Politics

Na-Dene are increasingly active in politics, especially in the northern territories where they constitute a major part of the population. A number have been elected to the legislative assemblies of both Yukon and the Northwest Territories and other high posts in the government. Within national native politics Na-Dene have also played important roles. Georges Erasmus, a Dogrib from the Northwest Territories, was the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, which is based in Ottawa, for several years, and the late Harry Allen, a Southern Tutchone from Yukon, was national vice-chief for the northern region. Land-claims negotiations, particularly in the Northwest Territories, have also attracted national attention. The Yukon Native Brotherhood was established in Whitehorse in 1968 and the Indian Brotherhood of the Northwest Territories was organized in Yellowknife in 1970. Both groups were founded to press land claims, although they also dealt with wider concerns relating to social programs, housing, environmental issues, and native rights in general. In 1975–76 Justice Thomas Berger presided over a royal commission on the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, and his findings contributed to the rejection of the project by the National Energy Board two years later. Resistance to major development projects without accompanying land-claims settlements became strong in both territories in this period, and today land-claims negotiations are the focus of political activity for the Na-Dene in the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and British Columbia. In the Northwest Territories only groups in the northern portion of the Mackenzie valley have concluded agreements. Although a general agreement was ratified for Yukon in 1995, all groups have not completed their final negotiations. By far the most significant agreement concluded in Canada’s north in recent years is that creating the new territory of Nunavut, in the eastern half of the Northwest Territories, to come into effect on 1 April 1999. Inuit will constitute the majority of this new territory.

The nature of negotiations has changed from the era of the treaties since modern agreements include provisions for comprehensive native self-government and for a continuing native role in the management of resources. Some individuals and native groups remain openly skeptical about any agreement which involves surrendering traditional lands or rights. Many more years of negotiation will undoubtedly be required, not only to achieve satisfactory settlements with non-native society, but to reconcile the opposing points of view within native communities themselves.