Horn Plateau

The Horn Plateau rises above the Mackenzie Valley in the Dehcho country of northwestern Canada. It forms the central upland of Edéhzhíe and contains the headwaters of the Horn, Willowlake and Rabbitskin rivers. Its lakes and muskeg feed waterways leading into surrounding lowlands. For Dene communities this was a lived landscape of fishing lakes, trails and hunting places, with significance extending well beyond the plateau's appearance as an obstacle to travel.

Traditional knowledge remembers the Horn Plateau as a place on which people could rely when food became scarce in the Mackenzie Valley. Hunting, fishing and trapping connected the upland with neighboring territories, while gathering places linked Dehcho and Tłįchǫ families. Its meaning also survives in Dene narratives: one creation account describes the mountain as the body of a great creature overcome by a young hunter. Such stories join particular landforms to the transmission of knowledge and responsibilities. Across the centuries before colonial administration, the plateau belonged to these networks of subsistence and memory, providing an alternative resource country within the larger river-valley world.