Talking Map
Since 1992, the Gwich'in Social and Cultural Institute has been working with Gwich'in elders to build an inventory of heritage sites within the Gwich'in Settlement Region (GSR) through a traditional land use study using oral history and ethno-archaeological research. The oral history research has documented this knowledge and use of the land, by recording place names and associated stories, trails, traditional camp sites, graves, historic sites, harvesting locales, and sacred or legendary places.
To date, GSCI has recorded approximately 900 named places for the Gwich'in Settlement Region. There are two ways to explore and view Gwich’in place names. The first is an interactive cybercartographic map. This map allows the user to zoom in and out, click on names to read more information and see associated photos, and conduct searches. Downloadable place names maps are also available from the atlas.
The second way to explore and view Gwich’in place names is the "talking place name map," below. About 30 of the named places from our research are included, along three major rivers in the Gwich'in Settlement Region – Nagwichoonjik (Mackenzie River), Teetł’it Gwinjik (Peel River), and Tsiigehnjik (Arctic Red River). Through reading about the places along these rivers, long used as travel routes, you can learn more about the history and culture of the Gwich'in. Click on a river’s name to see the location of the places in the small map, and more information about each name below.
The Gwich’in name refers to the head of a summer trail up the Rat River which leads into the mountains where people hunted caribou and moose. It was the farthest point that people could travel by...
This place name refers to an old village site that came into existence in the early 20th C. when muskrat trapping became a lucrative activity. At one point, more than forty families lived in the...
This name refers to an area which includes a small community of fish camps 8 miles from Fort McPherson and a stream upriver from there, which for many centuries was one of the favourite fishing...
This name refers to a rock formation that sits on top of a hill overlooking the Peel River, upriver from Fort McPherson. It is one of the most sacred places in the Teetl’it Gwich’in traditional...
Just upstream from here, on the left bank of the Peel River is the location of one of two monuments to the Royal North West Mounted Police “Lost Patrol.” The two monuments commemorate the places...
The Gwich’in had many trails throughout their lands. One of the oldest and most important traditional trails for the Teetł'it Gwich’in was Trail River which led to Caribou Mountain, and the...
This Gwich’in place name is associated with a legendary story. During the early days of the land, a giant hairy worm (snake) came out of the ocean, travelled up the Mackenzie River and into the...
