DOGRIB

also called Thlingchadinne, a group of Athabascan-speaking Indian tribes inhabiting the forested and barren-ground areas between the Great Bear and Great Slave lakes in northwestern Canada. The name is an English adaptation of their own name, Thlingchadinne, or Dog-flank People, referring to their fabled descent from a supernatural dog-man. Traditionally, the Dogrib fished and hunted, subsisting chiefly on barren-ground caribou, which were trapped or speared. Their usual habitation was a skin-covered tepee, although in the hard winters they sometimes built wooden and brush-covered lodges. Their social organization consisted of many independent, loosely led bands, each with its own territory. Dogrib women enjoyed generally better status than those of other northern tribes (compare Chipewyan), but the aged and infirm were often cast off to die. The chief enemies of the Dogrib were the Cree, Chipewyan, and Yellowknife; the Yellowknife they eventually massacred in raids in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Dogrib remained relatively isolated until the mid-20th century, when improved transportation and communication facilities brought them into greater contact with other parts of Canada. In the late 20th century the Dogrib numbered about 1,200.