This document is one of six appendices from the first iteration of the report From Dene Kedǝ to Dene Ts’ı̨lı̨: Rethinking Resurgence in the Sahtú Region. In it, the team provides a basic historical review of some of the data collected about Dene language speakers and learners in the Sahtú, along with figures on land use, subsistence, and arts. It also includes some qualitative data about Sahtú perceptions or ideologies of language and revitalization. 

About the project: 

From Dene Kedǝ to Dene Ts’ı̨lı̨ is a collaborative project that explores lessons learned through the past fifty years of Dene and Métis language and way of life initiatives. Bringing together knowledge and experience from longtime activists and educators and youth, as well as review of over 275 documents, the aim is to create a resource for decision-makers and researchers as a basis for resurgence in the Sahtú Region. All phases of this project involve a dialogue between today’s initiatives and yesterday’s legacy.

The picture that has emerged is complex, involving at least seven domains of resurgence: speakers and learners; local knowledge; documentation; education; media; law and policy; and ways of life. During this project we saw the emergence of exciting projects like the Dene Ts’ı̨lı̨ School, a cross-cultural on the land learning opportunity for youth. This school became an integral part of the research and learning process.

Read more about From Dene Kedǝ to Dene Ts’ı̨lı̨. Download the appendix using the PDF link at the bottom of this page. 

Cite this resource:

"Appendix D - Speakers and Learners–Data Collection on Language, Practice, and Ideology in the Sahtú" in Faun Rice, Keren Rice, Deborah Simmons, Walter Bezha, Jordan Lennie, Shelby Lennie, Michael Neyelle. From Dene Kedǝ to Dene Ts’ı̨ lı̨: Rethinking Resurgence in the Sahtú Region, Northwest Territories©Ɂehdzo Got’ı̨ nę Gots’é ̨ Nákedı (Sahtú Renewable Resources Board), Tulı́ t'a, Northwest Territories, www.srrb.nt.ca. October 2017 Edition.

The NWT Bureau of Statistics provides community profiles for all NWT communities. Read about language use, harvesting and arts data, housing and employment, and other items. 

Some of the most consistent, publicly available, methodically gathered statistics on language use in the Sahtú come out of the GNWT Bureau of Statistics community surveys. The community surveys are done every 2 or 3 years, in between census cycles, and the questions on them have remained constant so as to be comparable throughout time. Only two questions have been added or changed since the first survey (one on berry harvesting, one on arts and crafts). Workers conduct person-to-person interviews in all official languages, done in winter months so that people will be home instead of on the land.

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Visit the NWT Bureau of Statistics Website and select any community to view a statistical profile. https://www.statsnwt.ca/community-data/

This paper summarizes numerous health statistics and indicators for off-reserve First Nations people. However, the most relevant items for this study are the impact of language, culture, and community identity on health. For context, off-reserve First Nations people 15 or older most commonly report: blood pressure complications, arthritis, and asthma, and 10% of off-reserve First Nations people experience Diabetes. 60% of First Nations people off-reserve “report very good mental health, compared with 72% of the total Canadian population.” (7) Mental health issues were more common in women than in men.

Rotenberg cites Reading and Wien (2009) as a demonstration that cultural community and continuity influence proximal health indicators such as smoking or poverty. Additionally, Rotenberg uses data from participation in hunting, fishing, trapping, etc. (from the Aboriginal Peoples’ Survey 2012) as a proxy for cultural continuity/connectedness. Approximately 62% of off-reserve First Nations People over 15 participated in a traditional activity (as defined and limited by the survey) in 2011. This was not found to be a productive factor; in fact, people who participated in traditional activities were more likely to have a chronic condition. Similarly, the APS did not demonstrate “a significant association between Aboriginal language speaking abilities and any of the three negative health outcome variables analyzed after controlling for various factors.” (16) This study uses health indicators such as having a personal physician: results likely depend significantly on how health is measured. For example, people who reported being able to turn to friends or family in times of crises were far more likely to have better overall health than those who had no-one to turn to. Strong family ties do have a significant impact on health.

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This study is available for free on the Statistics Canada website: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-653-x/89-653-x2016010-eng.htm

Rotenberg, Christine. “Social determinants of health for the off-reserve First Nations population, 15 years of age and older, 2012.” Statistics Canada. Catalogue no. 89-653 (2016).

This paper examines language vitality in Canada using the 2011 Census and National Household Survey data on mother tongue and conversational second language use. The Census of Population groups Aboriginal Languages into 12 families: Dene was measured as having 11,860 mother tongue speakers in 2011, lower than Cree (83,000) but higher than many others including Stoney, Blackfoot, and Innu. In addition, 67.9% of mother tongue Dene speakers reported using Dene most often at home, with a further 21.1% using it regularly in the home. Across Canada, people were more likely to speak their Aboriginal Language at home when they lived in a community (or census subdivision) where a high proportion of people shared that language. They were less likely to use it regularly if they moved to an area where most people had a different mother tongue, such as English or French. Between all Inuit, Métis, and First Nations communities in Canada in 2011, 21.7% of those able to conduct a conversation in an Aboriginal Language had acquired it as a second language.

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Read the full text for free from Statistics Canada online. 

Langlois, Stéphanie and Annie Turner. “Aboriginal Languages and Selected Vitality Indicators in 2011.” Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 89-655 (2014).

This paper uses data from 2001 and previous to present trends in Aboriginal Language use in Canada, namely, an overall drop in conversational ability, a decline in mother tongue population, and a rise in second language acquisition for Aboriginal languages. Additional findings (again, representing Canada but not necessarily smaller populations) include the fact that second language speakers are often younger community members rather than mother tongue population speakers.

For 2001, Norris lists the “North Slave (Hare)” total population as 1,030, with 165 second language speakers. For all speakers under the age of 25, 27% were Dene as a second language speakers – a proportion higher than that of any other age group. Norris identifies a few language groups which are growing due to second language acquisition, such as some Salish languages. While speakers may still be learning North Slavey, Norris labels the language definitively endangered. One sign of endangered language status, according to Norris, is a young population with a growing proportion of second language speakers over mother tongue speakers.

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Read the full report from Statistics Canada.

Norris, Mary Jane. “Aboriginal languages in Canada: Emerging trends and perspectives on second language acquisition.”Aboriginal languages in Canada: Emerging trends and perspectives on second language acquisition.” Canadian Social Trends. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 11-008 (2007): 19-28.

Norris, writing in 1998, presents an overview of which Aboriginal Languages in Canada appear healthy and which are endangered, along with what factors contribute to language vitality. The paper uses data from 1981 to 1996 to examine language use and maintenance over time. This study recognizes 50 Indigenous languages in Canada under 11 language families. Additionally, Norris employs M. Dale Kinkade’s 1991 study “The Decline of Native Languages in Canada” in order to identify which languages are “already extinct, near extinction, endangered, viable but with a small population base, and viable with a large population.” (9)

From 1980 to 1996 across Canada, the number of people with an Aboriginal mother tongue increased by 24%; however, those using the language at home only increased by 60%, and the latter is more important for the index of continuity, particularly as average age of speaker continues to go up. 1996 data shows North Slavey with a mother tongue population of just 290. Norris shows that loss of language use (across Canada) occurs most often when youth leave the home and enter the workforce, particularly when entering large, urban environments. This is particularly true for women, for no immediately clear reason.

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Norris' paper is available from Statistics Canada, and has also been uploaded on several University websites. 

Norris, Mary Jane. “Canada’s Aboriginal Languages.” Canadian Social Trends. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 11-008 (1998): 8-17.

This text provides a variety of ethnographic details on Athapaskan Indigenous groups in northwestern Canada and Alaska (primarily focused on classification, naming, and subdivisions), as well as some geographic description of the regions in which they live. It is included in a larger volume about population change, diversity, practices, and economy across North American Indigenous peoples.

From Abstract: 

In the year 1928, I was commissioned as ethnologist by the National Museum of Canada to conduct a study of the Indians of the Great Bear Lake region in the Northwest Territories. I had conceived the project as the first in a series of studies of the Athapaskan-speaking peoples of the interior of northwest Canada and Alaska. On July 1, 1928, I reached Fort Norman (91 — numbers refer to the maps Figures 1 and 2) on the Mackenzie River, and the Fishery (4) at Great Bear Lake on July 23.

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DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv16t2p.6

Access this resource through your institution on JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16t2p

Osgood, Cornelius. “An ethnographical map of Great Bear Lake.” In Proceedings: Northern Athapaskan Conference, 1971 volume 2, edited by Annette McFadyen Clark, 516-544. Ottawa: National Museum of Man Mercury Series, Ethnology Service Paper 27, 1975.

Morris’ work focuses on Fort Franklin (now Délı̨nę) in the Sahtú region. She splits the results of her research and thesis fieldwork into two primary historical segments (pre and post European contact). Her emphasis is primarily on population, human ecology and geography, and trends in seasonality, subsistence, migration, and other elements of history and social organization.

Read about Morris' thesis. 

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While Morris' two articles are available only as physical documents in several University libraries, a digital copy of the thesis they are based on is online from the University of Saskatchewan: http://hdl.handle.net/10388/etd-07032012-110232

Morris, Margaret W. “Great Bear Lake Indians: A historical demography and human ecology. Part 1: The situation prior to European contact.” Musk-Ox 11 (1972): 3-27.

"Part 2. The situation after European contact.” Musk-Ox 12 (1973): 58-80.

Morris’ work focuses on Fort Franklin (now Délı̨nę) in the Sahtú region. Her paper gives an overview of “the changes in human ecology and demography of the Indians of Great Bear Lake from just prior to European contact to the late 1800’s,” (3) with an emphasis on population geography, i.e., the population traits and 'geographic personality’ of places. Her overview includes some valuable historic maps and climate records, along with descriptions of hunting practices, seasonal migration, subsistence, and traditional clothing and cooking. She also provides population estimates from the 19th and 20th centuries for the Great Bear Lake and Fort Good Hope regions.

Abstract: 

Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories is the largest lake located entirely within the bounds of Canada. Today there are two small settlements along its shores: the small mining town of Port Radium on McTavish Arm inhabited by non-Indians, and the small Indian settlement of Fort Franklin on Keith Arm. This study is concerned with the Indians of Fort Franklin and district. Fort Franklin is located four miles from where Bear River begins to flow down to the Mackenzie River. It is approximately 90 miles from Fort Norman, the closest community, 120 miles from Norman Wells, and about 400 miles from either Yellowknife or Inuvik (Fig. 1). Its inhabitants in July 1969 comprised 368 Indians (339 Treaty, 29 non-Treaty) and 37 transient whites, mainly government, church or trading officials (Pers. comm. Fr. Denis, 1969). Most of the Indians are fur trappers who live in the "bush" around the lake for three to four months every winter setting up and operating their trap-lines. Their income is supplemented by a spring beaver hunt, by guiding at the tourist fishing lodges located around the lake, or by working with the transportation companies during the summer months. A few are employed either part or full time with the government or Hudson's Bay Company. The Great Bear Co-operative provides an outlet for local handicraft. Social welfare and other government allowances form an increasing proportion of the total income (Pers. comm. W. English, Area Administrator, 1969). Since the erection of about eighteen log houses in the early 1900's, Fort Franklin has had a number of Indians residing in the settlement on a year round basis. With the discovery of pitchblende, silver, and other minerals at Port Radium and petroleum at Norman Wells in the 1920's, Great Bear Lake and River became important as a commercial transportation route. Oil, food, and equipment were barged upstream, and silver-copper concentrates downstream to Fort McMurray, and then by rail to the smelter at Tacoma, Washington. Later, radium was sent to Port Hope, Ontario, for refining at Eldorado (Eldorado, 1967, pp. 18-21). Following upon the establishment of a permanent Roman Catholic Mission, Federal Day School, and Hudson's Bay Company post in 1949-50, the Indians settled in Fort Franklin, and since that time, their numbers have more than doubled. Prior to 1900, these Indians were quasi-nomadic and lived in camps around Great Bear Lake. Once, their forefathers had been nomadic hunters, pursuing the migratory Barren Ground caribou, and subsisting on fish, hares, and other animals in abundant supply. But during the century and a half of European contact these Indians underwent many changes. Most significantly, they decreased in number and gradually became settlement-orientated. The old life of the "bush" and caribou was forever gone.

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A digital copy of this thesis is available online from the University of Saskatchewan: http://hdl.handle.net/10388/etd-07032012-110232

Morris, Miggs. Great Bear Lake Indians: A Historical Demography and Human Ecology. Master’s Thesis, University of Saskatchewan, 1972.

This text provides a variety of ethnographic details on Athapaskan Indigenous groups in northwestern Canada and Alaska (primarily focused on classification, naming, and subdivisions), as well as some geographic description of the regions in which they live. It is included in a larger volume about population change, diversity, practices, and economy across North American Indigenous peoples.

Read more about Osgood's work on this database. 

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Search for this book in a local or University library. 

ISBN: 9781258804411.

Osgood, Cornelius. “The Distribution of the Northern Athapaskan Indians.” Yale University Publications in Anthropology, no. 7. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1936.