Until well into this century, the Northern Dene, a subarctic Athapaskan people who inhabit Canada's Mackenzie River Basin, remained little affected by Western culture. They retained a hunter-gatherer technology much like that of their remote predecessors, who inhabited the area some thirty thousand years ago.
Nomadic out of necessity in a harsh, spare, and uncompromising environment, the Dene population spread thinly throughout the boreal forest and muskeg swamps of the northern Rocky Mountains. They have survived by intimate knowledge of and immersion in a constantly changing milieu in varied terrain. No two years or seasons are ever alike, as animal, plant, and mineral resources fluctuate widely according to time, weather, and place. Every Dene must develop a detailed mental map of hundreds of square miles in order to plot the best survival pathways, estimate all the factors, and garner each resource as needed in a somewhat different way every year.
A great deal of information on each resource must be taken into account by each member of the tribe. What do moose eat in April, and where are these plants found? How warm must the surface water be in a certain lake before its whitefish and suckers will come up within reach of nets? Some lakes have no fish; some have muskrat or beaver colonies, but must be left fallow for their populations to increase. One forest area has a fine blueberry stand but is useless for hunting. Birch bark for containers can be harvested only in certain areas in late May through early June.
Twenty-odd mammals are snared or shot for their fur, hide, bones, sinews, teeth, and meat; some twenty kinds of fish are caught with beaver-rib hooks or willow bast nets in summer or through early winter ice. Two dozen varieties of berries are gathered in season. Cattail tubers and even the inner bark of some trees might be eaten in the starving time of May. The bark, wood, foliage, and roots of several coniferous and deciduous trees are used in construction and crafts. Medicines come from the forest. Little is wasted, as the people craft multipurpose tools, utensils, shelter, and clothing from forest materials.
The Dene are thus thoroughgoing pragmatists and are extremely skillful, knowledgeable, and flexible out of necessity. They also place a high value on the wild beauty of their land in all its seasons, and consider that their life and thought and wanderings are an inextricable part of its natural flow. The names they give the "moons" of the year reflect their necessities, values, and aesthetics. Nor are the visible and invisible unrelated for the Dene. Learning to listen to elders and to nature is a lifelong exercise in expanding awareness, accumulating information, and developing wisdom. Simultaneous concerns for cooperation, sharing, and a life in harmony with one another and the other beings of their environment coexist with concerns to let each individual develop and act in his or her own innovative and unique way. The Dene also exhibit a strong aversion to interference with others' plans, ideas, or behavior.
Both sharing and diversity are the rule among the Dene--not accidentally, because each person must learn to adjust and innovate continuously throughout a lifetime in order to survive and raise a family. Moreover, social and traditional learning and cooperation are essential to survival. The pool of knowledge and skills garnered and handed down by highly individualistic,
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