This fonds consists of records documenting the activities of the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute from its establishment in 1993 until its transition into the Gwich’in Tribal Council’s Department of Cultural Heritage in 2016. The fonds includes some records of the Department of Cultural Heritage from 2016 until 2018. The material has been arranged into 38 series based on seven functional categories:

• Administration includes nine series documenting the governance and administration of the GSCI. The series included in this category are Gwich’in Tribal Council (426-S01); Governance (426-S02); Executive Director (426-S03); Research Director and General Administrative Materials (426-S04); Finance (426-S05); Correspondence (426-S06); Gwich’in Organizations, Communities and Events (426-S07); Other Organizations, Institutions and Associations (426-S08); and Website (426-S09). These series include meeting packages and minutes; strategic planning materials including GSCI’s five-year plans; annual reports; GSCI Executive Director files from 2004-2016; office, staff, project and other general administrative materials; financial statements and reporting materials; funding proposals, applications, reports, contribution agreements and service contracts; correspondence files; meeting materials, minutes, reports, proposals, presentation materials and informational materials related to Gwich’in and non-Gwich’in organizations, institutions and associations; website planning materials including funding applications, contribution agreements, financial statements and content planning materials; and general correspondence within each series.
• Consultation with Government includes three series documenting GSCI’s consultation and interaction with the federal and territorial governments. The series included in this category are Government of Canada (426-S10), Government of the Northwest Territories (426-S11) and Government of Yukon (426-S12). These series include correspondence; proposals; reports; funding proposals and reporting materials; workshop and presentation materials; informational materials; and curriculum planning and development materials.
• Traditional Knowledge and Land Use Policy and Regulation includes three series documenting the GSCI’s work in traditional knowledge policy development, land use planning and management and permitting and licensing. The series included in this category are Traditional Knowledge Policy (426-S13); Land Use Planning and Management (426-S14); and Researchers, Permits, Licences and Use Agreements (426-S15). These series include correspondence; proposals; funding and financial materials; workshop and presentation materials; discussion papers; reference materials; reports; policy copies; permit and licence applications and reports; research and data-sharing agreements; researcher files; and project materials provided to GSCI by researchers including planning materials, interview materials, photographs, videos and films, theses, reports and articles.
• Repatriation includes two series documenting the GSCI’s work in repatriating Gwich’in heritage materials and knowledge through a number of projects. The series included in this category are Gwich’in Traditional Caribou Skin Clothing Project (426-S16) and Repatriation Projects (426-S17). These series consist of project, planning and produced records including correspondence; funding proposals, contribution agreements and terms of reference; reports; copies of publications; audio and video recordings; and photographs, slides and negatives.
• Recognition of Historic and Cultural Sites includes three series documenting the GSCI’s work for the recognition, protection and management of Gwich’in historic and cultural sites. The series included in this category are Gwich’in Territorial Park (426-S18); Burial Sites (426-S19); and Historic Sites and Heritage Rivers (426-S20). The series include correspondence; materials related to the GSCI’s work in developing a vision and management plan for the Gwich’in Territorial Park including terms of reference, meeting materials, planning materials and copies of the management plan; funding materials, reports, maps and audio recordings from projects GSCI conducting in the Gwich’in Territorial Park; GTC Burial Site Guidelines; notes and information from the Tsiigehtchic Graveyard Mapping Project; and materials related to the nomination and management of national and territorial historic sites and heritage rivers including nomination applications, funding materials and service contracts; interview recordings and transcripts; photographs; unveiling ceremony materials; and draft management plans.
• Research and Programs includes 17 series documenting the GSCI’s research projects, programming and activities. These series include project, planning and produced materials, place name database and online mapping materials, conference materials and reference materials. The series included in the category are Oral History and Place Names Projects and Activities (426-S21); Archaeology (426-S22); Gwich’in Renewable Resources Board Traditional Knowledge Work (426-S23); Gwich’in Traditional Knowledge of the Mackenzie Gas Project Area (426-S24); Arctic Red River Headwaters Projects (426-S25); Elder’s Biography Project (426-S26); Gwichya Gwich’in Googwandak (426-S27); Tsiigehtchic Genealogy Workshop (426-S28); Gwich’in Ethnobotany (426-S29); Committee for Original Peoples’ Entitlement (COPE) Recordings (426-S30); Other GSCI Projects (426-S31); Partner Projects (426-S32); Archival Projects (426-S33); Science and Culture Camps (426-S34); Non-Project Publications and Posters (426-S35); Conferences, Workshops and Meetings (426-S36); and Reference Collection (426-S37). These series include correspondence; funding, financial and budget materials; project proposals interview materials; field notes; workshop and presentation materials; reports; GSCI publications including books, articles, brochures and posters; photographs, slides and negatives; audio and video recordings; transcripts; programming materials for science and culture camps; materials related to the documentation, preservation and update of the GSCI’s archival material; conference materials, notes and presentations; and reference materials including books, reports, journals, articles, research manuals, non-GSCI language materials and Gwich’in historical materials.
• Language includes one series documenting the GSCI’s language work and activities outside of research projects. This series is titled Language Work (426-S38) and documents GSCI’s work and relationship with the Gwich’in Language Centre, the development of the Gwich’in Language Plan, GSCI language workshops and projects, and language materials produced by the GSCI. This series includes correspondence; funding and budget materials; workshop materials; immersion camp materials; and dictionary copies, language class materials and other language materials.

Photographs are portraits of Chief Johnny Kay [Kyikavichik] and Lazarus Sittichinli.

Records include photographs documenting the construction of a mooseskin boat, the construction of a spruce bark canoe, and the tanning of a moose hide and a copy of Gloria Fedirchuk's proposal to film aboriginal adaptations and their relationship to the boreal forest environment of the Fisherman Lake Slave, including ethnographic practices, ethnobotanical information on use and taxonomy of flora, ethnozoological information on use of fauna, activities done in various seasons of the year, and the construction and creation of ethnographic items.

This fonds consists of stories and writings from George Blondin, a Sahtu Dene elder. The stories and writings relate to traditional medicine, medicine power, Yamoga, Yamoria, the Giant Wolverine, and wolverine medicine power.

The recordings, often referred to as the Dene Music Project, were made at four different Dene communities and each performance consisted of numerous songs. For identification purposes, each performance or recording session has been given a unique item number regardless of the number of physical tapes or songs it may incorporate. Included among the recordings are the master reels (:0009) compiled from a selection from original recordings. These reels were to be used in the production of the published record. Reference cassettes for most of the recordings are available. The textual records consists of documentation on each of the recording sessions. The black and white photographic negatives and corresponding contact sheets were taken during the recording sessions. Final appraisal and selection of the photographic negatives (items :0010-:0088) was completed in March 2013. Items :0004, :0006 and :0008 - original masters are cassettes. All other items have reel to reels as original masters.

This accession consists of one video related to Dene arts and crafts that have been and continue to be created in the NWT. The video was produced by Swan Productions for the Corporate and Technical Services Division of the Department of Economic Development and Tourism.

Records consist of a volume of Dene family genealogies. Father Emile Petitot, who was at the Fort Good Hope Mission from 1864 to 1873 and from 1876 to 1878, is believed to have begun this genealogy register circa 1864. The book was updated periodically by Father Petitot's successors, until the 1930s.

The videocassettes consist of "Birch Bark Baskets" (English version) 21 min.; "Making a Birch Sled" (Slavey version) 21 min.; and "The Spruce Canoe" (English version) 21 min. The canoe was built by Johnny Klondike. The videos were filmed by Francine Betthale, produced by the Fort Liard Band Council, and funded by the GNWT Department of Culture and Communications and Dene Nation.

Records were generated by a project undertaken by the Sahtu Heritage Places and Sites Joint Working Group and include one report entitled "Places We Take Care Of" that identified and made recommendations about the protection, preservation and promotion of heritage places and sites important to the history and culture of the Sahtu Dene and Metis. Records also consist of copies of oral history transcripts from Deline, Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope. Interviews were carried out as part of the project to identify additional culturally significant and historic sites.

The recordings contain interviews with Paul Wright and Fred Andrew, both elders of Fort Norman. The recordings are in Slavey and may deal with traditional stories. The stories were recorded over an eight day period at Drum Lake.

Records consist of songs, stories and interview transcripts collected by ethnomusicologist Nicole Beaudry in the Sahtu communities of Deline, Tulita and Fort Good Hope in 1988-1992.

This accession consists of two identical posters titled "Our Land, Our Life". They depict a man holding two children. Noted on the poster is "Let us put our minds together and see what life we will make for our children".

Ten of the photos appear in Schwarz's book "Elik: and other stories of the Mackenzie Eskimos" and are portraits of the storytellers. These include Archie (Headpoint) Erigaktuk, Kenneth Peeloolook, Sarah Raddi, Jessie Olorgrak, Susie Tiktalik, Felix Nuyaviak, William Firth, Elizabeth Blake, Alik Alubuk Stefansson, and Alex Kakianen. Other images are of Herbert Schwarz and the gravemarker for Constable R. O. H. Taylor of the "Lost Patrol."

Accession consists of an Analysis of the Dene Language Information Review, as well as Dene Traditional Life Series and Inuit Traditional Life Series.

The textual records consist of a brochure describing the film. In the film, produced by Films North, Father Rene Fumoleau discusses the changes in his views and philosophy that have occurred from his working with the Dene people, and George Barnaby discusses the changes in his own life and the choices he faces.

Records include photographs of Dene women and Inuit camps. The images were collected by the NWT Historical Advisory Board as part of its mandate to acquire archives on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories.

These records were created and/or accumulated by June Helm as the result of her work as an anthropologist studying the Dogrib people in the Northwest Territories.
The textual records consist of Helm's field notes that were either typewritten on index cards or kept in binders and organized by subject or organized chronologically by field session. In addition, there are field notes from Helm's co-investigators, Beryl Gillespie, Teresa Carterette, Nancy O. Lurie, David Smith and Robert Howren. The field notes are from the communities of Lac La Martre, Jean Marie River, Rae, Detah, and Fort Norman (Tulita). Included in this accession are approximately 230 books which formed part of Helm's extensive library. The books are both contemporary and historical publications on northern themes, and are annotated by Helm. The bulk of the remaining textual records consist of Helm's vertical files that date from 1950-1990s. This includes annotated copies of partial and complete publications, manuscripts and draft publications that include Masters theses and PhD dissertations. These records are primarily authored by others, although there are copies of and drafts of Helm's work. The remaining textual records consist of Helm's ingoing and outgoing correspondence files that date from the 1950s until 2003.

The photographs include a set of 654 black and white negatives that were taken by June Helm during her field work in Rae and Whati between 1959-1970. The images are copies of photographs that June Helm took while working as an anthropologist with the Dogrib people in Rae and Wha Ti (Lac La Martre) between 1959-1970. The images of Rae depict handgames, scenes of the community, winter activities such as travel by dogteam and ice fishing, setting rabbit snares, travel by canoe on the Frank Channel, working with a caribou hide, and people including Jim Fish, John Baze, Mrs. Johnny Simpson, Chief Bruneau, Vital Thomas and Harry Bearlake. The images of Wha Ti include winter and fall scenes of the community, people, travel by dogteam and airplane, ice fishing, and a Sunday feast. As well, there are approximately 60 copy prints from the National Museum of Canada, Provincial Archives of Alberta and the Smithsonian, as well as negatives, prints and images used in Helm's publications. The remaining photographic material is largely scenic photographs of Rae from 1970-1979, and photographs of artifacts from 1977.

The images were taken primarily during June Helm's field work in 1951-1952 and the 1960s. They mainly document community life and field work in Jean Marie River in 1951, 1952, and 1959, and community life and travel in Rae and Wha Ti (then Lac La Martre) in 1959 and the 1960s. June Helm's research assistants Teresa Carterette (1951-1952) and Nancy O. Lurie (1959, 1962, 1967) also figure in the images, as does Helm's first husband Richard "Scotty" MacNeish. Activities depicted include travel by boat and canoe, dogsledding, fixing fish nets, aerial photographs of communities, hunting, hand games and feasts.

This fonds consists of two maps, 465 photographs, 43 DAT audiocassettes and 17 audio reels. The majority of the material consists of a collection of oral histories and photographs accumulated by the Fort Good Hope Community Council via their Dene Language and Historical Research Project. The oral histories were created because of the Dene Language and Historical Research Program. The photographs, collected from individual photographers, represent an artificial collection of historical photographs. Photographers include: Mr. Cassien Edgi, Brother Mahe and Alphonsine McNeely. The maps consist of town plans dealing with land use and development in the municipality of Fort Good Hope. One plan contains the text of the Fort Good Hope Community Plan. The second plan indicates zoning and focuses on the Jackfish Creek Redevelopment.