Behchoko

Community Name: Behchoko
Former Name: Rae-Edzo
Rae Mbehcho Ko (Mbehcho Koís place) (big knife place)
Edzo Edzoo (name of Dene chief)
Land Claim Area: Tlicho
Electoral District: Monfwi
Member of the Legislative Assembly: Jackson Lafferty
Member of Parliament: Dennis Bevington
Senator: Nick G. Sibbeston
Community Leader: Chief Leon Lafferty 
                             Hamlet of Behchoko
                             P.O. Box 68
                             Behchoko, NT  X0E 0Y0
                             Phone:  867-392-6500
                             e-mail: hamlet@arcticdata.ca

Location:  Behchoko is located at 62'50'N and 116'4'W on a rocky peninsula on the southeast shore of Marian Lake on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake. Spread over two islands and part of the mainland the community is 24 kilometres from its sister community of Edzo. Located at 62'40'N latitude and 116'4'W longitude Edzo is bound on the east side by the West Channel flowing between Marian and Great Slave Lake. Rae is located 115 km northwest of Yellowknife and Edzo is 106 km northwest of the capital city via the Mackenzie Highway. The two centres are six kilometres apart by boat.

Population:  2,016 (2007 Census)

Languages:  Tlicho, English

Access:  The communities are accessible by road (Mackenzie Highway) year-round. A winter ice road is open from Edzo to Wha Ti.

History:  Combining Rae and Edzo created the largest Dene community in the NWT. The Tlicho have lived in the area for centuries successfully hunting the caribou herds while living in extended family groups. In 1790 a trading post was established in the area. Historically the Tlicho and the Yellowknives Dene quarreled.  However in 1823 Edzo, the Tlicho leader, and Akaitcho, the Yellowknives leader, made peace and the Tlicho returned to their traditional hunting grounds.

John Rae, for whom Rae was first named, opened a Hudson Bay Company post in 1852 at Old Fort Rae approximately eight kilometres from the present site. Although settling in the current site at the turn of the century, the post was moved back to Old Fort Rae in 1904. By 1890, over 600 people had settled in this prosperous area. However, the aboriginal peoples' susceptibility to European diseases caused great tragedy and by 1900 one person in ten was dying of measles. By 1928, tuberculosis and influenza were decimating entire families and the living standards of the Tlicho reached a low in the 1930s.

In the 1940s, permanent housing was built and medical services were provided from Yellowknife. Electricity came in 1959 and an access road to the highway was built the following year. Development of Edzo, now known as Behchoko, started in 1965 with the construction of a new school and new sanitation facilities.