The Hare Native name is Kawchottine or Kawchodinne, meaning “people of the great hare,” after the arctic (or snowshoe) hare, a food staple and source of clothing. The Hare were an Athapascan-speaking tribe (see ATHAPAS CANS) of the Subarctic Culture Area (see SUBARCTIC INDI ANS), living in the vicinity of the Mackenzie River to the west and northwest of Great Bear Lake in Canada’s present-day Northwest Territories. Along with the KUTCHIN, they are considered the northernmost Indian peoples living south of the INUIT. Unlike the Kutchin, the Hare were on peaceful terms with the Inuit for most of their history.
The Hare, whose name in English is pronounced as it is spelled, can be grouped into at least five subtribes, or bands of extended families, each controlling a specific hunting and fishing territory: the Nigottine (Nni-o’tinne), or “people of the moss,” with territory along the outlet of Great Bear Lake; Kattagottine (Kra-tha-go’tinne), or “people among the Hares,” along the same river; the Katchogottine (Kra-cho-go’tinne), “people of the big hares,” with territory between the Mackenzie River and the coast of the Arctic Ocean; Satchotugottine (Sa-cho-thu-go’tinne), “people of Great Bear Lake,” living along that lake; and Nellagottine (Nne-lla-go’tinne), “people of the end of the world,” living next to the Inuit.
In the wintertime, when they were able to snare arctic hares, the Hare generally lived in rectangular structures covered with brush and snow. At fishing camps during their summer wanderings, they lived in lean-tos and, in the 19th century, hide tents similar to but smaller than the tipis of PLAINS INDIANS. Caribou was scarcer in their territory than in that of neighboring peoples, such as the Kutchin, DOGRIB, SLAVEY, and YELLOWKNIFE (TATSAN-OTTINE). Hare shamans were believed by other tribes to be especially powerful, able to control the spirits inhabiting nature. In the Hare belief system the world was created by Beaver and Muskrat.
In 1789, Alexander Mackenzie, exploring for the North West Company, became the first non-Indian to have contact with the Hare, along the river named after him, known to the Athapascans as Dec-cho, for “big river.” In 1804, the Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Good Hope on the river not far from its confluence with the Great Bear River, marking the beginning of regular contact with traders and area tribes; in 1823, the post was moved northward at the request of the Kutchin. Over the next decades, some Hare merged with Dogrib and Slavey around Great Bear Lake, becoming known as Sahtu Dene, or Bear Lake Indians; they traded regularly with Hudson’s Bay Company representatives at Fort Franklin, founded in 1825. Catholic missionaries began to frequent the region and converted the majority of Hare. Two current Hare bands, Fort Franklin and Fort Good Hope, hold reserves in their ancestral homeland.
World History
