For centuries the Tłı̨chǫ of the Northwest Territories have relied on an intimate knowledge of the land and its wildlife to survive. The Tłı̨chǫ lived in a yearly cycle of following traditional trails in birchbark canoes to the barren lands in the fall to harvest the caribou herd; and then heading below the tree-line for the long northern winter until the warmth and life of spring returns.
The skills required to survive this lifestyle were taught through the oral tradition, by elders to the youth, through hands on experience while living and traveling in the bush. With the Tłı̨chǫ language so intimately connected to the land, elders passed on place names, animal names, cultural and spiritual sites and the language of the land to the next generations.
However, this nomadic style of living began to decline as the influences of the modern 'western society' and government moved into the north. The government slowly began to take control of the lives of the Tłı̨chǫ and soon the people were reliant on funding and welfare to survive in the new society. Today, members of the Tłı̨chǫ Nation live mostly in the communities; have entered into a wage economy and classroom-based schooling. The traditional culture and teaching processes of the Tłı̨chǫ have been absent as people no longer travel together on the land. The culture and language of the Tłı̨chǫ people are now threatened.
Archeology and the Cultural Landscape
This Tłı̨chǫ landscape is known intimately to Tłı̨chǫ Elders. Trails, which are used year-round, provide access to a vast harvesting region, and link thousands of place names, each with a narrative of some form, sometimes many, inextricably bound to the place. Names and narratives convey knowledge, and in this way Tłı̨chǫ culture is tied directly to the landscape. Travel across the Tłı̨chǫ landscape can be easily and clearly described by reference to these names, and indeed travel narratives often appear as no more than long lists of place names. While toponyms mark topographic features, the Tłı̨chǫ also employ a separate naming system to distinguish the broader physiographic regions. Though there is some overlap with the physiographic units recognized by western geographers, the Tłı̨chǫ system is more refined, and consequently more complex.
The Tłı̨chǫ landscape is infused with the presence of innumerable entities, or “powers”, both benevolent and malevolent. In traveling across the landscape, one must constantly mitigate the impact of personal actions by appeasing these entities with votive offerings, and by observing strict rules of behavior. For example, at each new water body encountered en route, offerings are left. In the Tłı̨chǫ vernacular, it is said that these places, and the entities inhabiting them, are being “paid”. The offerings may be anything of value (in modern times this had typically included tobacco, matches, coins, ammunition), or simply, a garland of birch branches. These are thrown into the water (or onto the ice in winter), and in return the votary may ask to be granted good weather, safe traveling conditions and abundant food resources.
At all sacred sites, and indeed at many important cultural sites, offerings are also left. Places inhabitied by malevolent entities (called weyèedii or “animal-beings”) are regarded as dangerous, and consequently, always avoided. Through dreaming and the acquisition of ı̨k’ǫǫ̀ or “medicine”, sometimes “power,” “knowledge,” or “luck”, one prepares to deal with the world, and the powers inhabiting it. These traditional beliefs and practices have been syncretized with the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholicism.
The ı̨daà trail is central to the Tłı̨chǫ homeland. Two rivers, the Marian (Gòlootì deè) and the Camsell (Nôdìihatì), form the trail, and with a network of inter-connecting trails, provide access to a Tłı̨chǫ land use area encompassing some 295,000 square kilometres. In post contact times, the trail was used to access trading posts on Great Slave Lake (Tìdeè), Great Bear Lake (Sahtì), and the Mackenzie River (Dehcho) at the mouth of Bear River (Sahtìdeè).
(excerpts taken from: Trails of Our Ancestors)