Dene name: Deh Cho, meaning 'big river'
Current official name: Mackenzie, after explorer Alexander Mackenzie
Source: Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories
Mouth: Arctic Ocean
Direction of flow: north
Length : 1,730 kilometres
Main Characteristic: transportation route to the western Arctic.

PEOPLE WHO LIVE AND WORK along the Mackenzie River adopt their sense of direction from the river which flows from south to north. Consequently, they speak of 'going up south' and 'going down north.'

Canadians living above the Arctic Circle say that, for them, the usual maps of Canada seem to be upside down. Unlike the majority of Canadians who live along the country's southern fringe, northerners must turn south to face the rest of their country. For them, north should be at the bottom of the map, and south at the top.
Nothing symbolizes this inside-out view from the North more than the great Mackenzie River. Southern Canadians are accustomed to the idea of ships traveling up river from the sea towards the river's source to bring goods to inland communities. But in Canada's western Arctic, the opposite is true.

Vessels set out from the source of the Mackenzie River and head downstream to distribute essential supplies to scattered communities along the shores of the Arctic Ocean.

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Until about 70 years ago, the Inuit and other Native peoples of the far north relied on only their skills as hunters. Missing a herd of migrating caribou could mean starvation for a hunter's family.

As the Canadian government reached north to establish its sovereignty, it encouraged the nomadic Native populations to collect in permanent settlements where they could be supplied with food, education, and medical care. Unfortunately, the government often forced Inuit families to settle on Arctic islands well north of their natural food supplies.

They were forced into a life dependent on supplies from the south. In the western Northwest Territories, this meant dependence on the short summer navigation season of the Mackenzie River.

Today, roads and air service can bring fresh food and lightweight goods to the northern communities. But, for heavy freight such as fuel for heating, boats, snowmobiles, and even houses, the people still depend on the barges that travel north down the Mackenzie during summer.

Because the river channel is shallow, freight is carried on flat-bottom barges pushed, not pulled, by shallow-draft tugboats. As many as 15 barges are lashed together in a 'train' pushed by a single tug. The barge trains are uncoupled at Tuktoyaktuk, the only natural harbour on the western coast of the Arctic Ocean. 'Tuk' as it is called by Northerners, is located at the end of the Mackenzie's wide delta.

At Tuktoyaktuk, the barges are uncoupled and moved by ocean-going tugboats to Inuit communities in the high Arctic.

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The Mackenzie River is a lifeline for peoples of five distinct cultures. The Inuit are the majority in settlements on the Arctic islands. The Inuvialuit are descendants of Inuit and European parents and populate the mainland Arctic coast. The Dene are an Indian nation that live along the Mackenzie River valley. The Métis are of mixed non-Inuit Native and European parentage. The fifth recognized group are 'others,' non-Native Canadians who moved north from southern Canada to seek work and enjoy a northern way of life.

It was only two centuries ago that the first European travelled down the river from Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. Fur trader Alexander Mackenzie had thought his long journey down the river would end in the Pacific Ocean. Instead, he ended up on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Despite Mackenzie's mistake and disappointment, the river was renamed in his honour by Canada's European colonizers.

Northern Native peoples still know the river as the Deh Cho, or 'Big River.'

The most important characteristic of Canada's far north today is the transfer of political and economic power to Native peoples. The fast-paced story of the transfer of wealth and power to Native peoples can be seen in the changes in the shipping traffic down the Mackenzie.

In the 1970s, the river was suddenly busy with long barge trains carrying drill pipe to the big international energy companies seeking oil and gas lying under the Arctic Ocean and under the bed of the Mackenzie River itself.

The companies wanted to build a pipeline down the valley of the Mackenzie River to bring the gas and oil to southern markets. Native communities feared the pipeline would interfere with the migration of the caribou herds. The caribou remains for Native communities an important source of food and the hunt is an essential, defining event of their cultures.

A special inquiry by Judge Thomas Berger concluded in 1977 that construction of a pipeline would be possible, but only after settlement of the Native peoples' claims for land over which they would have the right of ownership. The Native peoples and the federal government agreed to a land claims settlement in 1984.

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Native-owned lands cover the entire Mackenzie River delta and much of the oil-rich Beaufort Sea area of the Arctic Ocean. The land claim settlement means that any future energy development or pipeline can be done only with the consent of the Native peoples.

The death of the plan for a pipeline also killed the boom in oil exploration and transportation of drilling equipment on the Mackenzie. The long trains of barges carrying heavy equipment and drill pipes for the oil companies were no more. Several barge companies went of business.

As part of the land claims settlement, in 1985 the Inuvialuit purchased the Canadian government shipping company that serves the Mackenzie. The Northern Transportation Company, Ltd. is now owned equally by the Inuvialuit of the western Northwest Territories and the Inuit of Nunavut, the new territory to be formed from the eastern Northwest Territories.

Control of the shipping company is one way in which Native peoples are recovering their self-sufficiency and gaining greater control over their lives.

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