Lesley Allen

Dr. Lesley Allen has over 26 years of public sector experience in the field of education and training. She has worked with all levels of government, Aboriginal groups, environmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and industry. She has been a resident of the Northwest Territories for 37 years and has lived and worked in a number of small, remote Arctic communities, as well as larger regional centres and Yellowknife. Dr. Allen is a former Government of the Northwest Territories employee. She has a Bachelor of Education in Elementary and Secondary Education (University of Toronto), a Bachelor of Arts in English and Native Studies (Trent University), a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration and Curriculum Development (University of Ottawa) and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership (University of Phoenix). She is a credentialed Canadian Evaluator.

Dr. Allen resides in Yellowknife. She is a partner in Allen & Allen Consulting and Research, a northern firm with an office in Yellowknife.

 April 10, 2014-May 2, 2016

Sahtú Place Names

For indigenous communities, place names hold special value. As Délı̨nęgot’ı̨nę elder Morris Neyelle puts it, “I always want my kids to understand the history and be proud of who they are. The names given by our ancestors should be in place rather than the English ones, so that my people can understand where they come from.” Place names are vital as the framework upon which other types of spatially-oriented, ecological, and traditional use information are structured and transmitted between generations. Place names have always been passed on through oral tradition. However, communities in the Northwest Territories have also been recording place names – and the stories and legends attached to them – using alternate and new technolog

Émile-Fortuné Petitot was a French oblate missionary , and one of many individuals who has worked with knowledgeable indigenous and non-indigenous land-users to record place names during his extensive travels in the Athabasca-Mackenzie area of what is now the Northwest Territories during 1862-1883.ies for more than 150 years.

Petitot was avidly interested in indigenous languages and stories, and his skills as a linguist and ethnographic researcher make his work invaluable in understanding the history and meaning of indigenous cultural and ecological landscapes. Petitot recounts stories about places, provides descriptions of the sites he visited, and details travel routes, fisheries, hunting trips.

A study with Fort Good Hope elders in 1978 drew upon Petitot’s work to learn how place names shed light on Dene understandings of space (Castongay, 1981). Working with elders, Tłı̨chǫ researchers have found that in many (but not all) cases the places are currently known by the same names today as they were in the 1860s (Whaèhdǫǫ̀ Nàowoò Kǫ̀ 2002)

Petitot created his own method of writing indigenous languages using the French writing system that he was familiar with. Because he was a careful and consistent writer, it is possible to translate his spellings into contemporary orthographies.

An edited compilation of traditional place names recorded by Petitot was edited by Donat Savoie and published by University of Alberta Press in 1979 and reprinted in 2001.

The online map presented here was created from a digital toponymic inventory included with the 2001 reprint. This inventory contains place names, co-ordinates, and information about the names. The place names are presented as-is: using Petitot's orthography, and with editorial comments included. The export process produced a small number of errors in the inventory.

This project is ongoing. Digitizing of the full spatial extent of the place names on the 1979/2001 maps is currently being carried out by the Alaska Native Place Names Project.

The conversion of the toponymic inventory would not have been possible were it not for the participation of all project partners:

News Articles and Radio Interviews

Caribou Population

11.4.2013 - New newsletter available on the Sahtú Caribou Study. Just click here to view the newsletter.

10.31.2013 - CKLB radio in Yellowknife did a short story on the caribou scat collection study. You can find the article here.

 10.27.2013 - CBC highlighted the caribou scat collection study. You can find the article here. 

 01.29.20114-  Northern Journal article "Study aims to trace genes of Sahtu caribou." You can find the article here.

Traditional Economy

02. 17.2014- Click here for the Radio Interview with Betty Harnum about a traditional economy workshop that was held in Délı̨nę, NWT February 11, 12 and 13, 2014.

 02.10.2014- News/North NWT Article "Promoting the Value of Traditional Skills." You can find the article here.

 

 

Industry/Wildlife

03.24.2014- Northern Journal article- Sahtu students attended industry fracking meeting. Click here for the article

03.24.2014- News/North NWT article describing Fort Nelson First Nation's visit to three Sahtu communities to share their experience with fracking. You can find the article here. 

 

03.24.2014- New/North NWT article describing the Sahtu Environmental Monitoring Program. Click here for article

06.13.2013- CBC News article "Sahtu fracking approval draws praise and criticism." You can find article here.