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Tuesday October 6 2015 9 FIRE PREVENTION WEEK HEAR THE BEEP WHERE YOU SLEEP EVERY BEDROOM NEEDS A WORKING SMOKE ALARM. THE HAY RIVER FIRE DEPARTMENT will be conducting school visits to talk about fire prevention smoke alarms escape routes and more. What were trying to do here is correct that history Sangris continued. It only makes sense to do a history of who we are because the population in the city of Yellowknife is encroaching on the lands and areas that the Yellowknives Dene use. Many people includ- ing the visitors the tourists that come here have no idea that theres indigenous or Ab- original people living there. Sangris worked with local elder Mary Rose Sundberg to gather other elders from the re- gion in an effort to piece together the ele- ments of the exhibit and ultimately their cultural history. We want to be able to expose who we are and how we lived here from the beginning of time up to thousands of years ago he said. We talk about the tree on the Yellow- knife River it was related to a man called Yamashaa. He was a living legend thou- sands of years ago in the time of the giant beavers thats the beginning of our story. The elders have been telling us these sto- ries since I was a child and Im almost 60 years old. Efforts to compile sources for the exhibit ofcially began about two years ago however Sangris noted preserving the Yellowknives history became a real priority as far back as 1972 when elders started recording their sto- ries audibly. Transcripts of these recordings informed much of the exhibit. Dene on display in new Prince of Wales exhibit 40 is among the artifacts on display seen here Kevin OReilly and Bobby Drygeese. You have to do research you have to go through church records you have to go and look at treaty records you have to read the records of the old people where theyre bur- ied their history their stories Sangris said. It was a lot of going back and forth and a lot of research. It wasnt like walking into a library when you nd a book and every- thing is there. In addition to their knowledge some of the contributing elders shared their most prized possessions donating tools clothing and other items that had been passed down through the generations to show at the exhibit. Tying the whole display together is a map listing all of the Dene villages - as many as 27 - that formerly occupied the region before a devastating u and colonial practices wiped out many of the people starting in 1928. The graphic includes traditional names of other landmarks - like the many lakes of the North Slave - all recorded in the Weledeh language a mix of Dogrib and Chipewyan. The exhibit will be housed in the PWNHC for the next three years. This is one of our rst engagements with the Prince of Wales museum Sangris said. Because were the indigenous people that lived around Yellowknife Bay before the arrival of Europeans were going to probably do more exhibits like this in the future to talk about the land and the histories around this area. PhotosBillBraden welcomes guests at the opening of the new cultural exhibit. Elder Mary Louise Drygeese front and Madeline Beaulieu offer tobacco for the feeding the re ceremony. Fred Sangris left said the ceremony was to honour the many artifacts and animals housed at the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre.