An important band leader and warrior among the Chipewyans of the barrenlands, Matonabbee first gained prominence in the 1760s when he arranged a peace with the neighbouring Crees. In his travels across the barrens to the Arctic Ocean in the early 1770s, he was accompanied by the Hudson's Bay Company explorer, Samuel Hearne. Thereafter, Matonabbee's band controlled most of the fur trade between the Company and other Dene peoples to the northwest. Despondent after the French captured Fort Prince of Wales in 1782, which thus barred his trading with the Company, he took his own life. *Note: This designation has been identified for review. A review can be triggered for one of the following reasons - outdated language or terminology, absence of a significant layer of history, factual errors, controversial beliefs and behaviour, or significant new knowledge.