Dogrib People

Dogrib People

The Tłı̨chǫ First Nation, formerly known as the Dogrib, are a Dene Aboriginal Canadian people living in the Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada. The name Dogrib is an English adaptation of their own name, Tłįchǫ Done (or Thlingchadinne) - “Dog-Flank People”, referring to their fabled descent from a supernatural dog-man. Like their Dene neighbours they called themselves oft simply Done (“person”, “human”) or Done Do (“People, i.e. Dene People”). To the land they were living on and from, they were deeply connected which is illustrated in their name for it - Ndé (or Dé, Né)

There are now six settlements with Dogrib populations or mostly of Dogrib background: Behchoko (formerly Rae-Edzo), Whati (Lac la Martre), Gameti (Rae Lakes), Wekweeti (Snare Lake), Dettah, and N'Dilo (a subcommunity of Yellowknife, known by the Tłįchǫ as Somba K'e - "where the money is").

The Tłįchǫ Yatiì or Dogrib language belongs to the Athabaskan languages which are part of the Na-Dené languages family. The dialect spoken in the communities of Dettah and N'Dilo developed from intermarriage between Yellowknives and Tłįchǫ.