Dogrib caribou skin lodges, like the one pictured here at Rae, were a primary form of habitation for centuries. At the beginning of the 20th century, hundreds of these lodges were in everyday use, but when canvas tents became a common trade item in the 1920s the caribou skin lodges quickly disappeared.

The Caribou Skin Lodge Project began in 1997 when, with the help of anthropologist June Helm and Natural History Museum director George Schrimper, the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History returned a 104-year-old Dogrib caribou skin lodge to the Northwest Territories. Purchased from the Dogrib trading leader Bear Lake Chief in 1893 by naturalist Frank Russell, the original lodge was carefully stored in Iowa for over a century. The lodge returned to the NWT by the University of Iowa is likely the only surviving Dogrib caribou skin lodge, and it has since become an important touchstone to a bygone era.