Dene Nation, the colony within
By: edited by Mel Watkins for the University League for Social Reform.
Contributors: Watkins, Mel.; University League for Social Reform.
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Published: 1977
Place of publication: Toronto; Buffalo
Language: eng
Number of pages: 189
Subjects: Tinne Indians -- Government relations; Mackenzie Valley Pipeline (N.W.T.)
Description: A revision and abridgement of material presented at the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry by the Dene themselves and by others on their behalf.

This collection of papers by some twenty contributors has been selected in the main from presentations made to the Berger Inquiry, and reflects the efforts of the Dene people to block the construction of a pipeline or even a land claim, and the presentations go well beyond showing the adverse effects of a pipeline, serious though these may be, and beyond asserting an aboriginal claim to the land, valid though that may be.

Rather, they reflect the Dene nation's fundamental perception that their struggle is for the most universal of human rights, the right to be a self-determining people, living with their land as they have always done. Should no pipeline ever materialize up the Mackenzie Valley, the Dene nation will continue to assert this right and continue to strive for decolonization in matters of economics, politics, education, law, and culture. The papers, some of them written by Dene and others by specialists in a variety of fields, reveal the profound issues of human rights from which the pipeline protest ultimately derives. This book is essential reading for all concerned with Canada's future as a compassionate democracy.
Notes: Includes bibliographies.
A revision and abridgement of material presented at the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry (Berger Inquiry) by the Dene themselves and by others on their behalf.
Table of contents: title: The Dene speak.; title: Dene declaration: Blake, P., T'Seleie, F. & Lamothe, R. Statements of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry.; title: Resources: Nahanni, P. The mapping project. Snowshoe, C. A trapper's life. Rushforth, S. Country food. Asch, M. The Dene economy. Jellies, A. D. The loss of economic rents. Helliwell, J. F. The distribution of economic rents from a pipeline. Watkins, M. From underdevelopment to development.; title: Rights: Puxley, P. The Colonial experience. Barnaby, G., Kurszewski, G. & Cheezie, G. The political system and the Dene. Bean, W. Colonialism in the  communities. Kakfwi, S. & Overvold, B. The schools. Sutton, C. G. Aboriginal rights. Russell, P. H. The Dene Nation and Confederation.; title: Conclusion: Erasmus, G. We the Dene.