
People & Culture
Kahkiihtwaam ee-pee-kiiweehtataahk: Bringing it back home again
The story of how a critically endangered Indigenous language can be saved
- 6310 words
- 26 minutes
People & Culture
“In the Northwest Territories, we look at fur as an industry that provides local people with an income,” says Francois Rossouw, manager of fur marketing and traditional economy for the territorial government. That’s certainly true in Colville Lake, a tiny settlement about 745 kilometres northwest of Yellowknife. One of the most traditional First Nations communities in the territory, its economy relies mainly on trapping, hunting and fishing.
In October, trappers journey into the bush to set their line of quick-kill traps, a more humane way of trapping that the territory adopted in the mid-1990s. Come December, they collect their bounty and return to Colville Lake to prepare the fur for auction.
The furs are inspected, and each trapper is paid an advance per pelt — they receive more money after the auctions, which are held in January, February, May and June in North Bay, Ont., and Seattle. Meanwhile, Rossouw documents each pelt in a database, a record that helps ensure the harvest remains sustainable. “In our mind,” he says, “trappers are an endangered species, and we do our best to make sure they can still operate.”
People & Culture
The story of how a critically endangered Indigenous language can be saved
History
A look back at the early years of the 350-year-old institution that once claimed a vast portion of the globe
People & Culture
In this essay, noted geologist and geophysicist Fred Roots explores the significance of the symbolic point at the top of the world. He submitted it to Canadian Geographic just before his death in October 2016 at age 93.
Wildlife
An estimated annual $175-billion business, the illegal trade in wildlife is the world’s fourth-largest criminal enterprise. It stands to radically alter the animal kingdom.