the Dogrib, and the Chipewyan who lived further south - they were often even viewed as a subgroup of the Chipewyan. However, in one thing the Yellowknife seemed to differ from the neighboring peoples - for they were described as bold and daring warriors as well as unscrupulous and vicious, who often used the good nature of their neighbors to their advantage and committed presumptuous and high-handed acts against them. In retaliation, the Yellowknife were finally revenged by the neighboring peoples and slowly decimated.

In addition to the Dogrib in the west and the Chipewyan and the slave-hunting Cree among the Dene tribes in the south, various groups of the Copper Inuit ( Kitlinermiut ) also belonged to their traditional enemies, especially the Haningayogmiut (or Kaernermiut ) along the Back River and Kogluktogmiut (also Kogloktogmiut ) along the lower reaches of the Coppermine River. Despite the hostile tribes, the Yellowknife - like other Dene - did not have a system of organized warfare with military and war societies, as they traditionally valued individual freedom in their culture. The chiefs also had limited authority based on their leadership, judgment and generosity.

history

Nehiyaw-Pwat trade monopoly

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the French and English competed fiercely around Hudson Bay for the furs of foxes , beavers and muskrats .

However, from 1670 onwards , Swampy Cree and Woodland Cree had earlier contact with European traders and their products (hardware, weapons, ammunition, pearls) through the establishment of the York Factory trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company and thus had a direct military advantage over neighboring tribes. The Assiniboine living in the south then formed a strong military alliance with the Cree (at the beginning of the 18th century the plains Ojibwa, which stretched west and south-west), which was called the "Iron Confederacy" - the Cree called the alliance Nehiyaw-Pwat (in Cree : Nehiyaw 'Cree' and Pwat or Pwat-sak 'Sioux (enemies)').

This enabled the Nehiyaw-Pwat to set up an extensive canoe trading system along Lake Winnipeg and the Nelson River , Rainy Lake , the Lake of the Woods , the Winnipeg River and from Lake Winnipeg northeast to the York Factory on Hudson Bay from 1680 onwards . Many Cree groups settled in the vicinity of the trading posts in order to first get the goods that were important to them (especially rifles, ammunition, metal goods, knives, awls, axes, tomahawks , kettles, tobacco and alcohol) and then to get the Intermediate trade with the peoples in the west ( Blackfoot , Gros Ventre , Sarcee ), in the north (Chipewyan, Dogrib, Daneẕaa (formerly called Beaver ), Slavey, Yellowknife) and in the south ( Hidatsa , Mandan ) should be monopolized. The Nehiyaw-Pwat established a trade monopoly with the First Nations away from the forts for furs, which they could offer to Europeans, especially Hudson's Bay and the North West Company . The fur trade would never have existed without the Cree and Assiniboine, who were in control of the only transport routes, the rivers and lakes used in so-called fur trading canoes .

At the same time, better weapons equipment enabled them to expand west and north - militarily against the Chipewyan, Daneẕaa and Slavey in the north and the Dakota in the south (1670–1700). Many Cree now left the Hudson Bay area (from around 1740), where the fur trading company had set up a first trading post on Waswanipi Lake. In addition to the establishment of a trade monopoly, the British and French rifles also allowed the Cree to hunt slaves among the neighboring tribes from 1670 onwards , especially the Dene in the north, considered less defensible, such as Slavey, Chipewyan and Yellowknife, fell victim to slave hunts. The fur trade only exacerbated the already existing conflicts over the region's resources between the Chipewyan and Cree (referred to by the Chipewyan as ena 'enemy').

Compensation and alliance with the Nehiyaw-Pwat

Thanadelthur ('Marten Jumping'), a young Chipewyan (according to some tradition a Slavey), was robbed in 1713 by raiding raids from the Cree on the Great Slave Lake. However, when she managed to escape in 1714, she led William Stewart, a merchant of HBC, and 150 Cree to the east bank of the Great Slave Lake and brokered peace between Chipewyan and Cree. The HBC then set up the Fort Prince of Wales trading post on the Churchill River in 1717 , thus enabling the Chipewyan for the first time direct access to a European trading post and the Cree an undisturbed intermediate trade between the HBC and the northwest.

The Chipewyan and Cree made peaceful contacts between 1716 and 1760 and formed an alliance against their common enemies, the Inuit, whom they called hotel ena 'enemies of the (low) plains', Dogrib, Slavey and Yellowknife - whom they had from direct contact with wanted to keep the trading post away in order to maintain their position as middlemen.

After the Chipewyan were armed with rifles by the fur trading companies, they dominated their Athapaskan neighbors, the Dogrib and the Yellowknife, in the 18th century, denied them access to the fur trading stations and forced them to sell their furs. Some Chipewyan groups moved further north into the boreal forests to hunt and set traps, as these areas had more fur animals that were important for trade. Other Chipewyan stayed away from the trade and bases of the Europeans and kept their traditional way of life as hunter-gatherers. Between 1781 and 1784, however, a leaf epidemic ended their dominance over the neighboring Dene tribes, as between 50 and 90 percent of the Chipewyan fell victim to it.

Fur trade, epidemics, wars

Samuel Hearne first encountered groups from Yellowknife in 1770 when he was about to open the area to the fur trade on behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company. However, when the fur trade expanded westward to the Great Slave Lake in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Yellowknife also took advantage of their strategic local advantage and for a short time drove the Dogrib out of the area along the Yellowknife River . At the beginning of the 19th century, the Yellowknife had already been decimated by epidemics brought in by whites and Tlingit traders, armed conflicts over access to the fur trade and hunger. In addition, the iron goods imported by European traders, the Yellowknife, made it difficult to survive because they could no longer exchange their copper knives, axes and other tools for food with neighboring tribes.

In 1823, in retaliation for their expulsion from the Yellowknife River, a Dogrib war troop attacked a camp of the already weakened Yellowknife at Great Bear Lake and forced them to give up their traditional caribou hunting grounds in this region and seek refuge with the Chipewyan. Some Yellowknife also joined the Dogrib.

Current situation of the Yellowknife

After the discovery of gold in the region around Yellowknife (in Dogrib : Somba K'e 'where the money is'), Dogrib, Chipewyan and members of the Yellowknife gathered and settled in what is now the city of Yellowknife or in the traditional Settlement Dettah (also Detah 'Burnt Point', the Dogrib name of a traditional fishing camp, in English Trout Rock 'trout rock'). The Yellowknife settlement N'Dilo (pronounced 'Dee-Low') was built at the tip of Latham Island in the 1950s with government funds. Many Yellowknife of Dogrib descent and some Chipewyan live in both settlements. In the 1990s, the First Nations of Dettah and N'Dilo merged to form the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. Descendants of the Yellowknife, who fled to the Chipewyan, are now part of the Deninu K'ue First Nation (English pronunciation: 'Deneh-noo-kweh' = 'People of the Elk Island', formerly also 'Fort Resolution Dene') and Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation (pronounced: 'Loot-sel-kay', also Łutsel K'e , the place of the Łutsel fish ').

First Nations

All today's First Nations, to which descendants of the Yellowknife belong, are organized in the Akaitcho Treaty 8 Tribal Corporation and in the Akaitcho Territory Government .

• Yellowknives Dene First Nation : They call themselves Weledeh Yellowknives Dene , derived from weleh ' white salmon ' (English: Inconnu) and deh 'river', the tribal members speak the Dettah-Ndilo dialect of Tłįchǫ Yatıì , which is due to the marriages between mostly Woóle Dee Got'ɻi ('Inconnu River People') of the Tłįchǫ as well as the Yellowknife and Chipewyan developed and call themselves Weledeh Yellowknives Dene (derived from weleh 'white salmon' (English: Inconnu) and deh 'river'), reserves : Dettah Settlement, Ndilo Settlement, Yellowknife Settlement, population: 1,408.
  • Dettah Yellowknives Dene First Nation : The settlement of Dettah is located on the north bank of the Great Slave Lake, outside the capital Yellowknife, about 6.5 km by ice road in winter and about 27 km from the city in summer.
  • N'Dilo Yellowknives Dene First Nation : The settlement of N'Dilo or Ndilo is located on Latham Island within the metropolitan area of ​​Yellowknife, the most populous settlement in the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.
• Deninu K'ue First Nation : The settlement of Fort Resolution is located on a peninsula southwest of the Slave River Delta on the south bank of Great Slave Lake, around 150 km south of Yellowknife , in 1786 the first trading post of the North West Company was founded in the Slave River Delta , later this was relocated near Moose Deer Island, but this place was again abandoned when Fort Resolution was built on Great Slave Lake, Deninu K'ue or Dene Nu Kwen were / are all called Chipewyan (Denesuline), the traditionally came to Fort Resolution to act, reservation: Fort Resolution Settlement, population: 843.
• Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation : Today they form the northernmost Chipewyan group; once they were nomadic caribou hunters. After the Hudson Bay Company established a trading post near what is now Lutsel K'e in 1925, the Chipewyan settled permanently, in 1954 they moved to what is now the community, the Lutsel K'e settlement ( known as Snowdrift until 1992 , as the settlement is near the mouth of the Snowdrift River) is located on the southeastern shore of Great Slave Lake, 190 km east of Yellowknife, formerly known as the Snowdrift Band , reservation: Snwodrift Settlement, population: 725.

See also

List of North American Indian tribes

Web links

• Entry in the Catholic Lexicon

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The People of the Deh Cho ( Memento from May 15, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Laurt David Hanbury he was called Ark-i-linik 'wooded river' by the Inuit , while the Dene living on the upper reaches called him Thelewezzeth , Tth®lqghp tuwé or Thelon.
3. ^ Dene - History and Background ( Memento of December 30, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ Frederick Webb Hodge: Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico , Volume 4/4; Publisher: Digital Scanning Inc, 2003, ISBN 978-1-58218-751-8
5. ^ Chipewyan ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved August 22, 2016.
6. ^ Carl Waldman: Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes , Publisher: Checkmark Books, 2006, pp. 327f., ISBN 978-0-8160-6274-4
7. ↑ Visitor Guide Yellowknife 2005 ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 5.6 MB)
8. ↑ Fort Resolution ( Deninoo Kue 'moose island') ( Memento from June 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation (LDFN) and Thaidene Nene ('The Land of Our Ancestors')
10. ↑ Akaitcho Treaty 8 Tribal Corporation ( Memento from January 25, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
11. ↑ Akaitcho Territory Government ( Memento from January 15, 2002 in the Internet Archive )
12. ↑ Yellowknives Dene First Nation ( Memento from March 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
13. ↑ INAC - Yellowknives Dene First Nation ( Memento from July 23, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
14. ↑ Dettah, Northwest Territories, Canada ( January 23, 2017 memento in the Internet Archive )
15. ↑ Ndilo, Northwest Territories, Canada ( Memento of 15 November 2017 Internet Archive )
16. ↑ Deninu K'ue First Nation ( Memento from March 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
17. ↑ History and Culture of Lutsel K'e ( Memento from October 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
18. ↑ Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation ( February 8, 2016 memento in the Internet Archive )