Dogrib legend has it that the tribe originated from the union of a woman and a sorcerer, who was a man in day-
Thlingchadinne, meaning “dog-flank people.” The Dogrib First Nation is also now known by the shortened form Tli Cho or Tlicho.
The various Dogrib bands inhabited a vast region between Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake in the present-day Northwest Territories of northern Canada. They are classified as northern ATHAPASCANS based on language and as SUBARCTIC INDIANS based on location and lifeways. The CHIPEWYAN living to their southeast, the YELLOWKNIFE (tatSANOTTINE) to their east, and the SLAVEY (etCHAREOTTINE) to their south—all Athapascans—were their rivals. The Dogrib also fought with the CREE to the south, who were Algonquian-speaking, and the INUIT to the east and northeast.
The Dogrib lived in autonomous nomadic bands, each with a headman and a hunting and fishing territory. Caribou, moose, musk ox, hare, and birds were their primary foods. They preferred meat over fish, but they caught whitefish, trout, and other species in willow bark nets. Caribou also provided clothing and coverings for portable cone-shaped tents similar to those of the Chipewyan. Some Dogrib bands instead used poles and brush to make winter huts that resembled the dwellings of the hare (kawchotTINE) and other Athapascans to the north. Dogrib canoes of spruce bark, or birch bark when it was available, unlike those of neighboring tribes, had decking at the bow and stern, at least by postcontact times.
Among many of the northern Athapascans, it was customary for a father to drop his name after the birth of his first child, becoming known thereafter as “father of. . . .” Dogrib fathers, however, changed their names following the birth of each child. Their women enjoyed better status than women of other Subarctic tribes, but the old and sick were abandoned in times of hardship. Shamans healed the sick and prophesized the future. The Dogrib believed that spirits resided in nature, and, as was the case with many Native Americans, guardian spirits were sought in dreams and visions. Like other Subarctic peoples, they buried their dead on scaffolds. Family and even band members destroyed their property in mourning; women cut themselves. A year after the funeral, a memorial feast was held.
The Dogrib had contact with non-Indian traders as early as 1744, despite efforts by the Chipewyan to prevent their access to non-Indian trading posts. In the late 18 th century and part of the 19th century, the Dogrib were dominated by the Yellowknife. In 1823, a Dogrib war party attacked the Yellowknife near Great Bear Lake, forcing them to withdraw from the region and leading to their absorption by the Chipewyan. Some Dogrib merged with Hare and Slavey around Great Bear Lake, becoming known as Sahtu Dene, or Bear Lake Indians, who traded regularly with Hudson’s Bay Company representatives at Fort Franklin, founded in 1825. Fort Rae, founded by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1852 on the northern arm of the Great Slave Lake, became the center of trading activity for most Dogrib bands, who collected muskrat, mink, fox, and other furs in exchange for European trade goods. The Dogrib remained an isolated people until the mid-20th century, at which time improvements in transportation and communication led to increased contacts with other Canadians.
In August 2003, the Dogrib signed a land-claims agreement with the Canadian government in which the various Dogrib bands—collectively known as Tli Cho First Nation—received some 25,000 square miles north of Yellowknife between the Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. The new Tli Cho government will also receive $152 million in payments over 15 years. Four legislative bodies govern the region’s communities; the chiefs must be Tli Cho, although anyone may run for councillor and vote. The Tli Cho have control over their language and culture as well as taxation, resource royalties, social services, liquor laws, licensing healers, and land management, including hunting, fishing, and industrial development. The central government controls criminal law, and the territorial government controls services such as health care and education. Unlike in the case of Nunavut, created in 1999, and the homeland mostly of Inuit, the Tli Cho land settlement does not create a new territory.
World History
