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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" aborigines, 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 Denesuline 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 Coppermine 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 anthropologist 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 Denesuline men who essentially helped him to survive, the author repeatedly mentions 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. ¢ 105 «
