Tsiigehtchic ( ; "mouth of the iron river"), officially the ''Charter Community of Tsiigehtchic'', is a Gwich'in community located at the confluence of the

Mackenzie Mackenzie, Mckenzie, MacKenzie, or McKenzie may refer to: People * Mackenzie (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Mackenzie (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * Clan Mackenzie, a Sco ...

and the

Arctic Red River The Arctic Red River is a tributary to the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories, Canada. In 1993 the river was designated as part of the Canadian Heritage Rivers System. It was also the name of a community on the Mackenzie where the r ...

s, in the

Inuvik Region The Inuvik Region or ''Beaufort Delta Region'' is one of five administrative regions in the Northwest Territories of Canada. According to Municipal and Community Affairs the region consists of eight communities with the regional office situate ...

of the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

, Canada. The community was formerly known as ''Arctic Red River'', until 1 April 1994. The

Gwichya Gwich'in First Nation The Gwichya Gwich'in First Nation is a Gwich'in First Nations in Canada, First Nations band government in the Northwest Territories. The band is located in Tsiigehtchic, a small, predominantly Gwich'in community on the Arctic Red River. The Gwich ...

is located in Tsiigehtchic.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Tsiigehtchic had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. In 2016, 130 people identified as

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

and 10 as

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

. However, only 5 people said that an Indigenous language ( Gwich’in) was their

mother tongue A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

Transportation

The

Dempster Highway The Dempster Highway, also referred to as Yukon Highway 5 and Northwest Territories Highway 8, is a highway in Canada that connects the Klondike Highway in Yukon to Inuvik, Northwest Territories on the Mackenzie River delta. The highway crosses ...

, NWT Highway 8, crosses the Mackenzie River at Tsiigehtchic. During winter, vehicle traffic is over the ice, during the rest of the year, traffic is carried by the ferry MV ''Louis Cardinal''. The ferry stops at Tsiigehtchic, on the eastern bank of the Arctic Red River, and on the southwestern and northeastern banks of the Mackenzie River, connecting the two legs of the Dempster Highway. The community is one of the few in the NWT not to be served by a permanent airport. Panorama Tsiigehtchic

Steppe bison carcass

In early September 2007, near Tsiigehtchic, local resident Shane Van Loon discovered a carcass of a

steppe bison The steppe bisonSeveral literatures address the species as ''primeval bison''. or steppe wisent (''Bison'' ''priscus'')
– Y ...

, which was

radiocarbon Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and coll ...

dated to c. 13,650

cal Cal or CAL may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Cal'' (novel), a 1983 novel by Bernard MacLaverty * "Cal" (short story), a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov * ''Cal'' (1984 film), an Irish drama starring John Lynch and Helen Mir ...

BP. This carcass appears to represent the first

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

mummified soft tissue remains from the glaciated regions of northern Canada (Zazula et al. 2009).

References

External links

Tsiigehtchic
at the Gwich'in Social and Cultural Institute {{Communities of Northwest Territories Charter communities in the Northwest Territories Communities in the Inuvik Region Populated places in Arctic Canada

Demographics

Transportation

Steppe bison carcass

See also

References

Further reading

External links