Yellowknives facts for kids
| T'satsąot'ınę | |
|---|---|
Yellowknife chief Akaitcho and his only son, by Robert Hood, 1821
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| Regions with significant populations | |
| Northwest Territories, Canada | |
| Languages | |
| English, Wıı̀lıı̀deh Yatıı̀ and Tetsǫ́t’ıné Yatıé | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity, Animism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Tłı̨chǫ, Dënesųłiné, Dene, Sahtu |
The Yellowknives are an Indigenous group from Canada. They are also known as the Yellow Knives, Copper Indians, Red Knives, or T'atsaot'ine. In the Dogrib language, their name is T'satsąot'ınę. They are one of the five main groups of the First Nations Dene people. They live in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The city of Yellowknife gets its name from this group. Their name comes from the color of the tools they made from copper.
Contents
History of the Yellowknives People
The historic Yellowknives lived north and northeast of the Great Slave Lake. This lake is called Tinde'e, meaning "Great Lake." They lived around the Yellowknife River and Yellowknife Bay. Yellowknife Bay is known as Weledeh Cho, or "Inconnu River." Their lands stretched northward along the Coppermine River. They also lived northeast to the Back River (Thlewechodyeth or Thlew-ee-choh-desseth, meaning "Great Fish River"). Their territory extended east to the Thelon River (or Akilinik).
Travel and Trade Routes
The Yellowknives used the major rivers in their traditional lands for travel. These rivers were also important trade routes. They traveled as far east as Hudson Bay. Early European explorers, like Samuel Hearne, met them there in the 1770s.
The Yellowknives helped Samuel Hearne travel through the Canadian Arctic tundra. They guided him from Hudson Bay to the Arctic Ocean. Hearne was looking for the famous copper deposits. The Yellowknives, also called 'Copper Indians', were skilled at mining and trading copper for tools. Later European explorers also met and traded with the Copper Indians. These explorers marked the 'Yellowknife River' on their maps. This river flows into Great Slave Lake. Its source is near the Coppermine River, which was a traditional travel path. In the early 1800s and 1900s, the Yellowknives were a large and strong group in their area.
Relations with Other Groups
The Yellowknives and the Tłı̨chǫ (Dogrib) people lived on the north shores of Great Slave Lake. They were historically rivals. In the 1830s, reports said that the Dogrib greatly reduced the Yellowknives' population. The remaining Yellowknives either moved south of Great Slave Lake or married into the Dogrib group.
After gold was found in the Yellowknife area, many Dogrib, Chipewyan, and remaining Yellowknife people gathered there. They settled in the community or in traditional villages like Dettah or Trout Rock. In the mid-1950s, the Dene village of Ndilǫ was built with government help. It is located on Latham Island, which is part of Yellowknife's Old Town.
Modern Yellowknives Dene First Nation
The Yellowknives Dene First Nation was formed in 1991. Before that, it was known as the Yellowknife B Band. This happened after land claim talks for the whole territory broke down. Today, they are working on a land claim settlement for their lands. This process is called the Akaitcho Land Claim Process.
Another organized Dene group has come forward. They say they are direct descendants of the historic 'Yellowknife Indian' tribes. They want to be recognized as a separate people from the mixed Dogrib-Chipewyan Yellowknives Dene First Nation. They are still seeking government recognition under Treaty 8.
Treaty 8 and Relocation
Chief Snuff of the Yellowknives signed Treaty 8 in 1899. Chief Snuff lived on the south shore and east arm of Great Slave Lake. The people who lived on the Taltson River were called the Rocher River People in the 1920s. Chief Snuff had a cabin about ten miles from Rocher River. It was on a small piece of land by the water, called Snuff Channel, connected to the Taltson River.
The Yellowknives continued to live in this area until the early 1960s. They had to move after their schoolhouse burned down. Soon after, the Taltson River hydro dam was built. The last chief of the Rocher River Yellowknives was Chief Pierre Frise in the 1960s. He was strongly against building the Taltson River dam. At this time, the original Yellowknives people were spread out. They moved to Fort Resolution, Yellowknife, and other parts of Canada.
Yellowknives First Nations Today
All First Nations with Yellowknives descendants are part of two organizations. These are the Akaitcho Treaty 8 Tribal Corporation and the Akaitcho Territory Government.
- Yellowknives Dene First Nation (they call themselves Weledeh Yellowknives Dene, or Inconnu River People): Many of their members are descendants of the Wuledehot'in regional group of the nearby Tłı̨chǫ. Their communities include Dettah, Ndilǫ, and Yellowknife. The Dettah-Ndilǫ-Tłįchǫ Yatıì dialect is spoken in Dettah and Ndilǫ. This dialect developed because Yellowknives and Tłı̨chǫ peoples married each other.
- Deninu K'ue First Nation (Deninu Kue means "moose island"): This is a settlement corporation in the South Slave Region of the Northwest Territories. The community is at the mouth of the Slave River, on the shore of Great Slave Lake. The Deninu K'ue or Dene Nu Kwen people were historically Chipewyan (Denesuline) and Yellowknives. They came to Fort Resolution to trade their furs.
- Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation (Lutselk'e means "place of the Lutsel," which is a type of small fish called a cisco): This is a designated authority in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories. The community is on the south shore near the eastern end of Great Slave Lake. Until 1992, it was known as Snowdrift. The First Nation was formerly called the Snowdrift Band. This is the most northern Chipewyan First Nation. They were once caribou hunters who moved around. This group included some Chipewyan and Yellowknives people. They settled permanently at the trading post set up in 1925 by the Hudson's Bay Company near today's Łutselk'e. In 1954, they moved to the community of Łutselk'e. The main languages spoken in the community are Chipewyan and English.
See also
In Spanish: Yellowknives para niños
