The Yellowknives, Yellow Knives, Copper Indians, Red Knives or T'atsaot'ine (Wíílíídeh dialect: ''Tetsǫ́t'ınę'') are indigenous peoples of Canada, one of the five main groups of the

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

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

who live in the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

. The name, which is also the source for the later community of

Yellowknife Yellowknife is the capital, largest community, and the only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of t ...

, derives from the colour of the tools made from copper deposits.

History

The historic Yellowknive tribe lived north and northeast of the

Great Slave Lake Great Slave Lake is the second-largest lake in the Northwest Territories, Canada (after Great Bear Lake), List of lakes by depth, the deepest lake in North America at , and the List of lakes by area, tenth-largest lake in the world by area. It ...

(''Tinde'e'' - "Great Lake") around the Yellowknife River and Yellowknife Bay (''Wíílíídeh cho'' - " Inconnu River") and northward along the

Coppermine River The Coppermine River is a river in the North Slave Region, North Slave and Kitikmeot Region, Nunavut, Kitikmeot regions of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in Canada. It is long. It rises in Lac de Gras, a small lake near Great Slave Lake, a ...

, northeast to the Back River (''Thlewechodyeth'' or ''Thlew-ee-choh-desseth'' - "Great Fish River") and east to the Thelon River. They used the major rivers of their traditional land as routes for travel and trade as far east as

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay (usually historically), is a large body of Saline water, saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of . It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast o ...

, where early European explorers such as

Samuel Hearne Samuel Hearne (February 1745 – November 1792) was an English explorer, fur-trader, author and naturalist. He was the first European to make an overland excursion across northern Canada to the Arctic Ocean, specifically to Coronation Gulf, vi ...

encountered them in the 1770s. The Yellowknives helped lead Hearne through the Canadian Arctic tundra from Hudson Bay to the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

in search of the legendary copper deposits that the Yellowknives, or 'Copper Indians', had a hand in mining and trading for tools. Later European explorers who encountered and traded with Copper Indians marked on their maps the 'Yellowknife River,' which drains into Great Slave Lake from headwaters originating near the headwaters of the Coppermine River, a traditional travel corridor. In the early 1800s and 1900s, the Yellowknives were the largest and most powerful tribe in the geographic area. The Yellowknives and the

Tłı̨chǫ The Tłı̨chǫ (, ) people, sometimes spelled Tlicho and also known as the Dogrib, are a Dene First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group living in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Name The name ''Dogrib' ...

(Dogrib), who also lived on the north shores of Great Slave Lake, were ancestral enemies. In the 1830s it was reported that the Dogrib almost wiped out the Yellowknives, the remnants of which - although opinions vary - either scattered south of Great Slave Lake or inter-married with the Dogrib. Following the discovery of gold in the Yellowknife area, a great mix of Dogrib,

Chipewyan The Chipewyan ( , also called ''Denésoliné'' or ''Dënesųłı̨né'' or ''Dënë Sųłınë́'', meaning "the original/real people") are a Dene group of Indigenous Canadian people belonging to the Athabaskan language family, whose ancest ...

, and remnant Yellowknife members congregated and settled in the community or within the traditional villages of

Dettah Dettah, sometimes spelled incorrectly as ''Detah'', is a First Nations community in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. Located just southeast of the capital of Yellowknife, it is a drive from that city by ice road acros ...

or Trout Rock. With government funding, the Dene village of

Ndilǫ Ndilǫ is a First Nations community in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. The small Dene community is on the edge of Yellowknife on the tip of Latham Island. It had a population of approximately 321 people in 2016.

was developed in the mid 1950s on the tip of Latham Island (the northern point of Yellowknife's Old Town). The Yellowknives Dene First Nation was formed in 1991 (formerly known as Yellowknife B Band) following the collapse of a territorial-wide comprehensive land claim negotiation. They currently negotiate a land claim settlement for their lands as part of the Akaitcho Land Claim Process. 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 dubbed the ''Rocher River People'' in the 1920s. Chief Snuff had a cabin located about ten miles from Rocher River on a little piece of land beside the water, called Snuff Channel, connected to the Taltson River. The Yellowknives continued to reside in this area until the early 1960s, when they were forced to relocate after their schoolhouse was burned down in a fire. Shortly 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 opposed to the building of the Taltson River dam. During this point the original Yellowknives were dispersed to Fort Resolution, Yellowknife, and other areas of Canada.

Yellowknives First Nations

All First Nations with Yellowknives descendants are organized in the ''Akaitcho Treaty 8 Tribal Corporation'' and in the ''

Akaitcho Territory Government The Akaitcho Territory Government is a First Nations organization representing the Dene people of the Northwest Territories, Canada.Yellowknives Dene First Nation (they identify as ''Wíílíídeh dene'', aka Inconnu River People (Yellowknife River). Communities:

, and

. Wíílíídeh, a dialect spoken in the communities of Dettah and Ndilǫ, developed from intermarriage between Yellowknives and Tłı̨chǫ peoples) * Deninu Kųę́ First Nation (''Deninu Kue'' (pronounced "Deneh-noo-kweh"), means "moose island"). It is a settlement corporation in the South Slave Region of the Northwest Territories. The community is situated at the mouth of the Slave River, on the shore of Great Slave Lake, ''Deninu K'ue'' or ''Dene Nu Kwen'' are/were called Chipewyan (Denesuline) and Yellowknives, which came to Fort Resolution to trade their furs. *

Łutsël K'é Dene First Nation The Łutsël K'é Dene First Nation is a First Nations band government in the Northwest Territories. The band is headquartered in the community of Łutselk'e, formerly Snowdrift, on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake. LDFN was instrumental in the ...

(''Lutselk'e'', pronounced "Loot-sel-kay") also spelled ''Lutsel K'e'' ("place of the Lutsel", the

cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

, a type of small fish), is a designated authority in the

North Slave Region The North Slave Region or ''Tłicho Region'' is one of five List of regions of the Northwest Territories, administrative regions in the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is the most populous of the five regions, with a population of almost 2 ...

of the Northwest Territories. The community is located on the south shore near the eastern end of Great Slave Lake and until 1 July 1992, it was known as Snowdrift. The First Nation was formerly known as the ''Snowdrift Band''. The most northerly Chipewyan First Nation, once nomadic

caribou The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only represe ...

hunters, this band included some Chipewyan and Yellowknives who settled permanently at the

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory in European and colonial contexts, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically a trading post allows people from one geogr ...

established in 1925 by the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

near today's Łutselk'e. In 1954 they moved to the community of

Łutselk'e Łutselkʼe (, Dëne Sųłıné Yatıé: ; "place of the ", the cisco, a type of small fish), also spelt ''Łutsël Kʼé'', is a "designated authority" in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. The community is on the south ...

.History and Culture of Lutsel K'e
Main languages in the community are

and English.

Notes

External links

Yellowknives Dene First NationCatholic Encyclopedia articleWeledeh Yellowknives Dene - A History
{{authority control Dene peoples First Nations in the Northwest Territories

History

Yellowknives First Nations

Notes

Further reading

External links