B. Map - Native-European Encounters Preserved in Native Oral Tradition and
European Written Narrative

Sub-Arctic: Chippewyan and Dene

The various peoples of the Sub-Arctic region had either relatively early or relatively late contact with Europeans, some as late as the twentieth century. Those bands that occupied territories in coastal regions were more likely to come into earlier contact. Athapaskans participated in the fur trade, and in the whaling and fishing industries. For the interior bands, sustained contact often did not occur until the nineteenth century.

Chippewyan Encounter with Europeans

Chippewyan oral history of their encounter with Europeans is recorded in Indian Legends of Canada. The narrative below is from the Chippewyan Bear clan, recorded in 1855.

A prophet had a dream which caused him to fast, take sweat baths and isolate himself from the rest of his people. The strictness of his penance was so cruel that people began to question him about the nature of his dream. They wondered if it warned of impending war, famine or severe weather to cause him to react so violently. The prophet only spoke of his dream when he was able to grasp its significance within his own mind. "Men of strange appearance come across the great water" he said. They come in large wooden canoes that fly with the white wings of a bird. The men have white skin like snow and hair grows on their faces. These men carry sharp knives and black sticks which they point at birds and kill instantly with a great bang. The prophet spoke of his dream and perplexed the people of his tribe. Each Chief agreed to send messengers to seek these strange men. A fleet of canoes was sent out to find the white men. The messengers traveled the waters for many days until they sighted a clearing where the largest trees were cut down. They landed the canoes and examined the stumps. A beaver was not capable of felling such large trees nor were the Chippewyan stone axes. The messengers believed the long sharp knives of the white man must have caused the trees to fall. White men must be near. They searched the river's edge until they located the white men's camp. Everything the Chippewyan prophet told them about the foreigners was true. The messengers traded with the white men and returned to their village with brightly coloured cloth and sharp knives. The cloth was shredded so each person would receive a piece. A tradition existed among the Chippewan to attach scalps to long poles and pass them on to other tribes as a measure of success and triumph. They attached splinters of wood cut by the sharp knives and strips of the cloth to show the other tribes the success they had trading with the white men. These poles with the strange new articles were passed from tribe to tribe until all of the tribes around Lake Superior knew of the white men.

European Encounters with Sub-Arctic Natives

Alexander Mackenzie was seeking an overland route to the Northwest Passage during his 1789 expedition into the Sub-Arctic region. In 1793 he succeeded as the first European to cross North America by land. Mackenzie, like many other explorers, published an account of his travels. Unfortunately, original journals were often discarded when the final edit of a published book was complete. These books are full of adventures and, at times, exaggerated chronicles of what actually occurred.

Dene

The Sub-Arctic groups or Dene include the Chippewyan, Beaver, Slavey, as well as the Tsuu T'ina (Sarcee) who moved out onto the Plains. They participated in a trading economy that capitalised on the extensive waterways and abundant large and small game of the boreal forest. Caribou was the primary form of sustenance for the Sub-Arctic peoples.

Chippewyan and Dene were Sub-Arctic groups that inhabited regions north and west of the Churchill River system. They did not trade directly with Europeans until the 1780s and 1790s. The Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company had established posts in the Lake Athabasca region, and in 1788, Peter Pond built Fort Chippewyan for the North West Company. By 1805, there were trading forts at Peace River, Dunvegan, Fort McMurray, and Fort St. John. The Chippewyan were the first Athapaskans to trade with the Hudson's Bay Company. The Athapaskans took advantage of competition between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company; they bartered for higher prices and choose from a great number of posts. There is also evidence that Native traders avoided bad debts by taking their furs to rival posts. The Chippewyan acted as middlemen between Fort Churchill and trappers from the western territories. Within Chippewyan bands, trade positions differed. Traders were placed within a hierarchy according to location of individual territories and their vicinity to the fur trade posts.

The 1782 expansion of the North West Company into the Sub-Arctic gave the Dene direct access to European trade. Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Dene retained their culture and seasonal lifeways. They continued to follow the annual migration route of the caribou, and they hunted moose, bear, and beaver, and they fished. However, their seasonal migrations also included trips to the trading posts.

The Hudson's Bay Company held a trade monopoly in the Sub-Arctic region since its merger with the North West Company, from 1821 to the 1860s. Over this period the Athapaskans gradually became more and more dependent upon European goods and food, and as the fur trade began to decline the band was subject to heavy debts. The region was over-hunted and over-trapped. Hunting territories were defended and the period is characterised by conflict amongst the Athapaskan bands.