The people who call themselves Dene Dhaa, a group of the Athapaskan-speaking Natives of northwestern Canada known as the Slave or Slavey Indians, now number about one thousand and occupy three reserves in northwestern Alberta. Because their settlements were until recently widely dispersed and isolated, they have maintained their language and traditions more successfully than most other Indian groups. This collection of their stories, recorded in the Dene language with literal interlinear English glosses and in a free English translation, represents a major contribution to the documentation of the Dene language, ethnography, and folklore.
Patrick J. Moore is a linguist with the Yukon Native Language Centre; Angela Wheelock is a freelance writer.