For over 1500 years, the Sayisi Dene, 'The Dene from the East', led an independent life, following the caribou herds and having little contact with white society. In 1956, an arbitrary government decision to relocate them catapulted the Sayisi Dene into the 20th century. It replaced their traditional nomadic life of hunting and fishing with a slum settlement on the outskirts of Churchill, Manitoba. Inadequately housed, without jobs, unfamiliar with the language or the culture, their independence and self-determination deteriorated into a tragic cycle of discrimination, poverty, alcoholism and violent death. By the early 1970s, the band realized they had to take their future into their own hands again. After searching for a suitable location, they set up a new community at Tadoule Lake, 250 miles north of Churchill. Today they run their own health, education and community programs. But the scars of the relocation will take years to heal, and Tadoule Lake is grappling with the problems of a people whose ties to the land, and to one another, have been tragically severed. In Night Spirits, the survivors, including those who were children at the time of the move, as well as the few remaining elders, recount their stories. They offer a stark and brutally honest account of the near-destruction of the Sayisi Dene, and their struggle to reclaim their lives. It is a dark story, told in hope.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-152)
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 971.27/004972
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 21
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-cn-mb
- ISBN
- 9780887553486 0887556434
- LCCN
- E99.T56
- LCCN Item number
- B87 1997eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaMWU
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (xxii, [16] p. of plates, 152 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00601178 (OCoLC)646525146 (CaOOCEL)412970
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOONL
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- Contents 8
- Acknowledgements 10
- Introduction (Üstün Bilgen-Reinart) 12
- The Narrators of This Book 22
- My Story (Ila Bussidor) 42
- The Caribou and the People 48
- The People from the East 50
- Treaty Five 64
- Duck Lake 68
- "Preserved at all Costs" 78
- The Relocation 82
- Churchill 94
- Camp-10 98
- Alcohol Takes Over 110
- Dene Village 126
- Deaths 146
- Return to the Land 160
- Tadoule Lake 176
- Appendix 185
- Notes 187
- Bibliography 190
