This First Nation is recruiting its members to do archaeology and prove their oral history is true

Chipewyan Prairie First Nation has taken part successful archaeological digs successful its territory for respective years now, according to Shaun Janvier, manager of Chipewyan Prairie Industry Relations, who says the enactment proves what the community's ever known. 

"The stories that we person are truth. They're not lies. They're not made-up," Janvier said.

"I'm 51 years aged and I person stories that day backmost to my great-great grandfather… Then you bash archeology to find out, and it conscionable proves it." 

Recently, the Dene assemblage 320 kilometres northbound of Edmonton decided to host a tract school. 

Field schoolhouse allows participants to larn the hands-on parts of archaeology, similar excavation and processing artifacts. For the Chipewyan Prairie school, students besides got a week of in-class grooming astatine the assemblage wherever they heard lectures from experts. 

For members of adjacent communities, the process was peculiarly meaningful, Janvier said, due to the fact that of their transportation to onshore and its history. 

"You're uncovering artifacts that your ancestors were there," helium said.

The process began erstwhile assemblage members, on with University of Alberta archaeologists, were researching successful the Winefred Lake area. 

For non-Indigenous archaeologists similar Ave Dersch and William Wadsworth, a PhD candidate who helped pb the tract school, drafting connected Indigenous cognition is simply a cardinal portion of their work.

"Chipewyan Prairie knows their past already, and they cognize that they've ever been there," Dersch said successful an interrogation with CBC Edmonton's Radio Active.

"Almost exclusively arsenic an archaeologist, you're moving connected Indigenous practice context. So we request to besides alteration archaeology to beryllium better," Wadsworth said. 

At Winefred Lake, helium added, they recovered "cultural continuity" of the Dene assemblage dating backmost a fewer 1000 years.

That aligns with what is well-known wrong the community, Janvier said. 

All this led Wadsworth to accidental helium hopes that each First Nation tin person its ain members moving arsenic archaeologists to construe their findings for their ain communities. 

That sentiment is echoed by Eldon Yellowhorn, an archaeologist and prof of Indigenous Studies astatine Simon Fraser University successful Vancouver, who is from the Piikani Nation successful confederate Alberta.

Yellowhorn got his ain commencement successful archaeology doing tract enactment and says digs similar the ones astatine Winefred Lake tin beryllium the starting constituent for radical to statesman world careers. 

"I privation much [Indigenous people] would spell to assemblage and past go archaeologists who volition beryllium capable to marque valid and close claims based connected their probe and their ain taste knowledge," helium said. 

That is simply a important portion of his ain work, Yellowhorn said, arsenic he's been utilizing the stories helium heard increasing up to construe archaeological records. 

"This [traditional knowledge] has each been benignant of dismissed. That it's conscionable myth, and there's nary information to beryllium recovered there," Yellowhorn said. 

He said he's utilized archaeological records to hint traditions — which are often referred to arsenic dating backmost to "time immemorial" — backmost to their apt origins.

Who gets power of what's found

Items discovered during the Chipewyan Prairie tract enactment are being held lone temporarily astatine the University of Alberta Institute for Prairie Indigenous Archeology, Dersch said. 

That is antithetic from what usually happens erstwhile artifacts are uncovered. In Canada, provinces and territories determine what happens with archaelogical artifacts. 

"So successful Alberta, this means listening to the Archeological Survey of Alberta and pursuing the artifacts submission guides by the Royal Alberta Museum [RAM]. Because successful Alberta, everything's going to the RAM," Wadsworth said. 

However, since reserves autumn nether national jurisdiction, First Nations are capable to determine what to bash with artifacts recovered connected reserve land, helium added. 

In this case, the artifacts from Winefred Lake beryllium to Chipewyan Prairie. Janvier said the assemblage plans to unfastened a depository oregon practice centre successful the First Nation oregon successful Fort McMurray, Alta., truthful that each First Nations successful the country person adjacent access. 

Yellowhorn said often provincial rules astir archaeological findings alienate Indigenous radical from their heritage. 

"It has efficaciously enactment a rift betwixt descendant communities and the artifacts that we find successful the ground, due to the fact that present they're saying, since these are resources, they present beryllium to the state and you person nary accidental successful what happens to them," Yellowhorn said.

Yellowhorn said caller onshore claims agreements person tried to code this contented by giving First Nations backmost the power implicit these finds — but that requires each assemblage to code the contented connected an idiosyncratic basis.