Fig. 1. Map of the Great Slave Lake area. P a p e r s CHANGING PATTERNS OF INDIAN TRAPPING IN THE CANADIAN SUBARCTIC
T HE importance of trapping to the Indians of the Canadian Arctic and Subarctic is a matter of historical fact, and the changes brought about in the traditional Indian way of life by the introduction and development of a trapping-trading economy have been well documented for many tribes throughout C...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.534.2782 http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/arctic16-3-158.pdf |
| Summary: | T HE importance of trapping to the Indians of the Canadian Arctic and Subarctic is a matter of historical fact, and the changes brought about in the traditional Indian way of life by the introduction and development of a trapping-trading economy have been well documented for many tribes throughout Canada by historians and anthropologists. The author’s field work at Snowdrift, a Chipewyan community at the eastern end of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories, provided information about recent acculturative factors affecting the trapping pattern. The purpose of this paper is to show that these factors are not peculiar to Snowdrift alone, but are widespread and appear to be altering the significance of trapping in the present-day economy of peoples throughout he astern and western Subarctic. I The community of Snowdrift is located on the southeastern shore of Great Slave Lake in a region that is entirely within the area of Precambrian rocks (see Fig. 1). The eastern end of the lake has an extremely intricate shoreline with large numbers of bays and innumerable islands. The country around the village is characterized by wooded, rolling hills from 500 to 1000 feet above sea-level; many lakes of various sizes dot the area; the vegetation and fauna are essentially subarctic in character. Snowdrift, with a population of approximately 150 persons in 1961, is a very recent village whose physical existence in its present form goes back no more than 10 years. However, the area has been a focal point for residents of the surrounding region since 1925 when the Hudson’s Bay Company established a post at the site of the present community. Prior to that time the population at the eastern end of Great Slave Lake consisted of an unknown number of Chipewyan families who hunted, fished, and |
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