Until 1778, when French traders began trading in the
vicinity of Lake Athabasca, the Slavey probably did not trade directly
with Europeans, but through Chipewyan middlemen who travelled yearly to
Hudson's Bay. In order to acquire trade goods they had to change
their whole pattern of subsistence to one adapted to trapping. As
they were fairly remote from trading posts, they were pretty much left
alone until the 1860s, when Bishop Bompas, an Anglican missionary, visited
the tribes along the Mackenzie in 1865. The Oblates came a few years
later.
When the Treaty 8 commission travelled to Fort Vermilion
in 1899, the Slaveys decided not to attend. Several representatives
of Slavey bands did sign Treaty 8 in 1900 and several others in
1902. At the time of these negotiations, a total of 1,323 Slaveys
were admitted to the treaty. The estimate of pre-contact populations was
around 1,250. Exposure to white man's diseases soon depleted the
population, especially following an influenza epidemic around Fort
Norman. They too, like the Beaver, were thought to be on the way to
extinction. Their population had decreased to about 800, but rallied
after health care and modern medicines became available following the
Second World War. By 1983, the population had increased to
4,081.
In Alberta there are four reserves, all located in the
northwest corner of Alberta on the Upper Hay River. Many Slaveys
work in forest-related industries and in the oilpatch around the
communities of High Level, Zama City, and Rainbow Lake.
Reprinted from "A Sense of the
Peace," by Roberta Hursey with permission of the Spirit of the Peace
Museums Association and the author. |