Our Canoeing Heritage
The Dene
 The Dene (from the Slavey language meaning "flowing from Mother Earth") inhabit the great boreal forest and tundra regions of northern North America where they once lived in skin-covered tents, log huts or sod/log cabins.
Waterways have been vital to them, and their canoes made of either spruce or birch bark were essential for them to subsist on local or migratory ducks, geese, ptarmigan, grouse, snowshoe hare, moose, caribou, beaver, muskrat and fish. For travel with large cargoes on lakes and rivers, they stretched soaked moose skins over spruce frames for boats.
Accomplished hunters, the Dene continue to depend on the land despite living in more permanent settlements today. Traditional families live in extended groups, often occupying ancestral trapping and hunting areas and routes, which they frequently use for social meeting places, for feasts and celebration.
The Dene speak several different languages of the Athapaskan language group and are composed of several different sub-groups:
| Chipewyan: |
East of Great Slave Lake (Snowdrift, Taltson and upper Thelon rivers. Northeast Alberta and Northern Saskatchewan. |
| Dogrib: |
Between Great Slave and Great Bear lakes. Communities include Rae-Edzo, Wha Ti, Rae Lakes and Snare Lakes. |
| Gwitch'in: |
Northern Yukon, Mackenzie Delta, Alaska and western NWT. Language also known as Loucheux, Kutchin and Tukudh. |
| Sahtu Dene: |
A group of related dialects spoken in the southwest NWT, Mackenzie and Bear rivers. The Locheux(Hareskin) located downstream in the north Mackenzie Mountains and the watersheds of the Arctic Red and Travaillant rivers north to the Mackenzie Delta. Communities include: Deline, Tulit'a and Fort Good Hope. |
| Slavey: |
A large widespread group of the Mackenzie or Dehcho(Big) River. South and west of Great Slave Lake. The Slave River to Liard River and north to Fort Norman. Communities include Fort Smith, Jean Marie River and Wrigley. |
| Yellowknife: |
North of Great Slave Lake to Contwoyto Lake in the northeast. Named for their copper knives. They were absorbed into the Chipewyan group after disease decimated their numbers. |
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