Fort Providence, once a ferry crossing on the north bank of the Mackenzie River, is 233 kilometres southwest of Yellowknife.
In the mid-1800s the establishment of a Roman Catholic mission and a Hudson Bay Company trading post attracted local Slavey Dene to the area. Agriculture was their mainstay, together with the traditional trapping and hunting. However, by around 1981 the population of Fort Providence was down to 605.
Fort Providence was home to the Sacred Heart Mission, a Catholic-run residential school where, over the years, an estimated 300 children died.
“The 2006 Indian Residential School Settlement required Catholic groups to pay compensation to the Dene people for its role in the abuse and trauma inflicted on thousands of aboriginal children.” But legal wrangling has prevented this from happening.
Meanwhile, a monument has been erected to commemorate those who died.