Athabasca Denesuline Lands

The tools found at archaeological sites are primarily for hunting caribou, illustrating just how important the caribou are to our survival. Today we continue to exercise our traditional way of life including hunting, fishing, trapping and gathering the same resources our ancestors did.

Black Lake, Fond du Lac and Hatchet Lake First Nations communities comprise the Athabasca Denesuline. Our traditional lifestyle revolves around the Beverly-Qamanirjuaq caribou herds. As such, our traditional territory is synonymous with the range of the Beverly Qamanirjuaq caribou herds in Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

We have lived off the land and resources for over 2,600 years and today we continue to exercise our traditional way of life including hunting, fishing, trapping and gathering. The caribou were what first brought our ancestors into this region and they are what keep us here now. In the old days we were called Edthen-Eldelie, or Caribou-eater Chipewyan.

We have two major projects ongoing:

1. The Athabasca Denesuline Negotiations Team (ADNT) dealing with a clarification of our rights north of the 60th parallel.
   
   
2. The Athabasca Interim Land Use Panel (ALUP), which is developing a land use plan for our territory with the Province of Saskatchewan.
   Click here to read more about ALUP's Vision

The Athabasca Denesuline aim to be the leader in the sustainable development of the land and resources within our traditional territory. As such, we are engaged in a number of land use and protected area planning and management initiatives.