Map of Gwich’in Settlement Region — adapted from map included in The Gwich’in Land Use
Plan – Nan’ Geenjit Gwitr’it T’igwaa’in: Working for the Land, August 2003. Map by Signy
Fridriksson. (Thompson and Kritsch, 2005: 10)
The Gwich’in are one of the most northerly indigenous peoples in North America; only the Inuit
live farther north. In anthropological terms, the
Gwich’in are part of a larger family of indigenous
people known as Athabaskans, which includes
the Slavey, Tłįchǫ (Dogrib), Han, and Tutchone
peoples, plus relatives such as the Navajo and
Apache in the United States.
At the time of contact the Gwich’in lived in nine
different bands, with lands stretching across the
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subarctic region of North America. In the Northwest Territories, the Gwich’in, with a population
around 3,400, now live primarily in the communities of Fort McPherson, Tsiigehtchic, Aklavik
and Inuvik. Close cultural and family ties are
still maintained with relatives in the Yukon and
Alaska, and together the Gwich’in Nation totals
9,000 people in 15 communities. Hunting, fishing,
and trapping remain important both culturally and
economically, with caribou, moose, and whitefish
being staples of the diet.