From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Aboriginals: Na-dene/Patrick Moore
Many social problems in contemporary Na-Dene communities – alcoholism, family breakdown, marital violence, teenage suicide, and so on – are due to the displacement of traditional ways of life by non-native culture. All levels of government have attempted to address these problems, with varying degrees of success, through counsellng services, medical treatment, and law enforcement.
Social problems are worst in the poorest communities, particularly those situated on reserves. In many cases, traditional roles have been undermined by modern resource-development projects at the same time as the Na-Dene have not been allowed to share equally with non-natives in the economic benefits of these projects. Most groups seek a more active role in economic development to help alleviate these problems and provide future opportunities for their communities.
The Na-Dene increasingly assert a separate identity within Canadian society while embracing many aspects of modern life. Most Na-Dene want to participate in contemporary society without sacrificing their unique identity and control over their traditional lands and resources. Conflicts have arisen with the federal government, the provincial and territorial governments, and private companies and developers when land is alienated without consent or when resource-development projects are proposed without local involvement. Resource development in the traditional territory of the Na-Dene has tended to pit native residents against nonnative developers. Government policies concerning education, social services, medical services, and renewable resources are ongoing areas of concern as well. The threat posed by massive resource projects has brought native people closer together as they form organizations to represent their interests on provincial, territorial, and national levels.
Many Na-Dene are critical of the long history of economic domination by non-aboriginals in the areas of trapping, agriculture, oil and gas production, and mining. Some also have had personal experience of discrimination or abuse in non-aboriginal institutions, such as residential schools, or in dealing with the police or the Department of Indian Affairs. Most Na-Dene recognize both good and bad aspects of non-aboriginal society, however, and are not unduly embittered by their experiences. Non-aboriginals, for their part, tend to have a mixed view of natives, respecting (ironically enough, given their economic role in the north) traditional aspects of the native lifestyle such as self-sufficiency through hunting and fishing while criticizing those aspects which result from the history of culture contact and economic domination, including alcoholism and crime. Conflicts are least strident in areas where native groups are able to negotiate for fuller participation in economic development.
The Na-Dene work closely with other native groups both locally and nationally. The Dene of the Northwest Territories have cooperated with the Metis in their land-claims negotiations, and the Council for Yukon First Nations (formerly the Council for Yukon Indians), has included non-status Indians since its inception. The Na-Dene participate fully in the national Assembly of First Nations and have been politically prominent within that organization. Members of other native groups have been welcomed into Na-Dene communities and there are many marriages between members of various native groups. In some communities such as Fort Nelson and Fort Chipewyan, there are separate bands representing Cree and Dene people, but elsewhere members of different groups are represented by a single band when they live in the same locality. The tendency of Athabaskan peoples to think in terms of inclusive social groups is reflected in the term dene itself, which has meanings encompassing progressively larger groupings of people. In its narrowest sense the term refers to the local group, speakers of an Athabaskan language; in a wider sense it is often used to refer to all native people; and in its broadest sense it includes all people around the world.
Inividuals who are adopted into a clan, who marry into the group, or who live in the same community are usually welcomed and accepted. Rights within the group are often determined by kinship, however, so that non-natives have a limited role unless they are integrated through adoption or marriage. In contrast, government policy has been openly and rigorously exclusive. Women who married non-natives were denied Indian status for many years, Metis were forced to relocate when reserves were established, and the reserves themselves served to separate native populations from adjacent communities and economic opportunities. In recent years native people have worked to overturn some of these exclusionary government policies. Native women and their children are now assured of native status.
The last two decades have seen a great awakening of cultural and political awareness among the Na-Dene. In many areas native names and kinship terms are being used once more, at least for ceremonial purposes, and women have been especially active in promoting cultural awareness as storytellers, language instructors, and directors of dance and theatre companies. This period has also witnessed the development of representative government in the Northwest Territories. Before 1975, the territories were governed by a council and commissioner appointed by the federal government and based in Ottawa. The initiation of an elected legislative assembly in 1975 led to greater native participation in governmental affairs. Native members were initially frustrated with the new assembly and resigned, precipitating a boycott of territorial politics by the Dene Nation. In 1979, however, natives won a majority of seats in the assembly, and two of them, James Wah-Shee and Richard Nerysoo, went on to become cabinet ministers. The process of land-claims negotiations in both the Northwest Territories and Yukon over the same period has also fortified native and identity while providing the impetus for the growth of native organizations, including bands, tribal councils, and organizations such as the Dene Nation and the Council for Yukon Indians.
The growing sense of political awareness and group identity also reflects the coming of age of a generation born into a traditional culture but educated in residential schools. The Na-Dene leaders of this period are able to speak from experience about what they treasure about the land and their way of life, and they also understand the implications of modern technology, government policies, and resource development. Commitment to future generations and to the maintenance of native identity remains high among the Na-Dene.
