To reverse the trend of language loss, local education efforts have implemented native-language immersion programs in the preschool, kindergarten, and early-elementary grades.

Since the coming of Christianity and syllabic bibles in the early 20th century, Deer Lake has used its own version of the western variant of syllabics in which the "s", "sh", "z", and "zh" sounds are combined into one set of characters and some of the finals are different from the more commonly found versions in Ontario and Manitoba.

Small groups maintained seasonal camps based on family and clan and moved around according to where the hunting and fishing was best.

By the 19th century, overtrapping and changes in the economics of the fur trade had devastating effects on the people of the area.

With the boreal forests largely depleted of fur-bearing animals, the Hudson's Bay Company closed their posts and game remained scarce.

At this time, these names were only used in trading, but they would later become official with census records and are now the most common surnames found in Deer Lake.

Under Jack Fiddler a powerful ogema (chief and shaman) of the Sucker doodem, the people survived in the traditional way.

The arrival of North-West Mounted Police officers in 1906 to arrest Fiddler and his brother Joseph marked the first time most Deer Lakers had ever seen a white person.

The elderly Fiddler brothers were charged with murder for killing a windigo (an evil cannibalistic spirit that possesses a person during times of famine) and taken away.

Cree missionaries brought Methodism and Anglicanism, and local people led by Adam Fiddler built and maintained churches.

Today the band operates most of its community services or shares them through the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Council or the Nishnawbe Aski Nation.