Images of the Sahtu Region of Canada's Northwest Territories
The Our Lady of the Snows Mission at Colville Lake, northwest of Great Bear Lake, was built by Bern Will Brown in 1962. (Bern Will Brown collection)
Bern Will Brown poses with a Sahtu Dene fellow at one of their target practice sessions at Colville Lake. (Bern Will Brown collection)
Margaret Brown, Bern's wife, mushes her team of white huskies heading out onto Colville Lake, with the mission building providing a welcoming backdrop. (Bern Will Brown collection)
Margaret ice fishes on Colville Lake with her companions looking on. (Bern Will Brown collection)
Bern, right, with a friend poses by a float plane docked at Colville Lake. Bern was a bush pilot for many years, but recently gave up his license to fly. (Bern Will Brown collection)
Black spruce guard a dog team trail close to the Barren Lands, north of Great Bear Lake. (Bern Will Brown collection)
This bay along the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake exhibits bright orange lichen typical of early fall. (Photo by Ivan Gaetz, August, 2013)
Granite cliffs rise from the deep waters of the eastern reaches of Great Bear Lake. These are contrasted by the low lying shores of the west. Orange and grey lichen, fireweed and birch are in abundance. (Photo by Ivan Gaetz, August 2013)
Black spruce and speckled alder thrive on an esker in Hloo Channel, Great Bear Lake. By mid August, leaves of deciduous trees are already changing color. (Photo by Ivan Gaetz)
The Camsell River flows into Conjuor Bay, Great Bear Lake. Charles Camsell and his compaion, James Mackintosh Bell, explored this river in the summer of 1900. Brown writes about their adventure in End-of-Earth People. (Photo by Ivan Gaetz)
The first rapids approximately ten miles up the Camsell River requies a portage. Notice the dried twigs and branches of an eagle's nest near the top of a large spruce tree. Arctic grayling abound in these waters. (photo by Ivan Gaetz)
A typical shoreline of Cnojuror Bay, Great Bear Lake, in mid-August displays a rugged beauty . (Photo by Ivan Gaetz)
The midnight sun, billiant orange from a smoky atmosphere, sets over the islands of Conjuror Bay in August, Great Bear Lake. (Photo by Ivan Gaetz)
Great Bear Lake, situated 100 miles south of the Artcic Ocean, is the 8th largest lake in the world. There is one permanent settlement on the shore of Great Bear Lake, Deline, a Sahtu community of about 400 persons.