Dakelh
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The Dakelh (IPA: [tákʰɛɬ]) or Carrier are the indigenous people of a large portion of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Traditional Carrier territory includes the area along the Fraser River from north of Prince George to south of Quesnel, the Nechako Valley, the areas around Stuart Lake, Trembleur Lake, Takla Lake, Fraser Lake, and Babine Lake, the Bulkley Valley, and the region along the West Road River, west to the Coast Range, including the Kluskus Lakes, Ootsa Lake and Cheslatta Lake.
Most Carrier call themselves Dakelh, meaning "people who travel by water". The term Carrier is a translation of the name for them used by the neighboring Sekani First Nations people (in reference to widows of the tribe carrying their cremated husbands' ashes, in knapsacks, for a three-year period), which Europeans learned first because they crossed Sekani territory before entering Carrier territory. The Dakelh (along with the Sekani, Babine, and Chilcotin) are Athabascan.
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[edit] Social, linguistic, and political divisions
As an ethnic term, Carrier includes speakers of both the Carrier language proper and its sister language Babine-Witsuwit'en, both of which are endangered languages. The bands whose primary language is Carrier proper are:
- Cheslatta Indian Band
- Kluskus Indian Band
- Lheidli-T'enneh Band
- Nadleh Whut'en First Nation
- Nak'azdli Indian Band
- Nazko Indian Band
- Red Bluff Indian Band
- Saik'uz First Nation (Stoney Creek)
- Stellat'en First Nation
- Tl'azt'en Nation
- Ulkatcho First Nation
- Yekooche First Nation
The bands whose primary language is Babine-Witsuwit'en are:
- Lake Babine Nation (Nat'oot'en Nation)
- Moricetown Indian Band
- Nee-Tahi-Buhn Band
- Skin Tyee Band
- Takla Lake First Nation
- Wet'suwet'en First Nation
The very small Burns Lake Indian Band is linguistically so mixed that it cannot be said to belong to either group. Historically, it probably belongs to Carrier proper.
Eight bands ( Burns Lake Indian Band, Nadleh Whut'en Band, Nak'azdli Indian Band, Saik'uz First Nation, Stellat'en First Nation, Tl'azt'en Nation, Takla Lake First Nation, Wet'suwet'en First Nation) form the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council. Four bands (Kluskus Indian Band, Nazko Indian Band, Red Bluff Indian Band, Ulkatcho Indian Band) belong to Carrier-Chilcotin Tribal Council, together with one Chilcotin band (Toosey Indian Band). The other bands are independent.
[edit] Geography
The Carrier region is for the most part sub-boreal forest, dotted with numerous lakes including, most prominently, Stuart Lake. There are numerous rivers, all ultimately draining into the Pacific, 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 Carrier territory, but Carrier people are not very familiar even with their foothills due to the occupation of that area in recent times by the Cree. Part of the Coast Range falls within Witsuwit'en territory. Farther South, Ulkatcho Carrier people share the Coast Range with the Nuxalk.
[edit] Way of Life
The traditional Carrier way of life was based on a seasonal round, with the greatest activity in the summer when berries were gathered and fish caught and preserved. The mainstay of the economy was fish, especially the several varieties of anadromous salmonids, which were 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, otter, lynx, wolf, marten, fisher, mink, ermine, muskrat and wolverine, were trapped to some extent, but until the advent of the fur trade such trapping was probably a minor activity. With the exception of berries and the sap and cambium of the Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contortus latifolia), plants played a relatively minor role as food, though Carrier people are familiar with and occasionally used a variety of edible plants. Plants are used extensively for medicine. Winter activity was more limited, with some hunting, trapping, and fishing under the ice. Although many Carrier people now have jobs and otherwise participate in the non-traditional economy, fish, game, and berries still constitute a major portion of the diet.
Carrier people 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 (Thaleicthys pacificus, 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 (Porphyra abbottae Krish.). "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.
[edit] Synonymy
In some of the literature Carrier 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 Carrier people, in the journal of Sir Alexander MacKenzie, uses the term Nagailer.
[edit] See also
[edit] 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.
