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CANADIAN LANDSCAPES/ PAYSAGES CANADIENS décrit non seulement les circonstances du voyage, mais aussi les phénoménes naturels et le mode de vie des indigénes. Dans les régions boréales et arctiques du Canada, oü ces indigénes vivent d’octobre a mai, les températures ne dépassent pas le point de congélation et le sol est constamment gelé (dit permafrost) pendant la majorité de l’année. Durant la période la plus froide, les températures moyennes peuvent même baisser jusqu’à 25-30 degrés au-dessous de zéro, par contre les mois les plus doux, elles augmentent de 8 °C à 10 °C. C’est dans de telles circonstances, la nation dénée doit survivre. Ces conditions difficiles, ont-elles pu être à l’origine des facteurs déclencheurs de certains phénomènes religieux? Dans mon essai, basé sur les notes de Samuel Hearne, j’essaierai d’esquisser mes réponses possibles 4 cette question. Mots-clés: explorations, Samuel Hearne, nations indigènes, la religion des Dénésulines, effets climatiques INTRODUCTION The myth of the Northwest Passage connecting Hudson Bay with the Pacific Ocean was definitively debunked by English-Canadian traveller Samuel Hearne (1745-1792) in 1772, when he set out from Hudson Bay and reached the Arctic Ocean on foot. Despite this, his name and his work — Journeys from Prince of Wales’s Fort in Hudson’s Bay to the Northern Ocean in the years 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, more commonly known by its shorter title, Journey to the Northern Ocean — will ring a bell to few. As the title of his book suggests, his ambitious undertaking was nearly four years in the making. During this time, he made three attempts, the first two of which failed. In November 1770, he set out on his third, longest but most successful voyage of discovery. In doing so, not only did he successfully reach the shoreline of the Arctic Ocean, exploring parts of northern Canada that had been previously unknown, but he also closed a chapter in the history of exploration: by following the course of the Coppermine River to the Arctic Ocean, Hearne confirmed that there was no Northwest Passage through the continent at more lower latitudes. In this paper, however, I will not examine the journeys, but rather the indigenous nation without whom this exploration could not have happened. Based on Samuel Hearne’s description, and using anthropological analysis, I will analyse the religious practices of the Denesuline First Nation and how they were influenced by the landscape and their climate. THE DENESULINE Samuel Hearne distinguishes three indigenous groups in his travel accounts. In the early period these three were the “northern,” “southern” and “base” + 104 »
