Dakelh

Communities living within the Dakelh language area
Regions with significant populations
Canada (British Columbia)
Languages
English, Dakelh
Religion
Animism
Related ethnic groups
Other Dene peoples Especially Wet'suwet'en, Babine, Tsilhqotʼin, and Sekani

The Dakelh (pronounced [tákʰɛɬ]) or Carrier are the indigenous people of a large portion of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada.

The "Carrier" name was derived from an English translation of Aghele, the name from the neighbouring Sekani (Tsek'ehne) ("people of the rocks or mountains", Lht'at'en / Lht'at'enne, ᒡᗧᗥᐣ) for Dakelh people. Sekani people played an important role in the early period of contact between the fur traders and Dakelh people because some Sekani people could speak both Dakelh and Cree and served as interpreters between the fur traders and Dakelh people.

They call themselves "Dakelh / Dakelh-ne" (ᑕᗸᒡ, people who “travel upon water”, lit. "people who travel by boat early in the morning", a Synaeresis of uda ukelh and ne), and add the suffixes -xwoten, “people of” or -t’en, “people” to village names or locations to refer to specific groups (e.g., Tl’azt’en, Wet’suwet’en). the Wetʼsuwetʼen (Whutsot'en, ᗘᙢᗥᐣ, "People of the Wet'sinkwha/Wa Dzun Kwuh River, i.e. Bulkley River", lit: "People of the blue and green River"; also known as Western Carrier) and Babine (Nadot'en) (Nadot'enne, ᘇᑎᗥᐣ, "Lake Babine People"; also known as Northern Carrier) peoples are a branch of the Dakelh/Carrier people, and have been referred to as the Western Carrier. They speak Witsuwitʼen or Babine/Nedut'en, dialects of the Babine-Witsuwitʼen language which, like its sister Dakelh language, is a member of the Central British Columbia branch of the Northern Athabaskan languages. They belong to the Northern Athabascan or Dene peoples (Dené is the common Athabaskan word for "people").

Another name the Dakelh/Carrier proper call themselves is Yinka Dene ("the people on the land"), the Babine-Witsuwitʼen-speaking bands prefer the equivalent Yinka Whut'en ("the people on the land").^[1]

Geography

Dakelh territories called Keyoh, include the area along Fraser River (Lhtakoh - "rivers within one another"^[2]) from north of Prince George (Lheidli - "confluence") to south of Quesnel and including the Barkerville-Wells area, the Nechako Country, the areas around Stuart Lake (Nak'albun - "Mount Pope lake"), Trembleur Lake (Dzinghubun - "day after lake"), Takla Lake (Khelhghubun - "load after lake"), Fraser Lake (Nadlehbun - "(fish) run lake"), and Babine Lake, the Bulkley Valley, and the region along the West Road River, west to the Hazelton Mountains and the Kitimat Ranges of the Coast Mountains, including the Kluskus Lakes (Lhoosk'uz - "Rocky Mountain whitefish place"), Ootsa Lake (Oosa Bunk'ut - "bucket lake"), the Quanchus and Fawnie Ranges, and Cheslatta Lake (Tsetl'adak Bunk'ut - "Peak Rock Lake").

Dakelh territories are for the most part sub-boreal forest, dotted with numerous lakes. There are numerous rivers, all ultimately draining into the Pacific Ocean, mostly via the Fraser River. The climate is continental, with cold winters during which the rivers and lakes freeze over and a short growing season. The area is hilly, with mountains of modest size. The Rocky Mountains form the eastern boundary of the Dakelh territories, but the Dakelh are not very familiar with the foothills because that area in recent times has been occupied by the Cree (Dushina, ᑐᙘᘇ). Part of the Coast Mountains and Hazelton Mountains fall within Wit'suwit'en territory. Farther south, 'Ulkatcho people share the Coast Range with the Coast Salish Nuxalkmc (Bella Coola) and the northern Chilcotin Plateau with Northern Athabaskan speaking strong warrior nation (with political influence from the Similkameen region in the south (of British Columbia), the Pacific coast in the west, and the Rocky Mountains in the east) Tsilhqot'in (Chilkot'in, ᗘᙢᗥᐣ).

Culture

The traditional Dakelh way of life is based on a seasonal round, with the greatest activity in the summer when berries are gathered and fish caught and preserved. The mainstay of the economy is centered on harvesting activities within each family keyoh (ᗸᘏᑋ, territory, village, trapline) under the leadership of a hereditary chief, known as a Keyoh holder or keyoh-whudachun.^[3] Fish, especially the several varieties of salmon, are smoked and stored for the winter in large numbers. Hunting and trapping of deer, caribou, moose, elk, black bear, beaver, and rabbit provided meat, fur for clothing, and bone for tools. Other fur-bearing animals are trapped to some extent, but until the advent of the fur trade, such trapping is a minor activity. With the exception of berries and the sap and cambium of the lodgepole pine, plants play a relatively minor role as food, though the sacredness of plants are appreciated by Dakelh people. The Dakelhe are familiar with and occasionally use a variety of edible plants. Plants are used extensively for medicine. Winter activity is more limited, with some hunting, trapping, and fishing under the ice. Although many Dakelh now have jobs and otherwise participate in the non-traditional economy, fish, game, and berries still constitute a major portion of the diet.

The Dakelh engaged in extensive trade with the coast along trails known as "grease trails". The items exported consisted primarily of hides, dried meat, and mats of dried berries. Imports consisted of various marine products, the most important of which was "grease", the oil extracted from eulachons (also known as "candlefish") by allowing them to rot, adding boiling water, and skimming off the oil. This oil is extremely nutritious and, unlike many other fats, contains desirable fatty acids. Other important imports were smoked eulachons and dried red laver seaweed. "Grease" and smoked eulachons are still considered by many to be delicacies and are prized gifts from visitors from the west. The route by which Sir Alexander MacKenzie and his party reached the Pacific Ocean in 1793 in the first crossing of North America by land was, from the Fraser River westward, a grease trail. Other examples include the Cheslatta Trail and the Nyan Wheti.

History

Dakelh (Carrier) Language

Carrier language

Bands

As an ethnic term, Carrier or Dakelh includes speakers of both the Dakelh language proper and its sister language Babine-Witsuwit'en, both of which are endangered languages.

Synonymy

In some of the literature Dakelh people are known by the French term Porteurs. Another term sometimes seen is Taculli along with variant spellings. This is a linguistically naive adaptation of the phonetic notation used by Father Adrien-Gabriel Morice. The first written reference to Dakelh people, in the journal of Sir Alexander MacKenzie, uses the term Nagailer.

Etymology of name

The received view of the origin of the Sekani name aɣelne for the Dakelh, of which the English name is a translation, is that it refers to the distinctive Dakelh mortuary practice in which a widow carried her husband's ashes on her back during the period of mourning. One problem for this hypothesis is that there is little evidence of the existence of this custom, the report of which is due to Father Morice. According to Lizette Hall's (1992) father, Louie-Billy Prince, who had been Father Morice's houseboy and knew him well, Father Morice pestered the Dakelh so persistently on the origin of the name that they finally told him the story about widows carrying ashes to satisfy him. An alternative hypothesis is that it refers to the fact that the Dakelh, unlike the Sekani, participated in trade with the coast, which required packing loads of goods over the Grease Trails.

See also

• Dakelh language
• Edward John
• Mary John Sr.
• Rose Prince
• Chief Kwah (aka Kw'eh)

Bibliography

• Birchwater, Sage (1991). Ulkatchot'en: The People of Ulkatcho. Anahim Lake: Ulkatcho Indian Band. Illustrated by Ronald Cahoose.
• Birchwater, Sage (1991). Ulkatcho: Stories of the Grease Trail. Anahim Lake: Ulkatcho Indian Band. Illustrated by Ronald Cahoose.
• Brown, Doug (2002). "Carrier Sekani Self-Government in Context: Land and Resources," Western Geography, 12:21-67. PDF
• Furniss, Elizabeth (1993). Dakelh Keyoh: The Southern Carrier in Earlier Times. Quesnel: Quesnel School District.
• Furniss, Elizabeth (1993). Changing Ways: Southern Carrier History 1793-1940. Quesnel: Quesnel School District.
• Goldman, Irving (1940). "The Alkatcho Carrier of British Columbia," in Linton, Ralph (ed.) Acculturation in Seven American Indian Tribes. New York: Appleton-Century pp. 333–389
• Hall, Lizette (1992). The Carrier, My People. Published at Quesnel, British Columbia by the author.
• Hudson, Douglas R. (1983). Traplines and Timber: Social and Economic Change among the Carrier Indians of British Columbia. (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Alberta, Edmonton).
• Tobey, Margaret L. (1981). "Carrier" in June Helm (ed.) Handbook of North American Indians: Volume 6. Subarctic. (Washington: Smithsonian Institution) pp. 413–432.

Citation

References

• Carlson, Roy L. (1978), Charles E Borden, Canadian Archaeological Association, retrieved 3 December 2013
• Knickerbocker, Madeline (2012), "Review of Susan Roy's These Mysterious People: Shaping History and Archaeology in a Northwest Coast Community", BC Studies (174), archived from the original on 2013-12-15
• Roy, Susan (October 2010), These Mysterious People Shaping History and Archaeology in a Northwest Coast Community, McGill/Queen's University Press, p. 240, ISBN 9780773537217

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dakelh.

• Bibliography of Materials on Carrier Culture and History
• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Takkali" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.