The Chipewyan Nation – Social Life
Chipewyan society was organized in small kinship units or bands. Bands consisted of anywhere from
thirty to one-hundred people who camped and hunted together. Chipewyan bands would usually operate
independently of one another, coming together in large numbers for large hunts that would take place
during the spring and autumn caribou migrations. Band leadership was usually comprised of the best
hunters in a Chipewyan camp. Though these leaders were considered the chiefs of their respective bands,
Chipewyan society did not have a clear class of nobility from which leadership was drawn. Leaders were
chosen based on individual merit.
Ceremonies and rites of passage were rare in Chipewyan social. Children were born with the help of
the older women from the band, but the demands of nomadic life kept the ceremony of birth to a
minimum. Chipewyan children learned about their place in Chipewyan society under the guidance and
tutelage of their parents. Labour in the Chipewyan camp was divided along gender lines, so by the
pre-adolescent to adolescent years, Chipewyan boys were learning to be the hunters and warriors of the
camp, while girls were learning the skills necessary to maintain the camp.
Boys were considered of marriageable age once they became successful hunters, which usually occurred
somewhere between the ages of twenty and twenty-five. Girls were considered for marriage after they
reached puberty. Consequently, there was often an age gap between Chipewyan husbands and wives.
Marriages were often arranged by the parents of the prospective bride and groom, with successful
hunters considered the most eligible. A young couple would usually live with the parents of the bride —
the groom being obligated to hunt for his in-laws — until the birth of the couple’s first child, after
which time the couple could spend time with the groom’s family as well. Kinship ties among the
Chipewyan were close, and a groom was expected to have a close working relationship with the brothers
of his bride.
The Elders of the Chipewyan were afforded great respect, and were looked to as sources of knowledge
and wisdom. If however, the elderly or ill were seen as a threat to the survival of the band, they were
at times abandoned; although this appears to have been practiced only in extreme situations, and it was
seen as a time of great sorrow if such measures were necessary. The dead were left to the elements,
their bodies and earthly possessions abandoned with them by the rest of the camp.
Sources:
Malinowski, Sharon and Anna Sheets, eds., “Chipewyan.”
The Gale Encyclopedia of North American
Tribes, Vol. III. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.
Smith, James G.E. “Chipewyan,” in DeMallie, Raymond J. Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 6.
Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 2001.