Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories (Courtesy, RWED)
Fort Resolution lies on the southeast shore of Great Slave Lake, a few kilometres west of the Slave River delta. Deninu Kue, its traditional name, means Moose Deer Island1. It is part of the Akaitcho Territory Government, or Treaty 8 Land Claims area. Today, approximately 550 people live in the community—over 90% of them are Chipewyan.
Fort Resolution is the oldest community in the Northwest Territories. In the 1820s, it had a considerably larger population than it has today, along with more commercial and social enterprises.
The Northwest Company set up a trading post on the Slave River delta in 1786. A few years later it was moved to Moose Deer Island southwest of the delta. The Hudson Bay Company also had a post there. When the two companies amalgamated in 1821, the post was called Fort Resolution. In 1890, St. Joseph’s Mission House also moved there and, in 1913, the RCMP set up a detachment. In 1938-39, a hospital was built to treat people with tuberculosis, but patients were eventually transferred to Edmonton and the hospital closed.
1 Moose Deer Island is actually a small, uninhabited island visible from Fort Resolution.