Sayisi Dene - Churchill Re-location

Churchill Re-location

In the mid 20th century, caribou dwindled from approximately 670,000 animals in 1942 to 277,000 animals by 1955. According to the Manitoba Government, the decision to relocate the Dene community at Duck Lake was due to incorrect assumptions from Manitoba wildlife officials about the impact of the Dene's traditional hunting practices on what was in fact a healthy herd. In addition the Hudson's Bay Company wished to close its nearby post which had served the band and was not as financially lucrative as it once was. In 1956 the Canadian and Manitoba governments decided to relocate the Duck Lake Dene away from caribou lands to Churchill, Manitoba where other Chipewyan Dene were located. For a decade, the Little Duck Lake band, now a part of the "Churchill Band of Caribou-eater Chipewyan", lived in tents and shanties on the outskirts of town. Around 1967, the Canadian government developed a housing project for them called "Dene Village". But the transition from a traditional nomadic caribou hunting economy to a non-migratory urban life was unsuccessful: as much as a third of the "Churchill Chipewyan" population died as a direct result of the relocation to Churchill.