Fibbie Tatti’s thesis explores Sahtúgot’ı̨nę spirituality: it describes and defines spirituality “from the perspective of the Sahtúgot’ı̨nę, distinguishing spirituality from concepts such as worldview, culture, and medicine power” (iii, abstract). Spirituality is an essential component of Dene education, Tatti writes. In documents like the Dene Kedǝ curriculum (1993) inclusion of spirituality (which makes up one quarter of the curriculum, along with relationships with land, people, and self) is important but difficult, because spirituality is different for different Indigenous peoples, and means different things.

Teaching on the land, for the Sahtúgot’ı̨nę, is paired with ceremony: feeding the fire, for example. Ceremonies are still practiced but gradually less understood, in part due to language loss. Each ceremony must be contextualized by history an, and the Elders explain this in a language that fewer and fewer youth can understand. Tatti also emphasizes the distinctions between worldview, culture, and spirituality, emphasizing a dependent relationship with animals and the cosmos—this fundamental relationship guides Dene behaviour, laws, and epistemology.

From Abstract: 

The Sahtúgot’ı̨nę have lived in the Sahtú Region around Great Bear Lake since time immemorial. Our Elders believe that spirituality is the foundation for our language, culture and worldview and that it is essential for our language and culture to be taught in the context of spirituality. This thesis provides a description and a definition of spirituality from the perspective of the Sahtúgot’ı̨nę, distinguishing spirituality from concepts such as worldview, culture and medicine power. In keeping with our traditional ways of preserving and transmitting knowledge to future generations, the paper relies heavily on stories passed on to us from our Elders. The paper elaborates on key concepts of Sahtúgot’ı̨nę spirituality. First, like human beings, all animals on this earth have a living spirit or bets’ı̨nę́. Other entities on this earth - plants and trees, the water and the wind - are also living beings with their own yǝ́dı́ı. Specific geographic sites with a special significance to the Sahtúgot’ı̨nę are also said to be yǝ́dı́ı. The other key concept is the existence of three dimensions of existence and their inter-relationship which is crucial to the understanding of Sahtúgot’ı̨nę spirituality.

Read other University of Victoria Language Revitalization MA Theses from Susan Saunders and Laura Tutcho.

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The University of Victoria has made this thesis available for free here: http://hdl.handle.net/1828/6113

Tatti, Fibbie. The Wind Waits For No One: Nı̨hts’ı Dene Ası̨ ́ Henáoréhɂı̨ ́le Ǫt’e: Spirituality in a Sahtúgot’ı̨nę Perspective. Master’s Thesis, University of Victoria, 2015.