Apparently the great slave lake was named after the indigenous dene people, who were called the slave tribe by their enemy tribe the Cree.

No need for the word "tribe" here. They are the Dene. They are the Slave. They are the Cree. we don't say "the German tribe" (of Europe), or the Swiss tribe. This term typically is used to describe a smaller group belonging to a larger group. In this case, the larger group is subconsciously thought of Indians, or even First Nations, or Aboriginals. But the Cree, Slave Dene and any other number of nations are not tribes . They are nations. So, the Cree... The Slave.... The Dene....

I think the comparison you draw with modern Germans or Swiss kind of diminishes your point. It would be more appropriate to compare this to Saxons or something analogous, lest your point seem disingenuous.

The use of tribe, incidentally, is common when describing Saxon tribes, who formed a confederation collectively known as the Saxons. The term tribe is not somehow prejudicial, and it would be a poverty to lose yet another perfectly good word to social hypersensitivity.

Not that your point is invalid, from my limited knowledge of the subject you are correct in pointing out that the Cree, et al are supergroups of tribes and correctly described as nations in the historical sense, and in some limited capacity, in a modern sense.

My point is that you risk undermining your claim if you compare them to a modern, fully sovereign nation, because the context is not apt for comparison, and I think readers lose out if they dismiss your statement based on a poor example.

The smokes don’t seem like that big of a deal but the fire seems like it is a complete disaster for fairness. That’s actually pretty horrific - the other contestants out there working and suffering their asses off to survive and he gave a huge leg up to arbitrary competitors? I should hope he got in serious trouble - can you imagine an official in a sports competition casually messing with the game w/ $1M on the line???

I regret to say that the show is probably only concerned with the appearance of fairness, as viewed by edited footage post-hoc. Not the experience of the contestants so much.

For example, I previously believed the contestants to be truly alone, in that each potential encounter with bears would be hugely risky. But now I know that was a minimal risk because a bodyguard was close enough to intervene, and was probably monitoring grizzly activity in the area.

The mental changes that happen to a contestant when they can even see someone nearby kind of invalidates the whole premise a little.

I think you’re thinking this show is a lot more real than it actually is. It is scripted reality TV, not serious, not real.

He said he and the camera crew talked to the contestants all the time, despite them being shown to be “alone”

I think he said he gave fire to people that already had it anyway and theirs just went out.