Saoyú-ʔehdacho National Historic Site

In one of the most isolated parts of North America stands one of the most sacred and significant sites in the Northwest Territories. Saoyú-ʔehdacho is the largest National Historic Site in Canada. It’s made up of two peninsulas on Great Bear Lake: Saoyú (saw-you-eh or “grizzly bear mountain”) and ʔehdacho (aa-daa-cho or “scented grass hills”). Both feature flat summits several hundred metres above sea level, along with raised beaches containing evidence of human use from over 5,000 years ago.

The park itself is the first of its kind in Canada to be designed in consultation with Indigenous groups and jointly administered by Parks Canada and the Délı̨nę Got’ine Government’.  This sacred land of healing and teaching is very important to the Sahtugot’ine (“the people of the Sahtu”). It’s through this land and the stories that surround it that Elders in Délı̨nę pass on the history, laws, values and skills critical to their way of life.