Tlicho Nation - Northwest Territories, Canada

A couple of weeks ago, I watched a show on the History Channel called Save Our History, and this particular episode was about the Tlicho Nation in Canada. Through a document with the Canadian government called Treaty Eleven, the Tlicho peoples gave up a majority of their land, and thereafter, they were moved into areas that I believe were owned by the Canadian government, and many of the children were forced to attend Canadian schools. In addition, older Tlicho took formal jobs and began to assimilate into white culture. Much like many other indigenous communities, their culture and use of the native language dwindled a bit due to the assimilation. One of the prominent chiefs, Jimmy Bruneau, was the first to fight for a Tlicho school to be built so that the culture and language could be revived, and he is responsible for the saying that guides the philosophy of many Tlicho now: "Strong like two people." This meant that the people would need to survive in the increasingly modern world while remaining Tlicho and holding onto their identity as such; in other words, to strike a balance between the modern and the traditional. As I said, this guides much of what is taught in the schools now, and there has been a recent surge in teaching Tlicho language and culture to the younger generations. In 1992, the fight to get back the lost land began, and in 2005, the Tlicho Agreement gave the people full control of 15,000 square miles of land that they had lost as a result of Treaty Eleven, and also the right to self-government. Instruction in the native Tlicho language was implemented in all schools, and the younger generations began to learn more and more about their native culture. The idea is to teach the younger generation to cope with modern society while maintaining their identity as native Tlicho. In addition to language, the kids learn drumming and hand games, which are a popular pasttime among the Tlicho. Many of the high schoolers interviewed in the show indicated that there are a lot of temptations that make their way into the community, such as drugs and alcohol, which has been a huge challenge for many of them. Their identity as Tlicho has proven extremely important, and it is something that they want to make sure to pass on to their own children and grandchildren, and on down the line. In addition to culture and language learned in school, the younger students learn to live off the land during Trails of Our Ancestors, the annual Tlicho canoe journey. While on the journey, the younger generations learn to hunt and survive off the land ("to live outside the comforts of increasingly modern homes"), and they also learn where and how their ancestors lived and where they themselves come from. This relates to class because it involves both language revitalization and canoe journey, and illustrates how both of these, along with learning about cultural practices and traditions, factor into how Native Americans (or Canadians) identify themselves in the modern world.

http://www.history.com/content/tlicho
There is more information about the Tlicho at the above link, as well as a link to the page for the episode that I watched.

Courtney Russell