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THE IMPACT OF LANDSCAPE AND CLIMATE ON THE DENESULINE RELIGION
groups.? A tribe of the Cree aboriginal nation are considered "southern" abo¬
rigines, while the Chipewyan, which is Denesuline with an emic term, are
considered the “northern” aborigines. The last, “base” group refers, in my
opinion, to a mixture of aboriginal peoples who were permanent employees of
Fort Prince Edward. This is the conclusion Ken McGoogan reaches, although
Hearne states that only the indigenous Denesuline were covered by the term
(Hearne, x).
The Denesuline nation is a member of the Dene group, who inhabit the
northern and Arctic regions of Canada (Sharp, xvii). Although the word Dene¬
suline is not a Dene term, indigenous people refer to themselves by this word,
the plural of which is not known or even used (Sharp, xv; Cook, xxi). At the
time Hearne’s reader learned of this nation, they were in the midst of a great
wave of migration — at least, this is the accepted view today. They had moved
steadily northward from the Seal River up to the Great Lakes — Great Slave
and Great Bear — and in the latter half of the 18th century, reached the Cop¬
permine and Churchill Rivers (Smith, Denesuline 134).
Before the arrival of the Europeans, this indigenous nation most probably
lived a nomadic or semi-nomadic life. This is supported by social anthropol¬
ogist James Smith’s theory of migration (Smith, Denesuline 134), but there is
also evidence from Hearne’s time that — despite the fact that much of their
income was now derived from the fur trade — the Denesuline still followed the
migration of deer in the area (Hearne, 139).
By the second half of the 18th century, some of the Denesuline nation was
still closely tied to the fur trade of the Prince of Wales’s Fort, although the
Hudson’s Bay Company’s aim from 1749 on was to attract the natives to the
area so that they would not even begin to work for the French (Smith, The
Hudson’s Bay Company 76). However, the Company’s plan did not work out
entirely successfully. Although Hearne was travelling with a group of Dene¬
suline men who essentially helped him to survive, the author repeatedly men¬
tions instances where members of the same nation robbed him (Hearne 45-46)
or were not helpful at all (Hearne 31-32).
In the boreal and arctic regions of Canada, where the Denesuline live from
October to May, temperatures never rise above freezing and the ground is
permanently frozen for much of the year, with average temperatures ranging
from -25 to -30°C in the coldest months to only +8 to +10°C in the mildest
months. The nation must find a way to live in these conditions. In addition to
raw and often immediately consumed foods, their diet includes foods that are
? Later, in his native counsellor Mattonabbee’s biography, he mentions a fourth group.
3 That is, by Hearne’s time.
* Data obtained from the official meteorological website of the Government of Canada. Some
data go back to 1840, but most are available only from 1960 onwards: canada.ca/en/services/
environment/weather.html.
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