Traditional name returns
Sambaa K'e to no longer be known as Trout Lake
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Thursday, June 30, 2016
SAMBAA K'E/TROUT LAKE
While communities throughout the Deh Cho celebrated Aboriginal Day on June 21, the Dene community of Sambaa K'e had a special reason to celebrate.
Sambaa K'e Chief Dolphus Jumbo said the community's name change brings Sambaa K'e closer to the vision of their elders. - April Hudson/NNSL photo
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The community has been known as Trout Lake, thanks to the territorial government. Now, Sambaa K'e is reclaiming its traditional name.
"This name that was put back was (our) name since forever," said Sambaa K'e Dene Band Chief Dolphus Jumbo.
Sambaa K'e means "a place of fish." The name is fitting, Jumbo said, since the lake by the community has plenty of fish.
"There's always fish there. That's why the place was called Sambaa K'e, because the fish are so plentiful," he said.
"Now, we've taken that name back."
The change also brings the community closer to its traditional values. According to Jumbo, Sambaa K'e held a workshop in 1998 to hear from elders and community members. At that time, Sambaa K'e was already known as Trout Lake.
"(We) made a mission statement: Independent First Nations. It sounds simple, but to put that to work is kind of difficult," Jumbo said.
"The elder spoke to us many times, and we kind of tended to stray way from what the elders said to us. We found ourselves in difficult times - but now we're coming back. We're grateful that we're coming back to reality."
The community's name change officially took effect on Aboriginal Day. That means the territorial government will have to change the name on its maps to Sambaa K'e.
"What the elders have said to us is, we are finally getting somewhere," Jumbo said.
"On June 21, that was when we had the celebration because of reclaiming the original name of Sambaa K'e. We had a celebration, we had a feast and we had games. We spent a wonderful Aboriginal Day."
Jumbo said restoring the community's traditional name also benefits Sambaa K'e's robust youth population. Sambaa K'e currently has the only school in the Deh Cho whose school population is on the rise.
The band hopes to build a place out on the land for youth and elders to gather.
"For those youth, if you bring the youth on the land and you talk to them about the land and the place names, and you tell them stories about the area, that helps them a lot," Jumbo said.
"They learn well. In the fall time, you spend two weeks on the land with the youth, and you hunt moose with the youth - you spend a wonderful time with (them). In the spring as well, when they go on the land and everything is revived, everything comes alive and you go into the woods with them, it helps them."
