Saskatchewan, Dene -- Saskatchewan -- History, Dene -- Folklore, Dene -- Saskatchewan -- Interviews, Oral history, Dene, Elders (Indigenous leaders) -- Saskatchewan -- Interviews, Elders (Indigenous leaders) -- Saskatchewan, Elders (Indigenous leaders) 

"The stories and memories in this publication were lost for over twenty years. They are the words of the Dene Elders from what is called Saskatchewan's Far North - the communities of Wollaston Lake, Fond du Lac, Black Lake, Stony Rapids and Uranium City.

For most of the people in this isolated region, caribou is still the lifegiver. Although no longer nomadic, they continue to follow the cycle of the Beverly and Kaminuriak herds on the hunt, to provide meat to sustain their families for much of the year.

Life in the bush was beginning to disappear when these interviews were recorded in 1978, but the old people bring those times back to life with memories that stretch back over three generations. Humour and tragedy are grounded in a belief system that is strong even today, and to the land that sustained them.

Some of these stories have been passed down for countless generations, telling of the power or Dátsatthí (Crowhead), Zaghal aze and Erelkal, and why the caribou is free. Others tell of the history of the Dene and how they were brought into the fur trade by a woman named Thanadelthur. Captured by the Cree, she was eventually freed and sent north by Hudson Bay Company factor, James Knight, to find her people."--Back cover.