Tsiigehtchic (Arctic Red River), a native Gwich'in hamlet in the Canadian Arctic

This time we are in the Northwest Territories of the Canadian Arctic.

Tsiigehtchic (="mouth of the iron river") is a native village on the banks of the Mackenzie River, where it is joined by the tributary Arctic Red River. This is a strategic point on the Dempster Highway, the great northern highway to Inuvik; here the crossing of the river is still done by ferry.

The natives of this region are the Gwich'in people, belonging to the Athabascan family (Navajo, Apache), with a traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

The first contact with the Gwich'in people was made by the British officer and explorer John Franklin in 1825. Over the next 150 years, traders, missionaries, prospectors and others followed; the village was founded in 1868 around a Catholic Mission; some years later, in 1902, Hudson Bay Co. also built an outpost there.

Tsiigehtchic (Arctic Red River) , NWT Canada

Coordinates: 67° 26′N, 133° 44′W

                   (165 km north of the Arctic Circle)

Population: ~170

Located at the confluence of the two rivers, perched high above the bank, Tsiigehtchic is also worth noting for its setting.

The Catholic Mission was made up of two churches from 1895-1896, facing each other. The present day buildings, a church and a chapel, are later buildings from the 1920's.

Some of the main buildings:

General view; the Community Office is the blue house (centre).

'Tsii' has a post office, a school, a sports hall, an administrative office and a grocery store. The small health center has an itinerant nurse who stays for a month in the winter.

Local trade focuses on the Northern warehouse, a two storey buliding.

Trapper's Store and Post Office are installed at Northern building.

Children with popsicles they bought at Trapper's.

There are just over 170 inhabitants, who still follow a traditional way of life of hunting and fishing with traps. Many of them go away for long months, “out in the lands”, as they always have.

The Basic Health Unit.

Chief Paul Niditchie school

School students learning survival in the wilderness.

Gwich'in Community Administration.

In winter the rivers usually freeze and can be crossed by marked ice roads.

The Dempster Highway Ferry Crossing

The Dempster Highway is 740 km long on dirt road, between Dawson City and Inuvik, and reaches the Arctic Ocean after crossing the Yukon and the NWT, crossing the Polar Circle and offering unique scenery of open spaces and remote beauty. Split by the Mackenzie river, only a ferry crossing allows the connection. 

Its course runs on both the other river banks with a possible connection to Tsiigehtchic.

The Louis Cardinal ferry 

In winter the Mackenzie forms a solid frozen road to the Arctic Ocean. Inuvik, the terminus of the road, is then a two-hour drive away.

The road ends near Tuktoyaktuk, by the Arctic Ocean.