The Dakelh (pronounced ) or Carrier are the

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

of a large portion of the Central Interior of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada. The "Carrier" name was derived from an English translation of ''Aghele'', the name from the neighbouring Sekani (Tsek'ehne) ("people of the rocks or mountains", Lht'at'en / Lht'at'enne, ᒡᗧᗥᐣ) for Dakelh people. Sekani people played an important role in the early period of contact between the fur traders and Dakelh people because some Sekani people could speak both Dakelh and Cree and served as interpreters between the fur traders and Dakelh people. They call themselves "Dakelh / Dakelh-ne" (ᑕᗸᒡ, people who “travel upon water”, lit. "people who travel by boat early in the morning", a

Synaeresis In linguistics, synaeresis (; also spelled syneresis) is a phonological process of sound change in which two adjacent vowels within a word are ''combined'' into a single syllable. The opposite process, in which two adjacent vowels are pronounce ...

of uda ukelh and ne), and add the suffixes -xwoten, “people of” or -t’en, “people” to village names or locations to refer to specific groups (e.g., Tl’azt’en, Wet’suwet’en). the Wetʼsuwetʼen (Whutsot'en, ᗘᙢᗥᐣ, "People of the Wet'sinkwha/Wa Dzun Kwuh River, i.e. Bulkley River", lit: "People of the blue and green River"; also known as ''Western Carrier'') and Babine (Nadot'en) (Nadot'enne, ᘇᑎᗥᐣ, "Lake Babine People"; also known as ''Northern Carrier'') peoples are a branch of the Dakelh/Carrier people, and have been referred to as the ''Western Carrier''. They speak ''Witsuwitʼen'' or ''Babine/Nedut'en'', dialects of the

Babine-Witsuwitʼen language Babine–Witsuwitʼen or Nadotʼen-Wetʼsuwetʼen is an Athabaskan language spoken in the Central Interior of British Columbia. Its closest relative is Carrier. Because of this linguistic relationship together with political and cultural ties, Ba ...

which, like its sister

Dakelh language The Dakelh (ᑕᗸᒡ) or Carrier language is a Northern Athabaskan language. It is named after the Dakelh people, a First Nations people of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, for whom Carrier has been a common English name derive ...

, is a member of the Central British Columbia branch of the

Northern Athabaskan languages Northern Athabaskan is a geographic sub-grouping of the Athabaskan language family spoken by indigenous peoples in the northern part of North America, particularly in Alaska ( Alaskan Athabaskans), Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. The North ...

. They belong to the Northern Athabascan or

Dene The Dene people () are an indigenous group of First Nations who inhabit the northern boreal and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languages. ''Dene'' is the common Athabaskan word for "people". The term "Dene" ha ...

peoples (''Dené'' is the common Athabaskan word for "people"). Another name the Dakelh/Carrier proper call themselves is Yinka Dene ("the people on the land"), the Babine-Witsuwitʼen-speaking bands prefer the equivalent Yinka Whut'en ("the people on the land").

Geography

Dakelh territories called

Keyoh Keyoh is a Dakelh word meaning (ᗸᘏᑋ, territory, village, trapline). It is the principal traditional area of which a certain indigenous corporate family group has customary use, occupancy, governance, stewardship and ownership rights. It is ap ...

, include the area along Fraser River (''Lhtakoh'' - "rivers within one another") from north of Prince George (''Lheidli'' - "confluence") to south of Quesnel and including the

Barkerville Barkerville was the main town of the Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia, Canada, and is preserved as a historic town. It is located on the north slope of the Cariboo Plateau near the Cariboo Mountains east of Quesnel. BC Highway 26, which ...

Well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

s area, the

Nechako Country The Nechako Country, also referred to as the Nechako District or simply "the Nechako" is one of the historical geographic regions of the Canadian province of British Columbia, located southwest of the city of Prince George and south of Hwy 16 on ...

, the areas around Stuart Lake (''Nak'albun'' - "Mount Pope lake"), Trembleur Lake (''Dzinghubun'' - "day after lake"), Takla Lake (''Khelhghubun'' - "load after lake"), Fraser Lake (''Nadlehbun'' - "(fish) run lake"), and

Babine Lake Babine Lake ( ) or Na-taw-bun-kut ("Long Lake") is the longest natural lake in British Columbia, Canada. Babine Lake is located northeast of the town of Burns Lake in central British Columbia, some west northwest of the city of Prince George. ...

, the

Bulkley Valley The Bulkley Valley is in the northwest Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Geography The Bulkley, a stream running through Houston, British Columbia, joins the larger Morice River about to the west. At the confluence, they become not ...

, and the region along the West Road River, west to the

Hazelton Mountains The Hazelton Mountains are a grouping of mountain ranges on the inland lee of the Kitimat Ranges of the Coast Mountains in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, spanning the area of Hazelton south to the Nechako Reservoir. Defined by the Britis ...

and the Kitimat Ranges of the Coast Mountains, including the Kluskus Lakes (''Lhoosk'uz'' - "Rocky Mountain whitefish place"),

Ootsa Lake The Nechako Reservoir, sometimes called the Ootsa Lake Reservoir, is a hydroelectric reservoir in British Columbia, Canada that was formed by the Kenney Dam making a diversion of the Nechako River through a 16-km intake tunnel in the Kitimat Ranges ...

(''Oosa Bunk'ut'' - "bucket lake"), the Quanchus and Fawnie Ranges, and Cheslatta Lake (''Tsetl'adak Bunk'ut'' - "Peak Rock Lake"). Dakelh territories are for the most part sub-boreal forest, dotted with numerous lakes. There are numerous rivers, all ultimately draining into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

, mostly via the Fraser River. The climate is continental, with cold winters during which the rivers and lakes freeze over and a short growing season. The area is hilly, with mountains of modest size. The

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

form the eastern boundary of the Dakelh territories, but the Dakelh are not very familiar with the foothills because that area in recent times has been occupied by the Cree (Dushina, ᑐᙘᘇ). Part of the Coast Mountains and

fall within Wit'suwit'en territory. Farther south, 'Ulkatcho people share the Coast Range with the

Coast Salish The Coast Salish is a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak one of the Coa ...

Nuxalkmc (Bella Coola) and the northern

Chilcotin Plateau The Chilcotin Plateau is part of the Fraser Plateau, a major subdivision of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia. The Chilcotin Plateau is physically near-identical with the region of the same name, i.e. "the Chilcotin", which lies between t ...

with Northern Athabaskan speaking strong warrior nation (with political influence from the Similkameen region in the south (of British Columbia), the Pacific coast in the west, and the Rocky Mountains in the east) Tsilhqot'in (Chilkot'in, ᗘᙢᗥᐣ).

Culture

The traditional Dakelh way of life is based on a seasonal round, with the greatest activity in the summer when berries are gathered and fish caught and preserved. The mainstay of the economy is centered on harvesting activities within each family

keyoh Keyoh is a Dakelh word meaning (ᗸᘏᑋ, territory, village, trapline). It is the principal traditional area of which a certain indigenous corporate family group has customary use, occupancy, governance, stewardship and ownership rights. It is ap ...

(ᗸᘏᑋ, territory, village, trapline) under the leadership of a hereditary chief, known as a Keyoh holder or keyoh-whudachun. Fish, especially the several varieties of

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...

, are smoked and stored for the winter in large numbers. Hunting and trapping of

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

, caribou,

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

, elk,

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

, beaver, and rabbit provided meat, fur for clothing, and bone for tools. Other fur-bearing animals are trapped to some extent, but until the advent of the fur trade, such trapping is a minor activity. With the exception of berries and the sap and cambium of the

lodgepole pine ''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpin ...

, plants play a relatively minor role as food, though the sacredness of plants are appreciated by Dakelh people. The Dakelhe are familiar with and occasionally use a variety of edible plants. Plants are used extensively for medicine. Winter activity is more limited, with some hunting, trapping, and fishing under the ice. Although many Dakelh now have jobs and otherwise participate in the non-traditional economy, fish, game, and berries still constitute a major portion of the diet. The Dakelh engaged in extensive trade with the coast along trails known as "grease trails". The items exported consisted primarily of hides, dried meat, and mats of dried berries. Imports consisted of various marine products, the most important of which was "grease", the oil extracted from eulachons (also known as "candlefish") by allowing them to rot, adding boiling water, and skimming off the oil. This oil is extremely nutritious and, unlike many other fats, contains desirable fatty acids. Other important imports were smoked eulachons and dried red laver seaweed. "Grease" and smoked eulachons are still considered by many to be delicacies and are prized gifts from visitors from the west. The route by which Sir Alexander MacKenzie and his party reached the Pacific Ocean in 1793 in the first crossing of North America by land was, from the Fraser River westward, a grease trail. Other examples include the

Cheslatta Trail The Cheslatta Trail (or ''Tsetl'adak ts'eti'' in Carrier)Nyan Whut'en Hubughunek (Cheslatta Carrier Dictionary). 2009. William J.Poser (compiler). Burns Lake, BC: Cheslatta Carrier Nation. is an ancient land route in British Columbia, Canada, that ...

and the

Nyan Wheti Nyan Wheti is an ancient land route in northern British Columbia, Canada from the Dakelh villages on Fraser Lake (''Nadlehbunk'ut'') to villages on Stuart Lake (''Nak'albun''), about 50 km to the north. The name in Carrier means "The Way Across." ...

Ethnobotany

Plants used in cuisine

They use the berries of

Vaccinium vitis-idaea ''Vaccinium vitis-idaea'', the lingonberry, partridgeberry, mountain cranberry or cowberry, is a small evergreen shrub in the heath family Ericaceae, that bears edible fruit. It is native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra throughout the Norther ...

to make jam.

Plants used medicinally

They take a

decoction Decoction is a method of extraction by boiling herbal or plant material (which may include stems, roots, bark and rhizomes) to dissolve the chemicals of the material. It is the most common preparation method in various herbal-medicine systems. Dec ...

of the entire plant of Viola adunca for stomach pain. The Southern Carrier use a strong

of the root of

Orthilia ''Orthilia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. It has only one species, ''Orthilia secunda''. Its common names are sidebells wintergreen, one-sided-wintergreen and serrated-wintergreen. It is also called one-sided pyrola, on ...

as an eyewash.Smith, Harlan I., 1929, Materia Medica of the Bella Coola and Neighboring Tribes of British Columbia, National Museum of Canada Bulletin 56:47-68, page 62 A full list of their ethnobotany can be found at http://naeb.brit.org/uses/tribes/27/, http://naeb.brit.org/uses/tribes/28/, and http://naeb.brit.org/uses/tribes/29/.

History

Salvage archaeology

In the late 1940s, University of British Columbia professor Charles Edward Borden shifted his attention toward urgent salvage archaeology in Nechako Canyon after learning of the planned

Kemano Kemano was a settlement situated 75 km (47 mi) southeast of Kitimat in the province of British Columbia in Canada. It was built to service a hydroelectric power station, built to provide energy for Alcan to smelt aluminum from its ore. ...

reservoir that would flood the canyon, a large part of Dakelh hunting territory in Tweedsmuir Park. In 1951, he received funding from

Alcan Alcan was a Canadian mining company and aluminum manufacturer. It was founded in 1902 as the Northern Aluminum Company, renamed Aluminum Company of Canada in 1925, and Alcan Aluminum in 1966. It took the name Alcan Incorporated in 2001. During t ...

and the British Columbia Ministry of Education to undertake salvage archaeology at the "Carrier Indian site". In 1951, Borden and his protégé, anthropology student Wilson Duff, located over 130 sites of importance to Cheslatta T'en history. They conducted more intensive investigations prior to the flooding of the area. The damming triggered "devastating changes for First Nations communities whose traditional territories lay in their path, including the destruction of Aboriginal gravesites, territories, livelihoods, and archaeological sites." In 1957, Alcan opened the spillway gate to Skin's Lake, desecrating Cheslatta graves, which came to public attention during the

Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) was a Canadian royal commission established in 1991 with the aim of investigating the relationship between Indigenous peoples in Canada, the Government of Canada, and Canadian society as a whole. ...

. In 1951, Borden began survey and excavation of the site and returned to work there every summer until he retired in 1970. His final article published in ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

'' in 1979 was based on excavations of early microblade assemblages at

Namu Namu or NAMU may refer to: *The North American Monetary Union *Namu, British Columbia, a town in Canada *Namu Atoll, an atoll in the Pacific Ocean *Namu doll, a type of Pullip doll *Yang Erche Namu, a Chinese singer and writer of Mosuo ethnicity ...

in 1977.

Dakelh (Carrier) Language

Carrier language The Dakelh (ᑕᗸᒡ) or Carrier language is a Northern Athabaskan language. It is named after the Dakelh people, a First Nations people of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, for whom Carrier has been a common English name derive ...

Bands

As an ethnic term, ''Carrier'' or Dakelh includes speakers of both the

proper and its sister language Babine-Witsuwit'en, both of which are

endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

Tribal councils

Seven bands form the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council: * Burns Lake Indian Band, *

Saik'uz First Nation Saik'uz (translated as "on the sand"), or Stoney Creek, is a Dakelh nation whose main community is on a reserve southwest of Vanderhoof, British Columbia along Kenney Dam Road. Saik'uz is a member of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council. Amenities ...

, * Stellat'en First Nation, *

Tl'azt'en Nation Tl'azt'en Nation is a First Nations First Nations Government (Canada), band located along the north shore of Stuart Lake near the outlet of the Tache River, in the northern interior of British Columbia. The main village belonging to Tl'azt'en Nation ...

, * Takla Lake First Nation, * Wet'suwet'en First Nation Four bands belong to the Carrier Chilcotin Tribal Council: * Kluskus Indian Band * Nazko Indian Band * Red Bluff Indian Band *

Ulkatcho Indian Band The Ulkatcho First Nation is a Dakelh First Nations government in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is a member of the Carrier Chilcotin Tribal Council, and its offices are located in Anahim Lake, British Columbia at the western edge ...

* Toosey Indian Band of the Tsilhqot'in people is also a member of the CCTC The other bands are independent.

Synonymy

In some of the literature Dakelh people are known by the French term ''Porteurs''. Another term sometimes seen is ''Taculli'' along with variant spellings. This is a linguistically naive adaptation of the phonetic notation used by Father

Adrien-Gabriel Morice Adrien-Gabriel Morice (27 August 1859 – 21 April 1939) was a missionary priest belonging to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He served as a missionary in Canada, and created a writing system for the Carrier language. Early life Father Morice wa ...

. The first written reference to Dakelh people, in the journal of Sir Alexander MacKenzie, uses the term ''Nagailer''.

Etymology of name

The received view of the origin of the Sekani name ''aɣelne'' for the Dakelh, of which the English name is a translation, is that it refers to the distinctive Dakelh mortuary practice in which a widow carried her husband's ashes on her back during the period of mourning. One problem for this hypothesis is that there is little evidence of the existence of this custom, the report of which is due to Father Morice. According to Lizette Hall's (1992) father, Louie-Billy Prince, who had been Father Morice's houseboy and knew him well, Father Morice pestered the Dakelh so persistently on the origin of the name that they finally told him the story about widows carrying ashes to satisfy him. An alternative hypothesis is that it refers to the fact that the Dakelh, unlike the Sekani, participated in trade with the coast, which required packing loads of goods over the Grease Trails.

Bibliography

* Birchwater, Sage (1991). Ulkatchot'en: The People of Ulkatcho. Anahim Lake: Ulkatcho Indian Band. Illustrated by Ronald Cahoose. * Birchwater, Sage (1991). ''Ulkatcho: Stories of the Grease Trail''. Anahim Lake: Ulkatcho Indian Band. Illustrated by Ronald Cahoose. * Brown, Doug (2002). "Carrier Sekani Self-Government in Context: Land and Resources," ''Western Geography'', 12:21-67
PDF
* Furniss, Elizabeth (1993). ''Dakelh

: The Southern Carrier in Earlier Times''. Quesnel: Quesnel School District. * Furniss, Elizabeth (1993). ''Changing Ways: Southern Carrier History 1793-1940''. Quesnel: Quesnel School District. * Goldman, Irving (1940). "The Alkatcho Carrier of British Columbia," in Linton, Ralph (ed.) ''Acculturation in Seven American Indian Tribes''. New York: Appleton-Century pp. 333–389 * Hall, Lizette (1992). ''The Carrier, My People''. Published at Quesnel, British Columbia by the author. * Hudson, Douglas R. (1983). Traplines and Timber: Social and Economic Change among the Carrier Indians of British Columbia. (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Alberta, Edmonton). * Tobey, Margaret L. (1981). "Carrier" in June Helm (ed.) ''Handbook of North American Indians: Volume 6. Subarctic''. (Washington: Smithsonian Institution) pp. 413–432.

Citation

References

* * *

External links

Bibliography of Materials on Carrier Culture and History
* {{Authority control Northern Interior of British Columbia