The People of Denendeh

This impressive collection brings together the results of June Helm’s fifty years of studying the culture and ethnohistory of the Dene, Athapaskan-speaking Indians of the Mackenzie River drainage of the western subarctic. In addition to her previously published essays – with updated commentary where necessary – The People of Denendeh includes unpublished field notes, archival documents, supplementary essays and notes from collaborators, and narratives by the Dene themselves. Helm begins with a broad-ranging, stimulating overview of the social organization of hunter-gatherer peoples of the world, past and present, that provides a background for all she has learned about the Dene. The chapters in part one focus on community and daily life among the Mackenzie Dene in the middle of the twentieth century. After two historical overview chapters, part two moves from the early years of the twentieth century to the earliest contacts between Dene and white culture, ending with a look at the momentous changes in Dene-government relations in the 1970s. Part three considers traditional Dene knowledge, meaning, and enjoyments, including a chapter on the Dogrib hand game. Throughout, Helm’s encyclopedic knowledge combines with her personal interactions to create a collection that is unique in its breadth and intensity. The People of Denendeh will be of interest to those studying North American Indians, hunter-gatherers, and subarctic ethnohistory and provides a historical resource for the people of all ethnicities who live in Denendeh, Land of the Dene.

For fifty years anthropologist June Helm studied the culture and ethnohistory of the Dene – the People – the Athapaskan-speaking Indians of the Mackenzie River drainage of Canada’s western subarctic. In The People of Denendeh she brings together previously published essays – with updated commentaries where necessary – unpublished fieldnotes, archival documents, supplementary essays and notes from collaborators, and narratives by the Dene themselves.

“June Helm’s fifty-year retrospective of Dene life is a landmark in northern scholarly literature, as well as a splendid token of her esteem for these extraordinary people. The breadth and depth of knowledge contained in this book are truly amazing – a tour de force from one of anthropology’s most respected scholars.” Robert R. Janes, founding director of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre and adjunct professor of archaeology at the University of Calgary “The People of Denendeh is an exciting book. It is certain to become a valuable overview of and sourcebook on the history, society, and culture of the Mackenzie drainage Athapaskans, or Dene, especially the Slaveys and Dogribs, among whom Helm has devoted decades of innovative field research.” Robert Jarvenpa, author of Northern Passage: Ethnography and Apprenticeship among the Subarctic Dene

June Helm is professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Iowa, past president of the American Anthropological Association, and editor of The Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 6: Subarctic. In the 1970s she served as adviser on land cl