The Dakubetede People

        The Dakubetede were the Athabascan-speaking indigenous people living in 3 villages along the Little Applegate River before the area was ethnically cleansed by white gold miners, militias, vigilantes, and the U.S. Army in the 1850's. The Dakubetede cultivated tobacco, relied on salmon, acorns, berries, and hunting for their food, and used their advanced basketry skills in many applications. These natives also used fire to maintain the landscape for several food and basketry plants. Vast amounts of local knowledge were forever lost when the link of the Dakubetede with their native landscape was broken. D.E.E.P. is dedicated to re-discovering that knowledge through a process of becoming indigenous to this place.

        When Chant Thomas approached Aggie Pilgrim, the eldest of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, if he could name his new education program "Dakubetede", she stared at him with a stern look. Then she said "Chant Thomas, I would become terribly upset if you used any other name! Thank you for honoring my People."
 

Native elder Aggie Pilgrim and Chant Thomas.

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