Tsiigehtchic ( ; "mouth of the iron river"), officially the Charter Community of Tsiigehtchic, is a Gwich'in community located at the confluence of the Mackenzie and the Arctic Red Rivers, in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. The community was formerly known as Arctic Red River, until 1 April 1994. The Gwichya Gwich'in First Nation is located in Tsiigehtchic. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Tsiigehtchic had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. In 2016, 130 people identified as First Nations and 10 as Inuit. However, only 5 people said that an Indigenous language (Gwich’in) was their mother tongue. Transportation The Dempster Highway, NWT Highway 8, crosses the Mackenzie River at Tsiigehtchic. During winter, vehicle traffic is over the ice, during the rest of the year, traffic is carried by the ferry MV Louis Cardinal. The ferry stops at Tsiigehtchic, on the eastern bank of the Arctic Red River, and on the southwestern and northeastern banks of the Mackenzie River, connecting the two legs of the Dempster Highway. The community is one of the few in the NWT not to be served by a permanent airport. Steppe bison carcass In early September 2007, near Tsiigehtchic, local resident Shane Van Loon discovered a carcass of a steppe bison, which was radiocarbon dated to c. 13,650 cal BP. This carcass appears to represent the first Pleistocene mummified soft tissue remains from the glaciated regions of northern Canada (Zazula et al. 2009). See also Arctic Red River Water Aerodrome List of municipalities in the Northwest Territories References Further reading Heine, Michael K. Gwichya Gwich'in Googwandak: The History and Stories of the Gwichya Gwich'in ; As Told by the Elders of Tsiigehtchic. Tsiigehtchic, N.W.T.: Gwich'in Social and Cultural Institute, 2001. External links Tsiigehtchic at the Gwich'in Social and Cultural Institute Charter communities in the Northwest Territories Communities in the Inuvik Region Gwichyaa Gwichʼin Populated places in Arctic Canada