Ɂehdzo Got’ı̨nę Gots’ę́ Nákedı
Sahtú Renewable Resources Board

Colville Lake

K'áhbamį́túé

colville lakecolville lake-1Chief Richard Kochon

It is a very heavy thing for me to speak about the land... Even the school now recognizes the importance of balancing Dene culture with modern skills. When our children come with us out to the Barrenlands, they bring their books. But all day they do chores and learn survival skills. They only study in the evenings. I take young kids into the bush nowadays, and they will have put the tent up, cut brush for the floor, gathered wood, built a fire, and even gotten snow for water before dark. I know they can survive on the land. It would be extremely hard to break the traditional ways.

Chief Richard Kochon, from Building a Vision for the Land Survey (Colville Lake). Sahtu Land Use Planning Board, 1999.

K'áhbamį́túé means “Ptarmigan Net Lake.” The name refers to the traditional method of trapping the ptarmigan that gather among the willows bordering this beautiful lake. This home of the Behdzi Ahda First Nation was also an important fish lake and trapping area for the Duhta Got’ine. The Anglo name likely refers to Andrew Wedderburn Colville, the London-based Hudson’s Bay Company’s governor from 1852-1856.

In the early 1960s, there was a movement to revitalize the traditional trapping economy, and a number of families along with Oblate missionary Bern Will Brown travelled from Fort Good Hope to establish a permanent community on the south edge of the lake. The Our Lady of the Snows Mission building, constructed of local logs by Dene builders with Bern Will Brown, remains a significant landmark in the community.

Until the turn of the 21st century, Colville Lake remained one of the most isolated communities in the western Arctic. Recently important natural gas reserves were discovered in the Colville Lake area, and the Behdzi Ahda First Nation leadership has negotiated terms for developing gas wells, including jobs and contracts for community members. Now a winter road links the community to Fort Good Hope, Norman Wells, Yellowknife and places farther south..

Community from surrounding hillsideCommunity from surrounding hillside-1
Community from surrounding hillside Colville Lake church

Dutá / “Among the Islands”

Dutá is regarded as the home territory of the Dutá Got’ine (Among the Islands People) regional group, and is located on the northern end of Colville Lake. The main families using the site include Kelly, Edgi, and Kochon. The area is noted for fishing, waterfowl, moose hunting, and is located on a caribou migration route. There is a tourist lodge located at Dutá, operated out of Colville Lake. Local oral tradition indicates that the military maintained a training camp near here, though it is now abandoned. From Rakekée Gok’é Godi: Places We Take Care Of.

Dutá

From Ts’ǫ́dun Rákoyǝ́ (Child’s Play) by Alfred Masuzumi

I have long been told stories about the huge mountain called Ayonikı̨ (Maunoir Dome)...

Ayonikı̨ is named after the little phalarope, who is said to have once beat the great whistling swan in a test of strength when no other animal would dare take him on. This mountain is known as the birthplace of all the Inuit and Indian nations of the country.

In the beginning, the people had the innocence of a child. They had no knowledge of what was good.They had no knowledge of what was bad. No one knew what disagreement was.There were no borders on the land.

One day, a young Inuit boy and a young Gwich’in boy were playing together, shooting arrows and chasing after them. When they came upon an owl up in a tree, they both took aim and shot at it. One arrow killed it. The owl fell out of the tree, and the boys started arguing about who killed the owl.

The Inuit boy’s dad tried to solve the dispute by reaching over and taking the owl away from the boys. But as the Inuit father turned away, the Gwich’in youth shot him in the back.

Thus started a great war in which mothers turned against their mothers, fathers against fathers, sisters against sisters, brothers against brothers. The lush forest was trampled. There were piles of bodies everywhere, and a lake of blood was formed. To this day, there are no trees on Ayonikı̨, and a lake of blood can still be seen on top of the dome.

Finally, a truce was called. The people said “This fighting is crazy – we’re all one family and we’re killing each other off!” But Akaitcho was so enraged about the owl that he wanted thebloodshed to continue. There was a big council fire, and the wise ones of the family said “We can no longer live together. We must all go our separate ways.”

There are two versions to the legend of Ayonikı̨ – the human version and the animal version. In the human version, the people dispersed from the council fire. The children went east, the mothers went south, and the young men of twenty years went west. But before the young men left, they put some meat by the council fire. This was for the gray haired old man who was too old to go anywhere. The young men who went west are the Inuit people. The gray haired old man is the K’ahsho Got’ine. Mackenzie Valley Viewer, 2001

Colville Lake Traditional Place Names project map

Fort Good Hope/Colville Lake Traditional Place Names project map

K’abamı̨ Tué Eht’ene / Colville Lake Trail

Colville Lake Trail
artefacts along K’abamî Tué Eht’ene

This walking trail, linking Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake, was used every summer in June by people from Colville Lake. Travelling with dog packs, people would walk to the fort to trade their furs, and would remain in the Good Hope area fishing, taking treaty, and visiting with family, returning to Colville in August. It was used before fur trade times as well. It is known as a very long trail, noted for difficult walking conditions, thick bush, long stretches of wet muskeg, and many mosquitoes. The trail is still used in winter. The last family to walk the trail in summer was the Oudzi family in 1965, however in 1998 a team of people led by Charlie Tobac, walked the trail from Colville to Good Hope with a film crew as part of a cultural revival project.

Sahtu Heritage Places and Sites Joint Working Group, Rakekée Gok’é Godi: Places We Take Care Of.

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Communities Of The Sahtu

communities of the sahtu

I live in the Northwest Territories, in a little town called Fort Good Hope, down the Mackenzie River... I have lived here for thirteen years. Every year I go to fish camp with my grandparents. I've learned a lot from them, such as traditional ways, making dry meat and dry fish, snowshoes, trapping, and other stuff...

I learned a lot from my grandparents, so now I know how to do stuff on the land. Lorraine Gardebois, Fort Good Hope, 2001

The Sahtu communities are all founded in the resource industry, but retain traces of their original frontier character. The four Dene communities were originally established as centres in the fur trade. The economy of Norman Wells is still based on the oil resource that first gave rise to the community. Local economies have more recently diversified and evolved as administrative centres for social services and land claims implementation, including resource management functions.

The communities have modernized considerably over the past several decades, and now boast water delivery, cable television, regular air service and winter road access.

Today, the population of the Sahtu is over 2,800 and is projected to exceed 3,000 by the year 2019. The diversity of the population reflects the changes that have taken place over the past century. As of the 2001 federal census, the Sahtu Dene comprise 71% of the total population; 7% are Métis, 1% are Inuit, and 21% are non-aboriginal. A large proportion of the population, almost 40%, is under the age of 25. The creation of a viable future for these youth in the region is a major focus of Sahtu leaders as they move toward greater control of resources and services.

Transportation

Like much of Northern Canada, the Sahtu and its communities cannot be accessed by southern methods of transportation such as all-season roads or railways. Inhabitants rely on year-round air transport, summer river barge service and ice roads in the winter to move around the Region and to ship supplies and goods.

Barges

From mid-June to mid-October, high power tug boats launch from Hay River push specially designed flat-bottom barges up and down the Mackenzie River, delivering boats, cars, snowmobiles, heavy equipment, fuel oils, building supplies, bulk foods and other goods.

Service was originally provided by private barge companies hired by the Canadian government. Eventually competition reduced the barge companies to the single, government-owned Northern Transportation Company, Ltd (NTC). In the 1970s, as part of their land claims settlement, the Inuit became owners of the NTC's large fleet of tugs and barges.

The Mackenzie River demands expert navigational skills from the tug boat crews. The river's annual freeze up and sudden flood of water and ice scours the river bottom, changing the navigation channel from season to season. Coast Guard crews patrol the river, measuring depth using electronic depth sounders, then anchoring buoys to mark the channels for the barges.

burges

Winter Roads

Winter roads usually open mid-to-late December and operate through mid-March. Freeze-up provides a bed of frozen ground and a coat of ice on the lakes, thick enough to allow the weight of vehicle traffic. The winter road is cleared and maintained from the termination of the permanent highway at Wrigley up along the Mackenzie Valley with an extension near Tulita going east to Deline and an extension at Fort Good Hope travelling east to Colville Lake.

For the communities along the Mackenzie River, the winter road replaces summer barge service with truck service. For Deline and Colville Lake, which do not have access to barge service in the summer, the winter road is critical for the delivery of bulk supplies such as heating fuel, electricity and other necessary goods not practical or possible to be delivered by air.

Climate and terrain challenge

Climate and terrain challenge transportation to the Sahtu and within the region

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Dene Knowledge

The Dene people’s relationship with the land has given rise to a particular kind of knowledge that has been passed on orally across the generations, evolving through time so that each new generation can draw upon hundreds of years of Dene experience. This knowledge is articulated through the rich and specialised vocabulary of the Dene language and dialects.

Knowledge that draws upon lived experience and is passed on from generation to generation has become known as “traditional knowledge.” Because this knowledge is highly adaptive and continually incorporates new experiential learnings, it is perhaps misleading to use the term “traditional;” some argue that it is more appropriate to refer to “Dene knowledge.”

Non-Dene people have been made aware of the value of Dene knowledge since their first arrival in this region. Without naming it, early explorers and scientists recognized the value of this kind of knowledge; they almost always hired Dene people as their guides, and depended on Dene knowledge for their survival. The success of the fur trade has always been dependent on the specialized Dene knowledge of fur-bearing mammals. Dene oral traditions affirm that notwithstanding the official histories of the north, Dene knowledge was responsible for the first discoveries of the region’s most profitable resources, pitchblende (radium/uranium) and oil.

In the 1970s, the value of Dene knowledge gained some level of official recognition. Justice Thomas Berger broke new ground in declaring oral testimony admissible as evidence in court. The Sahtu Dene and Métis Land Claim Agreement is founded in Dene knowledge of traditional land use, and it sets out a cooperative resource management regime that requires the incorporation of Dene knowledge in research and decision-making.

There are still significant challenges involved in integrating Dene and other knowledges. As the communities of the Sahtu Region move into an era of self-government, there will be opportunities to apply Dene knowledge to the transformation of government, education, and health and social programs, so that these institutions will be better adapted to people’s needs.

.

The Shatu land use planning processElders Marie Theresa Kenny and Rosie

Radio Broadcast Translators

Top -The Shatu land use planning process
Above - Radio Broadcast Translators (Dene Nation Assembly, Tulita 2001)
Right - Elders Marie Theresa Kenny and Rosie Sewi participate in workshop, Deline 2003

Dene Knowledge Research In The Sahtu

Dene knowledge was never something to be researched before the arrival of the Europeans. Dene people possessed this knowledge because they were taught by their elders, and this knowledge was essential to survival on the land. Europeans arriving in this region in the late 19th century saw Dene knowledge as a subject for study. They were aware that the hunting and gathering way of life was disappearing elsewhere in the world, and felt that it was urgent to document Dene knowledge and practices before these too were lost.

This was in large part the driving force behind the history of anthropology in the Sahtu. Catholic missionary Father Petitot was perhaps the founder of anthropology in the Sahtu during the late 1800s. Throughout the 20th century, many anthropologists have followed in his path - living in the Dene communities of the Sahtu, travelling on the land with Dene families, and then publishing numerous research papers, articles and books. Some of these have made international reputations based on their research in the Sahtu. Unfortunately, the community members have often not had access to the publications; they are published in the south for southern audiences, and the research results usually have not been presented to the communities.

A new era of research was initiated in the 1970s and 1980s with the Dene Nation mapping project and other traditional knowledge research sponsored by the Dene Cultural Institute, or precipitated by the comprehensive land claims process. During this period, the first generation of Dene community researchers was trained to conduct research that was designed to fulfill Dene interests.

However, there were still parallels to the anthropological tradition in that projects tended to be designed by specialists from the outside; community researchers were provided only with the narrow technical training required to conduct interviews. This weakened the level of accountability to the communities, and their ability to effectively harness research results.

Co-operative resource management and the growing confidence of the Dene communities have given rise to new approaches to research. Communities increasingly want to be equal partners in developing and designing research projects, and evaluating results. Community members want to be trained through every phase of the research process, so that community capacity grows.

As precondition for approval of development projects, petroleum corporations are now more prepared to invest in traditional knowledge research. This presents a major opportunity for the people of the Sahtu. It also presents a challenge to ensure that community interests are served. Research must be carefully designed, that community researchers be thoroughly trained to recognized standards, and that research results be verified by the community.

Traditional Travel

sahtu dene

The land itself is of particular importance in transmitting knowledge from one generation to the next. The Sahtu Dene and Métis landscape is known intimately to elders. Trails, used yearround, provide access to a vast harvesting region. The trails link thousands of place names, each with a story, sometimes many, bound to the place. Names and narratives convey knowledge, and in this way Sahtu Dene and Metis culture is tied directly to the landscape. The network of interconnecting trails provides access to a Sahtu land use area encompassing some 300,000 km.

This map shows patterns of land use derived through the Sahtu Dene and Métis trails mapping project. The trails may be water routes or land routes or both depending on the season, and many extend beyond the Sahtu boundary to connect with other major routes of the north. While cutlines and winter roads have opened up further travel routes within the Sahtu, some traditional routes are still used for travel to and from settlements, hunting grounds and camps.

When you put out these maps it brings back memories of long time ago. I remember one time we travelled to town walking, no dogs or skiddoo from Aubry Lake. We camped once. The next day we made it to the Hare Indian River. At that time there were no maps. There were people that were smart that made trail from Colville Lake to Fort Good Hope. Anonymous, Dene Nation mapping project

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Transportation/Communications

Bush Life- drawings by Alfred Masuzumi

charlie

We used the traditional method to fool the caribou by rubbing two small tree ends together, to make them think that a caribou is rubbing his antlers onto a small tree, or the hoofs clicking together. - Charlie Codzi

veronica

People traditionally wore caribou hide capes, which were also used for blankets. - Veronica Kochon

Drying meat in the sun

Drying meat in the sun. The hides are also laid out to be dried and cured for blankets. - Therese Codzi

Therese Codzi

About 20 hides with no hair were used for the bottom section of the tipi. Hides with hair were used for the top. Raven feathers were used for decoration. - Therese Codzi

hunters

When the hunters carried the hides back to camp, sometimes they added light delicacies to their load, like the breast bone and other goodies. - Veronica Kochon

eseloa

Eseloa (Belé yah) leading a herd of caribou on a lake. That little caribou was raised by a human. It has a burnt colour, reddish- brown. He didn't want his antlers to grow long, so he burned them. That's why his antlers have black tips.

There is a saying that it never leads the caribou by the shore. It leads only in the middle of the lake. It breaks trail, then circles around the herd very fast to keep it going. I saw this form myself on Loche Lake once. - Louie Boucan

Fort Good Hope

Alfred Masuzumi is an artist and writer living in Fort Good Hope. His first book, Caribou Hide, was published in 2000 by Raven Rock Publishing (Yellowknife).

Bush Life originally published in the Mackenzie Valley Viewer, 2001. Printed with permission.

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The Sahtu Land Claim

Forging a new map: The Sahtu Land Claim

The Sahtu Land Claim Agreement was negotiated with the government of Canada to clarify land title, and to enshrine the ongoing role of Dene and Metis people as stewards of the land.

As Long As This Land Shall Last: Treaty 11

The idea of establishing land title and boundaries dates back to 1920, soon after the first oil gusher was hit at Norman Wells. The nascent Council of the Northwest Territories began planning for the development of oil and gas reserves. But the aboriginal peoples had not ceded their rights to the territory. When it was pointed out that oil and gas licenses in this area existed outside the law, the Department of Indian Affairs undertook to conclude Treaty 11. The Crown considered this to have been accomplished in the summer of 1921, during a brief trip through the communities along the Mackenzie River. According to the treaty document, Dene and Metis peoples ceded their title to 599,000 square kilometres, stretching northward from the 60th parallel to the Arctic Ocean, and eastward from the Mackenzie Mountains to Great Slave Lake. Oral testimony shows that the Dene people did not understand the Treaty to be extinguishing title to their traditional lands.

Land Title And The Mackenzie Valley Pipeline

Disparities between Dene and government interpretations of Treaty 11 came to light in the late 1960s, when a natural gas pipeline through the Mackenzie Valley was first proposed. In 1966, the Indian Brotherhood of the Northwest Territories launched an oral history project to determine the Dene understanding of the Treaty 11 process. On March 24, 1973, sixteen Dene chiefs put forward a legal claim of interest in an area covering more than one million square kilometres, and presented a caveat for registration under the Land Titles Act. Nearly six months later, Justice William G. Morrow presented a finding that the Dene peoples did indeed have aboriginal rights in the area. This caveat meant that no development could proceed until land title was established.

In 1974, the federal government set up a commission to investigate the “terms and conditions that should be imposed” in respect of the proposed pipeline. Justice Thomas Berger led the inquiry. Over a three year period, Berger travelled throughout the Western Arctic in an unprecedented consultation process involving more than a thousand witnesses. When the Berger Inquiry came to the Sahtu Region, people had their first opportunity to voice their opinions about the impact that such a major development would have on their land and their lives. In his final report, Berger recommended a moratorium on development until aboriginal land claims could be settled.

Taking Treaty In Tulita: Remembering Treaty 11

The people were scared to take the treaty because they didn’t know what was coming. The Treaty party couldn’t just come to the town and say, “Here, we’ll give you the money for nothing.” The Indians had feelings that the White people were going to take over something, that the White people were not giving the money away for nothing. They must be buying something, either the land or the people. That’s how the Indians felt. So they just kept asking the White people what the money was for. They said, “You just can’t give us the money for nothing. It must mean something …” The White people kept bugging the people for treaty. They said, “You’ve got to take treaty.” The people said no. So everyone went home. The next day, it was the same thing again. They talked about taking the Treaty all day. They tried to force the people to take the Treaty. The people didn’t want it

From interviews with Joe Kenny, Albert Menacho (Isadore Yukon, interviewer), John Blondin and Johnny Yakeleya (Bernard Masuzumi, Interviewer), and notes by John Blondin, in As Long As This Land Shall Last, by Rene Fumoleau, OMI (Toronto: University of Calgary Press, 1975, 2004). 231-232.

Dene Nation Assembly

Dene Nation Assembly, Tulita, 2001

The Sahtu and surrounding land claim regions and territories

The Sahtu and surrounding land claim regions and territories

Recognizing unfulfilled treaties throughout the NWT, the federal government established mechanisms for land claim negotiations. The first settlement was concluded with the Inuvialuit in 1984. The Dene and Metis came together and put forward a single Denendeh land claim. By 1988, Agreement-In-Principle was reached on this claim. However, the agreement fell apart over a number of issues. The Gwich’in communities withdrew from the process, soon followed by the Sahtu communities. In 1991, the Gwich’in Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement was signed. The Sahtu Dene and Metis Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement was concluded in 1993.

The New Land Claim Map

The Sahtu Land Claim map involves multiple layers of boundaries: the boundary defining the region as a whole, referred to in the Land Claim as settlement lands; boundaries identifying three districts within the region; five municipal boundaries; and outside the municipalities, numerous boundaries defining federal, territorial and aboriginal land title.

The regional and district boundaries are necessarily provisional to some extent, given that there is overlap in traditional land use areas; fixed boundaries did not exist in the old clan area system. Although this issue affects all aboriginal lands in three northern territories, it is especially complex for the Sahtu since it is centrally located, sharing boundaries with the Yukon First Nations to the west; the Gwich’in, Inuvialuit and Nunavummiut(the people of Nunavut); the Dogrib of the North Slave region covered by Treaty 11 to the east, and the Deh Cho First Nation tothe south .

Districts And Communities

The district boundaries were defined roughly corresponding with the core land use areas of the contemporary Dene and Metis communities within the Sahtu Region. Though the nomadic Dene had harvested in these areas for generations, permanent settlements were established relatively recently, in response to the expansion of the fur trade and subsequently, the development of petroleum and mining industries in the area. As the non-aboriginal population increased and wildlife became more scarce, it became increasingly difficult to sustain a wholly land-based subsistence. When the Federal government finally recognized its responsibility for the well-being of northern aboriginal peoples, they were encouraged to settle in centres established for convenient administration of services. Land use patterns shifted somewhat to accommodate a new hybrid way of life, combining town and bush.

Fort Good Hope and Tulita were both established early in the 19th century as fur trading and mission posts conveniently located along the Mackenzie River transportation route. Norman Wells, as its name implies, is a primarily non-aboriginal and Métis community founded as a result of the “discovery” of oil there in 1919 (though the aboriginal inhabitants of the area may well have known about this long before). Deline developed as a semi-permanent community on Great Bear Lake near the mouth of Great Bear River in the 1940s and 1950s with the expansion of the Port Radium uranium mine. The community achieved permanence with the closure of the mine in 1960, when the Dene residents of Port Radium were compelled to move to Deline. Colville Lake was created in 1962 as part of a movement to revive traditional trapping practices, linked to the establishment of a Roman Catholic mission there.

Although there are close interrelationships among the Dene communities, they are culturally and linguistically distinct. The K’ahsho Got’ine/Hare people are now centred in Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake. The Shita Got’ine/Mountain people have joined with the K’áálǫ Got’ine/Willow Lake people in the community of Tulit’a. The Sahtúot’ine are named after Sahtú/Great Bear Lake, and are based in Deline. Métis people, descendents of relationships established between Dene people and fur traders, reside in all five communities of the region.

The Berger Inquiry In Fort Good Hope

The following is excerpted from the address given by Chief Frank T’Seleie at the Pipeline Inquiry during its visit to Fort Good Hope, August 5, 1975.

Mr. Berger, as chief of the Fort Good Hope Band I want to welcome you and your party to Fort Good Hope. This is the first time in the history of my people that an important person from your nation has come to listen and learn from us, and not just come to tell us what we should do, or trick us into saying “yes” to something that in the end is not good for us …

It is not at all inevitable that there will be a pipeline built through the heart of our land. Whether or not your businessmen or your government believes that a pipeline must go through our great valley, let me tell you, Mr. Berger, and let me tell your nation, that this is Dene land and we the Dene people intend to decide what happens on our land….

Mr. Berger, you have visited many of the Dene communities. The Dene people of Hay River told you that they do not want the pipeline because, with the present development of Hay River, they have already been shoved aside. The Dene people of Fort Franklin [Deline] told you that they do not want the pipeline because they love their land and their life and do not want it destroyed. Chief Paul Andrew and his people in Fort Norman [Tulita] told you that no man, Dene or white, would jeopardize his own future and the future of his children. Yet you re doing just that if you asked him to agree to a pipeline through this land ….

Our Dene nation is like this great river. It has been flowing before any of us can remember. We take our strength and our wisdom and our ways from the flow and direction that has been established for us by ancestors we never knew, ancestors of a thousand years ago. Their wisdom flows through us to our children and our grandchildren to generations we will never know. We will live out our lives as we must and we will die in peace because we will know that our people and this river will flow on after us.

From Watkins, Ed. Dene Nation: The Colony Within. (1977: 12-17).

Dene Nation logo

Northern Frontier Northern Homeland: The Berger Report

Justice Thomas Berger summarized the key points from his extensive report in a letter to Warren Allmand, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, dated April 15, 1977. Below are excerpts from Berger’s letter.

We are now at our last frontier. It is a frontier that all of us have read about, but few of us have seen. Profound issues, touching our deepest concerns as a nation, await us there.

The North is a frontier, but it is a homeland too, the homeland of the Dene, Inuit and Metis, as it is also the home of the white people who live there. And it is a heritage, a unique environment that we are called upon to preserve for all Canadians.

The decisions we have to make are not, therefore, simply about northern pipelines. They are decisions about the protection of the northern environment and the future of northern peoples…..

The Mackenzie Valley

I have concluded that it is feasible, from an environmental point of view, to build a pipeline and to establish an energy corridor along the Mackenzie Valley, running south from the Mackenzie Delta to the Alberta border. Unlike the Northern Yukon, no major wildlife populations would be threatened and no wilderness areas would be violated....

However, to keep the environmental impacts of a pipeline to an acceptable level, its construction and operation should proceed only under careful planning and strict regulation. The corridor should be based on a comprehensive plan that takes into account the many land use conflicts apparent in the region even today....

Economic Impact

The pipeline companies see the pipeline as an unqualified gain to the North; northern businessmen perceive it as the impetus for growth and expansion. But all along, the construction of the pipeline has been justified mainly on the ground that it would provide jobs for thousands of native people....

Although there has always been a native economy in the north, based on the bush and the barrens, we have for a decade or more followed policies by which it could only be weakened and depreciated. We have assumed that the native economy is moribund and that the native people should therefore be induced to enter industrial wage employment. But I have found that income in kind from hunting, fishing and trapping is a far more important element in the northern economy than we had thought.

The fact is that large-scale projects based on non-renewable resources have rarely provided permanent employment for any significant number of native people. There is abundant reason to doubt that a pipeline would provide meaningful and ongoing employment to many native people....

It is an illusion to believe that the pipeline will solve the economic problems of the North. Its whole purpose is to deliver northern gas to homes and industries in the South. Indeed, rather than solving the North's economic problems, it may accentuate them.

The native people, both young and old, see clearly the short term character of pipeline construction. They see the need to build an economic future for themselves on a surer foundation. The real economic problems in the North will be solved only when we accept the view the native people themselves expressed so often to the Inquiry: that is, the strengthening of the native economy. We must look at forms of economic development that really do accord with native values and preferences. If the kinds of things that native people now want are taken seriously, we must cease to regard large-scale industrial development as a panacea for the economic ills of the North...

If There Is No Pipeline Now

An economy based on modernization of hunting, fishing and trapping, on efficient game and fisheries management, on small-scale enterprise, and on the orderly development of gas and oil resources over a period of years - this is no retreat into the past; rather, it is a rational program for northern development based on the ideals and aspirations of northern native peoples.

To develop a diversified economy will take time. It will be tedious, not glamorous, work. No quick and easy fortunes will be made. There will be failures. The economy will not necessarily attract the interest of the multinational corporations. It will be regarded by many as a step backward. But the evidence I have heard has led me to the conclusion that such a program is the only one that makes sense....

Implications

I believe that, if you and your colleagues accept the recommendations I am making, we can build a Mackenzie Valley pipeline at a time of our own choosing, along a route of our own choice. With time, it may, after all, be possible to reconcile the urgent claims of northern native people with the future requirements of all Canadians for gas and oil.

From Northern Frontier Northern Homeland: The Report of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, revised edition (Toronto: Douglas and McIntyre, 1977, 1988). 14-29.

Proposed Mackenzie Valley
Proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline through the Sahtu

Land Title , Administration and Governance

The Sahtu Dene and Metis of the three Districts now have title to 41,437 square kilometres of settlement lands, of which 1,838 square kilometres or 22.5% includes the ownership of subsurface resources (petroleum and minerals). Sahtu Dene and Metis lands were selected according to a variety of criteria, including spiritual sites, traditional land use and harvesting areas, and some lands with resource revenue potential. In addition, a number of Special Harvesting Areas have been set aside for land claim beneficiaries.

The Land Claim provided for the transfer of settlement lands outside the municipalities in return for a Federal payment of $75 million to designated organisations accountable to Sahtu Dene and Metis beneficiaries. Administration of Land Claim funds and activities on behalf of Land Claim beneficiaries is accomplished by way of seven community Land Corporations (including separate Dene and Metis organisations in Tulita and Fort Good Hope) and the regional Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated. Political leadership for Dene beneficiaries is provided by local Band Councils, and the regional Sahtu Dene Council.

The Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated (SSI) is the coordinating body for the seven Land Corporations and is the main contact for federal and territorial governments with respect to education, health, environment and economic development. The SSI also holds land claim funds in trust for the land corporations, and facilitates corporate decision-making at a regional level.

The local Band Councils and regional Sahtu Dene Council are the political bodies responsible for treaty matters and matters relating to the Indian Act. The Band Councils play an important leadership role in determining community priorities, and administer a number of social programs. The Sahtu Dene Council reviews and makes decisions on issues that influence the way in which Sahtu business is conducted, and provides advice to the SSI.

The Land Claim also provides for the negotiation of self-government agreements with the Federal and Territorial governments. Deline was the first Sahtu community to undertake negotiations and an Agreement-in-Principal was signed August 23, 2003.

The Fight For A Land Claim

At the time of the Berger Inquiry, George Barnaby of Fort Good Hope was an elected member of the Territorial Council representing the Mackenzie/Great Bear region. He resigned while in office, following which he was elected Vice-President of the Indian Brotherhood of the NWT (now known as the Dene Nation). He became a leading proponent of the Denendeh comprehensive land claim agreement.

“The land claim of the Dene is a claim not only for land but also for political rights. Up to this time the native people have had no say in what happens on their land. Everything has been decided by Ottawa or a few people in Yellowknife. This does not apply to development on the land only, but also in the way we live. Laws are made by people from the south that do not make sense to us, but which we have to live by. These laws are to serve the system of the south. They are not laws to protect the Dene way of life.

The land claim is our fight to gain recognition as a different group of people – with our own way of seeing things, our own values, our own life style, our own laws.

The land claim is a fight for self-determination using our own system with which we have survived till now. This system is based on community life. Whether it be a settlement or a trapping camp, whether people live by working in a wage economy or off the land, the laws we follow are concerned with all the people, not to benefit a few at the expense of the rest.”

The land claim is our fight to survive as a nation and to decide our own future.

From Dene Nation: The Colony Within, Mel Watkins, Editor (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977). 120-124.

Surface, Sub-Surface Rights And Municipal Districts

Settlement and Municipal Lands

Under the Sahtu Land Claim Agreement the Sahtu Dene and Metis have title to 41,437 square kilometers of settlement lands of which 1,838 square kilometers includes the rights to subsurface resources. These Sahtu-owned lands are privately owned in fee simple and not reserves under the Indian Act. Municipal lands are fee simple title lands within the municipal boundaries excluding subsurface title.

Federal Crown Lands

Over 80 percent of land within the SSA are Federal Crown lands. On these lands the Government of Canada owns and controls most of the lands and resources, both surface and subsurface.

Commissioners Lands (Block Transfers)

These are lands within or near municipal boundaries of communities where control of surface rights have been transferred to the Commissioners of the NWT. The Commissioner therefore acts like an owner and is able to confer interests in land to third parties.

Norman Wells Proven Area Agreement

Signed in 1944 the federal government granted Imperial Oil exclusive right to drill for and produce petroleum and natural gas from the area for three consecutive 21 year terms. This agreement is valid until 2008.

surface

Co-Operative Resource Management

A new system of co-operative resource management (co-management) was created by the Land Claim to address the longstanding concern of Sahtu people that they be provided with opportunities to participate in decisions affecting Sahtu lands. The Claim identifies three Boards responsible for resource management, including the Sahtu Land Use Planning Board, the Sahtu Land and Water Board and the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board.

The Sahtu Renewable Resources Board was the only organisation actually established through the Land Claim . The other two boards were established five years later (in 1998) through the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. This Act instituted an integrated system of land and water management across regional boundaries, guided by existing land claim agreements. The Gwich'in resource management boards were also established by the act, along with the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board and the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board. As their names imply, the latter two boards are responsible for the Mackenzie Valley area including the Sahtu Region.

The purpose of the co-management system is mainly to ensure that Sahtu residents are able to participate in the management and regulation of our resources in a direct and meaningful way. The new system recognises the special knowledge that Sahtu residents have about the land, and accounts for their rights as land users and participants in decision-making. The co-management boards are accountable to the public in that aboriginal, territorial and federal governments nominate their directors. To ensure an equal voice for the rights of land claim beneficiaries, the Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated nominates one half of the members on each of the Sahtu boards.

Although the three levels of government are involved in the appointment of board members, the boards themselves are independent, and don’t directly answer to any level of government. As so-called “Institutions of Public Government,” they are accountable only to their legal mandate. This allows them to have a more direct relationship with each other, and with Sahtu residents.

The new system also involves co-operation among the boards both within the Sahtu and in bordering regions to facilitate more effective and integrated resource management. The law allows the boards to “share staff and facilities with one another for the effective and efficient conduct of their affairs.”

The Sahtu Co-Management Boards

The Sahtu Land Use Planning Board is tasked with developing a land use plan for the Sahtu that guides the conservation, utilisation, and development of the land.

The Sahtu Land and Water Board deals with water licenses and land use permits on the Sahtu. Once a Land Use Plan is in place, all licenses and permits will have to comply with the policies laid out in the plan.

The Sahtu Renewable Resources Board is the main body responsible for fisheries, forestry, and wildlife management in the Sahtu. They are guided by community-based Renewable Resource Councils.

Hertage Sites

Hertage Sites

The Sahtu Heritage Places and Sites Joint Working Group, created by the Sahtu Dene and Métis Comprehensive Land Claim, was charged with the responsibility of reviewing options and making recommendations for commemoration and protection of heritage sites in the Sahtu Region. The Working Group – representatives from the Dene and Métis people of the region, and from the territorial and federal governments – submitted its report in January 2000 to the Sahtu leadership, and to Territorial and Federal ministers.

Overview Of Sahtu Governance Structure

Overview Of Sahtu Governance Structure

Figure from Draft Sahtu Land Use Plan

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