| Tlicho˛` Oral History explores a muskox hunt from the late nineteenth century when a hunter, Ehtsee ts'i?o˛`ehzhaa sii (Grandfather who became lost) became lost and was never found in the barrenland of the Northwest Territories. Interviewed in the Tlicho˛` language, elders and descendents describe the impact of the muskox hunt and the fur trade to Tlicho˛` ancestors who lived in the areas of Nihshiko˛` (Old Fort Rae). Tlicho˛` elders remember the lost hunter and their own challenges of surviving in their traditional territory, which is located between Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake. Using various interdisciplinary methodologies, Indigenous people's ways of understanding, and the Tlicho philosophy, "strong like two people" with the oral tradition of storytelling, I discuss Tlicho˛` people's culture, language, territory and how the story of the lost hunter can bring empowerment to Indigenous people through the process of remembering and reclaiming our stories and voices.;Key words: oral history, oral tradition, traditional knowledge, barrenland, storytelling, elders. |
