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This fonds consists of records documenting the activities of the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute from its establishment in 1993 until its transition into the Gwich’in Tribal Council’s Department of Cultural Heritage in 2016. The fonds includes some records of the Department of Cultural Heritage from 2016 until 2018. The material has been arranged into 38 series based on seven functional categories:

• Administration includes nine series documenting the governance and administration of the GSCI. The series included in this category are Gwich’in Tribal Council (426-S01); Governance (426-S02); Executive Director (426-S03); Research Director and General Administrative Materials (426-S04); Finance (426-S05); Correspondence (426-S06); Gwich’in Organizations, Communities and Events (426-S07); Other Organizations, Institutions and Associations (426-S08); and Website (426-S09). These series include meeting packages and minutes; strategic planning materials including GSCI’s five-year plans; annual reports; GSCI Executive Director files from 2004-2016; office, staff, project and other general administrative materials; financial statements and reporting materials; funding proposals, applications, reports, contribution agreements and service contracts; correspondence files; meeting materials, minutes, reports, proposals, presentation materials and informational materials related to Gwich’in and non-Gwich’in organizations, institutions and associations; website planning materials including funding applications, contribution agreements, financial statements and content planning materials; and general correspondence within each series.
• Consultation with Government includes three series documenting GSCI’s consultation and interaction with the federal and territorial governments. The series included in this category are Government of Canada (426-S10), Government of the Northwest Territories (426-S11) and Government of Yukon (426-S12). These series include correspondence; proposals; reports; funding proposals and reporting materials; workshop and presentation materials; informational materials; and curriculum planning and development materials.
• Traditional Knowledge and Land Use Policy and Regulation includes three series documenting the GSCI’s work in traditional knowledge policy development, land use planning and management and permitting and licensing. The series included in this category are Traditional Knowledge Policy (426-S13); Land Use Planning and Management (426-S14); and Researchers, Permits, Licences and Use Agreements (426-S15). These series include correspondence; proposals; funding and financial materials; workshop and presentation materials; discussion papers; reference materials; reports; policy copies; permit and licence applications and reports; research and data-sharing agreements; researcher files; and project materials provided to GSCI by researchers including planning materials, interview materials, photographs, videos and films, theses, reports and articles.
• Repatriation includes two series documenting the GSCI’s work in repatriating Gwich’in heritage materials and knowledge through a number of projects. The series included in this category are Gwich’in Traditional Caribou Skin Clothing Project (426-S16) and Repatriation Projects (426-S17). These series consist of project, planning and produced records including correspondence; funding proposals, contribution agreements and terms of reference; reports; copies of publications; audio and video recordings; and photographs, slides and negatives.
• Recognition of Historic and Cultural Sites includes three series documenting the GSCI’s work for the recognition, protection and management of Gwich’in historic and cultural sites. The series included in this category are Gwich’in Territorial Park (426-S18); Burial Sites (426-S19); and Historic Sites and Heritage Rivers (426-S20). The series include correspondence; materials related to the GSCI’s work in developing a vision and management plan for the Gwich’in Territorial Park including terms of reference, meeting materials, planning materials and copies of the management plan; funding materials, reports, maps and audio recordings from projects GSCI conducting in the Gwich’in Territorial Park; GTC Burial Site Guidelines; notes and information from the Tsiigehtchic Graveyard Mapping Project; and materials related to the nomination and management of national and territorial historic sites and heritage rivers including nomination applications, funding materials and service contracts; interview recordings and transcripts; photographs; unveiling ceremony materials; and draft management plans.
• Research and Programs includes 17 series documenting the GSCI’s research projects, programming and activities. These series include project, planning and produced materials, place name database and online mapping materials, conference materials and reference materials. The series included in the category are Oral History and Place Names Projects and Activities (426-S21); Archaeology (426-S22); Gwich’in Renewable Resources Board Traditional Knowledge Work (426-S23); Gwich’in Traditional Knowledge of the Mackenzie Gas Project Area (426-S24); Arctic Red River Headwaters Projects (426-S25); Elder’s Biography Project (426-S26); Gwichya Gwich’in Googwandak (426-S27); Tsiigehtchic Genealogy Workshop (426-S28); Gwich’in Ethnobotany (426-S29); Committee for Original Peoples’ Entitlement (COPE) Recordings (426-S30); Other GSCI Projects (426-S31); Partner Projects (426-S32); Archival Projects (426-S33); Science and Culture Camps (426-S34); Non-Project Publications and Posters (426-S35); Conferences, Workshops and Meetings (426-S36); and Reference Collection (426-S37). These series include correspondence; funding, financial and budget materials; project proposals interview materials; field notes; workshop and presentation materials; reports; GSCI publications including books, articles, brochures and posters; photographs, slides and negatives; audio and video recordings; transcripts; programming materials for science and culture camps; materials related to the documentation, preservation and update of the GSCI’s archival material; conference materials, notes and presentations; and reference materials including books, reports, journals, articles, research manuals, non-GSCI language materials and Gwich’in historical materials.
• Language includes one series documenting the GSCI’s language work and activities outside of research projects. This series is titled Language Work (426-S38) and documents GSCI’s work and relationship with the Gwich’in Language Centre, the development of the Gwich’in Language Plan, GSCI language workshops and projects, and language materials produced by the GSCI. This series includes correspondence; funding and budget materials; workshop materials; immersion camp materials; and dictionary copies, language class materials and other language materials.

Records include photographs documenting the construction of a mooseskin boat, the construction of a spruce bark canoe, and the tanning of a moose hide and a copy of Gloria Fedirchuk's proposal to film aboriginal adaptations and their relationship to the boreal forest environment of the Fisherman Lake Slave, including ethnographic practices, ethnobotanical information on use and taxonomy of flora, ethnozoological information on use of fauna, activities done in various seasons of the year, and the construction and creation of ethnographic items.

This fonds consists of stories and writings from George Blondin, a Sahtu Dene elder. The stories and writings relate to traditional medicine, medicine power, Yamoga, Yamoria, the Giant Wolverine, and wolverine medicine power.

The videocassettes consist of "Birch Bark Baskets" (English version) 21 min.; "Making a Birch Sled" (Slavey version) 21 min.; and "The Spruce Canoe" (English version) 21 min. The canoe was built by Johnny Klondike. The videos were filmed by Francine Betthale, produced by the Fort Liard Band Council, and funded by the GNWT Department of Culture and Communications and Dene Nation.

Records were generated by a project undertaken by the Sahtu Heritage Places and Sites Joint Working Group and include one report entitled "Places We Take Care Of" that identified and made recommendations about the protection, preservation and promotion of heritage places and sites important to the history and culture of the Sahtu Dene and Metis. Records also consist of copies of oral history transcripts from Deline, Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope. Interviews were carried out as part of the project to identify additional culturally significant and historic sites.

The recordings contain interviews with Paul Wright and Fred Andrew, both elders of Fort Norman. The recordings are in Slavey and may deal with traditional stories. The stories were recorded over an eight day period at Drum Lake.

Records consist of songs, stories and interview transcripts collected by ethnomusicologist Nicole Beaudry in the Sahtu communities of Deline, Tulita and Fort Good Hope in 1988-1992.

Ten of the photos appear in Schwarz's book "Elik: and other stories of the Mackenzie Eskimos" and are portraits of the storytellers. These include Archie (Headpoint) Erigaktuk, Kenneth Peeloolook, Sarah Raddi, Jessie Olorgrak, Susie Tiktalik, Felix Nuyaviak, William Firth, Elizabeth Blake, Alik Alubuk Stefansson, and Alex Kakianen. Other images are of Herbert Schwarz and the gravemarker for Constable R. O. H. Taylor of the "Lost Patrol."

The textual records consist of a brochure describing the film. In the film, produced by Films North, Father Rene Fumoleau discusses the changes in his views and philosophy that have occurred from his working with the Dene people, and George Barnaby discusses the changes in his own life and the choices he faces.

This fonds consists of two maps, 465 photographs, 43 DAT audiocassettes and 17 audio reels. The majority of the material consists of a collection of oral histories and photographs accumulated by the Fort Good Hope Community Council via their Dene Language and Historical Research Project. The oral histories were created because of the Dene Language and Historical Research Program. The photographs, collected from individual photographers, represent an artificial collection of historical photographs. Photographers include: Mr. Cassien Edgi, Brother Mahe and Alphonsine McNeely. The maps consist of town plans dealing with land use and development in the municipality of Fort Good Hope. One plan contains the text of the Fort Good Hope Community Plan. The second plan indicates zoning and focuses on the Jackfish Creek Redevelopment.

This fonds consists of two identical posters titled "Our Land, Our Life", and 2 cm of textual material. The material is made up of two copies of the "Dene Declaration: Statement of Rights" on broadsides, and one "Public Notice" from the Chiefs in Council. There is also one illustrated calendar produced by the Dene Nation for the 12-month period from May 1979 to April 1980. Included are chronologies of important events in the history of the Dene, descriptions of Dene culture and images of Dene people.

Records include sound recordings from the Parish Council of Rae-Edzo's Dogrib Literacy Workshop, also known as the Dogrib Writer's Project, held in late August and early September 1992. The recordings were created as part of the reporting requirements for funding received under the Language Enhancement Program. The purpose of the project was to bring together Tlicho (Dogrib) literate people from the six communities of the North Slave Region to discuss the present state of the Tlicho written language and to develop ways to strengthen culture and identity through the Tlicho written word. Another aim of the project was to bring young people, who use Roman orthography, and elders, who use syllabics, together to identify those words not in common use and to ensure that they are recorded. The original proposal also called for the development of scripted stories to be read on local radio in Tlicho. One of the cassettes identifies Joe Erasmus as the interviewee.

This fonds consists of approximately 15,538 photographs in various formats such as slides, prints and negatives, approximately 37 cm of text, 2 DAT audio cassettes, 25 audio reels, 6 films, 3 BetaCam videocassettes, 43 posters, 12 drawings and 2 maps. The photographic material dates between the late 1950s to 1995 and contains images of various communities and daily life of the Dene people of the North and South Slave regions. Eighteen photographs of Fort Good Hope collected by the donor likely date from the 1920s. By media type, there are roughly 10,700 colour slides, 1800 b/w negatives and 3000 colour negatives. The fonds also includes one colour print of Rene sitting on his snowmobile, which was later donated to the Collections section of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. The textual material consists of the unedited, penultimate draft of the manuscript for "As Long As This Land Shall Last: A History of Treaty 8 and Treaty 11, 1870-1939," which contains more detail than the published text. Also included are two transcripts of interviews conducted between Rene Fumoleau and Paul Vaudrack, a Gwich'in man. The first, a 25 page (3 mm) transcript of an interview conducted in French in 1955, concerns the Gwich'in equivalent of the Yamoria legend. The second, from October 1968 and typewritten in English, depicts Gwich'in life in the early-twentieth century. This manuscript discusses the influence of the English language, residential schools, and the outbreaks of influenza at that time. The bulk of the textual material are copies of court proceedings from the Benoit et.al. v. R. case of the late 1990s relating to Treaty 8 and a copy of the thesis dissertation by Marine Le Puloch entitled 'Le Traite no. 8 au Canada, beneficiaires et exclus' (1999), also relating to Treaty 8. There are 25 audio reels and 2 DAT audiocassettes that contain audio from "My Country, My People," "I Was Born Here" and "Dene Nation." In addition, the sound recordings contain music from "Our Land, Our Life," drum music from Fort Good Hope recorded in the 1957, Dene songs, Hareskin language and messages from the people of Fort Good Hope to friends and relatives in the hospital in Aklavik. There are 3 copies of the film entitled "Dene Nation" and 3 copies of the film "I Was Born Here", one of which is in French, entitled "Mon pays est ma vie". There are also 3 corresponding archival master BetaCam videocassettes for the films. The remaining material consists of 43 posters and 2 maps that date between 1977-1985. The posters relate to Native Rights, land claims, and Native Organizations such as the Dene Nation. There are also two maps entitled Canada's First People's and Centennial Map of the Northwest Territories. The fonds includes transcripts from eight interviews condcuted by Jane Kenny in 1984 with elders from Deline and documents related to the first two meetings of the Thebacha Association in 1967.

This fonds consists of 10 DAT audio cassettes, 24 audio cassettes and 2 cm of textual material. The original 24 audiocassettes were copied to DAT in December 1995; the DAT audiocassettes now constitute the archival masters. The recordings are of Dene elders and other residents of the Nahanni area. The textual material includes correspondence and some transcribed material from the project. People interviewed include Elsie Marcellais, George Matou, Charlie Yohin, Harry Tesou, Joe Koniseta, Ted Trindell, Laura Vital and Philip Howard.

This fonds consists of 69 black and white photographs that were either taken, or collected, by Reverend T.J. Marsh between 1893 and 1907. There is also a photocopy of a monograph entitled "Historical Sketch of the Origin and Work of the Hay River Mission, Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories." Most of the images are stored in two photograph albums. The first album contains images taken by Reverend Marsh between 1893 and 1907. The second album contains photographs taken by C.W. Mathers, a professional photographer from Edmonton, who toured the Mackenzie River communities in 1901. There are also some loose images taken by Reverend Marsh. The images depict traditional Dene and Inuit lifestyles in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Subjects include mooseskin boats, scows, dog teams, skin tents and kayaks. Many of the images document the development of St. Peter's Anglican Mission at Hay River. There are photographs of the church, boarding school, mission staff and the students who attended the school. A number of images depict Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) posts and the steamers and scows that were used by the Hudson's Bay Company to transport goods in the north. Locations include Fort Good Hope, Fort McPherson, Fort Norman, Fort Providence, Fort Simpson, Hay River and Peel River. The records have been arranged into three series: Series I - Reverend T.J. Marsh photograph album; Series II - C.W. Mathers album; Series III - Reverend T.J. Marsh.

This fonds consists of 368 colour slides taken by Dr. Hunt between 1948 and 1956. The images were taken in the communities he visited in his capacity as a dentist. Communities depicted include Aklavik, Fort Rae, Fort Resolution, Fort McPherson, Fort Simpson, Tuktoyaktuk, Wrigley, Fort Smith, Coppermine and Old Crow. The images depict residents and buildings in these communities. Buildings depicted include Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachments, Hudson's Bay Company posts, Anglican Churches and Roman Catholic Churches. The fonds also includes images of Gwich'in, Dogrib, Inuvialuit, and Slavey peoples. There are some images of Inuvialuit dancers and drummers. A number of images were taken in Dr. Hunt's dental office and include close-ups of his dental equipment. There are also a number of images of reindeer herding and reindeer corrals in the Mackenzie Delta, and a buffalo hunt in Wood Buffalo National Park.

This fonds consists of one photocopy of a typed manuscript written by Gwendoline Tremain-Runyard between 1976 and 1988 and 89 copy negatives that were reproduced from an album compiled by Lottie Tremain, during her stay in the Northwest Territories between 1914 and 1919. The photographs document the three Anglican Missions that Reverend W.S. Tremain worked at: Fort Norman, Fort Simpson, and Hay River. The images relate primarily to the mission buildings in each community, and the staff and pupils of St. Peter's Anglican Residential School at Hay River. Some photographs depict Anglican missionaries who visited these communities. In addition, there are images of the "S.S. Mackenzie River", and some of canoes, scows, mooseskin boats, and tugs that plied the Mackenzie River. There are also some images of Dene camps. The manuscript gives a brief history of her family, however, Gwendoline has advised the NWT Archives that later research has made her aware of inaccuracies in that history.

This fonds consists of 14 audio cassettes and 2 VHS videocassettes containing interviews with elders that resulted from the Snare Lake Education Committee's efforts to gather information for a handbook on cultural programming for use in the school. The elders interviewed during February 1992 were: Harry Kodzin, Margaret Lafferty, Marie Simpson, Jimmy Kodzin, Rosa Fish, Celine Wanazah, Rosa Pea'a, Alexis Arrowmaker, Madeline Judas, Louis Whane, Joe Pea'a, Roger Arrowmaker, Leonard Fish, Charlie Eyakfwo and Joe Dryneck. Activities and topics discussed include: Easter in the past, survival in the bush, making camp, Tlicho (Dogrib) food preparation, Tlicho (Dogrib) social life and customs, hunting and butchering caribou, traditional tools and constructing a drum. Some interviews with John Pea'a on cultural inclusion and religious instruction were conducted in 1989 and collected for this project.

This accession consists of a video of what appears to be a cultural program held in Lutselk'e in 1991 and possibly in the years following, up to 1994. The video features Chipewyan children being instructed in various activities on the land such as mending fish nets, tanning hides, and butchering caribou. The 'Adopt An Elder' portion of the video may have been a form of mentorship program.