Description
The Beaver are an American Indian group numbering about nine hundred located in northeast British Columbia and northwest Alberta in Canada. They are closely related to the Sekani, their neighbors to the west. Today, the Beaver reside in the same area, on or near the Prophet River, Beaton River, Doig River, Blueberry River, and West Moberly Lake reserves in British Columbia and the Child Lake, Boyer, Clear Hills, and Horse Lakes Reserves in Alberta. In the early 18th century they were driven westward into that area by the expanding Cree, who, armed with guns, were exploiting the European fur trade. The name Beaver derives from the Indian name for their main site, Tsades, or River of Beavers, now called the Peace River.
Language
Dane-zaa, known in the language as Dane-zaa, formerly known as Beaver, is an Athabascan language of western Canada.
Culture
They were led by shamans called “dreamers.” The Beaver lived in skin-covered tepees in winter and brush-covered tepees or lean-tos in summer, and they traveled mainly by canoe. At least, that is how they lived when first encountered by Europeans, after they had adopted many cultural elements of the Cree. he Beaver were nomadic hunter-gatherers. Beaver was the most important game, first as the basic food and later for both food and the fur trade. In accordance with the nomadic way of life, band composition was flexible, with the bilaterally extended family the basic social and economic unit. Early contacts with Whites included involvement in the fur trade and Roman Catholic missionaries.