Slowey identifies a rhetorical trend that frames the choice between development and land claims as a choice between “capitalism or traditionalism, assimilation or fossilization (2009: 229). This false binary is antithetical to self-determination, which often requires both economic development and cultural preservation as joint efforts (gas for snowmobiles, for example). Slowey further suggests that informal connections in a community are effective mechanisms of creating pragmatic self-governance, while formal agreements are capitulations that normalize “the existing the relations of the state” (Slowey 2009: 236). Nonetheless, self-government is one step towards detachment, if not decolonization, and may be the best possible scenario until Aboriginal communities can grow autonomously.

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Read Chapter 9 in the Google Book Preview below or on Google Books. 

Slowey, Gabrielle. “A Fine Balance? Aboriginal Peoples in the Canadian North and the Dilemma of Development.” In First Nations, First Thoughts: The Impact of Indigenous Thought in Canada, edited by Annis May Timpson, 229-243. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2009. 

Irlbacher-Fox presents her experience with self-government negotiations in the Sahtu. She proposes the existence of a 'dysfunction theodicy,’ within which a colonial state frames a colonized community as suffering, and “shifts responsibility for suffering onto the sufferers, establishing itself through discourse and action as a necessary and legitimate interventionist agent in the lives of Indigenous people alleged to lack the capacity to recognize or alter what the state alleges to be their own suffering-inflicted actions” (107). For example, state intervention in childcare, 'substandard education,’ or 'corrupt local government’ are all manifestations of a dysfunction theodicy.

Abstract: 

Just as dahshaa - a rare type of dried, rotted spruce wood - is essential to the Dene moosehide-tanning process, self-determination and the alleviation of social suffering are necessary to Indigenous survival in the Northwest Territories. But is self-government an effective path to self-determination? Finding Dahshaa shows where self-government negotiations between Canada and the Dehcho, Deline, and Inuvialuit and Gwich'in peoples have gone wrong and offers, through descriptions of tanning practices that embody principles and values central to self-determination, an alternative model for negotiations. This accessible book, which includes a foreword by Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus, is the first ethnographic study of self-government negotiations in Canada.

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Read the Google Books page 

Borrow the full text from your local or institutional library

Irlbacher-Fox, Stephanie. Finding Dahshaa: Self-Government, Social Suffering, and Aboriginal Policy in Canada. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2009.

This paper provides an overview of the oil and gas industry’s interest in Arctic and Subarctic regions, and the negotiations between industry, governments, the market, and Indigenous peoples. Many communities face pressure to support development projects. Northern Canada’s Mackenzie Gas Project is the focus of this article, and its interactions with Indigenous peoples in the Mackenzie region. The paper examines both local and industry perspectives, including Indigenous concerns over participation and consultation.

From Abstract:

For the oil and gas industry, Arctic and Subarctic regions are considered to be some of the world's last energy frontiers, increasingly important for meeting global energy demands. As exploration intensifies and oil and gas development occurs in more of the Arctic, indigenous peoples are increasingly concerned about the interest of industry, national governments, and the far-reaching impact of the world market in their homelands. Pressure to sign on to development projects, to communicate and negotiate with industry and governments, and to adapt to a changing environment resulting from the activities of extractive industries is increasing. As a result, some indigenous peoples feel that they are losing control over their homelands and over their livelihoods. This article examines northern Canada's Mackenzie Gas Project and its possible implications for Aboriginal peoples in the Northwest Territories and northern Alberta. The Mackenzie Gas Project would see the development on Aboriginal lands of natural gas from three fields in the Mackenzie Delta area for delivery to markets in Canada and the United States by a pipeline up the Mackenzie Valley. The article looks at some of the key issues of this controversial project, examines local concerns over participation and consultation, and shows how it provides insight into some of the contested perspectives on the future of northern Canada, its peoples and the environment.

Abstract: 

The full text of this article is hosted on Energy and Environment and EconPapers, but is not currently open access.

Nuttall, Mark. “Aboriginal participation, consultation, and Canada’s Mackenzie Gas Project.” Energy & Environment 19, no. 5 (2008): 617-634.

This dissertation explores how socio-cultural and political practices enable people to become institutional bricoleurs in resource management.

Abstract: 

The Canadian North finds itself in a period of Canadian history with unprecedented levels of social and environmental complexity, political uncertainty and economic change. Within the Mackenzie River valley of the Northwest Territories, major industrial resource development projects are underway. At the same time, innovative natural resource management (NRM) governance institutions are being proposed. This dissertation explores how socio-cultural and political practices enable people to become institutional bricoleurs in resource management. From Déline, Northwest Territories, I examined how outside resource managers from federal and territorial governments, environmental non-government organizations, and aboriginal community leaders perceive, negotiate and practically apply one another's diverse understandings of NRM. This research is based on my active working group participation in two locally-driven collaborative projects: the Great Bear Lake Watershed Management Plan (GBLMP) and the long-term protection of an aboriginal cultural landscape for Sahoyúé-Ehdacho (Grizzly Bear Mountain - Scented Grass Hills National Historic Site). Within these cases of emergent community-based co-management, an ethnographic approach was pivotal in exploring new approaches to NRM arising from the dynamic relations between local and outside institutional actors. Recognition and incorporation of the notions of difference and practice establishes a space for potential positive social change. I suggest that the term `practical understanding' encapsulates how communities and outside agencies together perceive NRM. In the process of developing the GBL watershed management plan, creating a relational space resulted in shared understanding of resource management through narratives such as the story of the Water Heart. For shared understanding to be applied in the development of new formal institutions, however, it must be reconsidered as practical understanding and part of strategy in social practice. The political process of protection for Sahoyúé-Ehdacho demonstrated that strategies as engagement and practical disengagement are integral to practical understanding. The significance of this perspective of NRM is that it offers a cultural framework with which to explore institutional hybridity. Such a framework requires an examination of the ways in which we perceive, conceive and actively apply culture and power relations in resource management planning that is predominated by the increasingly globalized nature of natural resources.

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This dissertation can be requested from ProQuest.

Caine, Kenneth James. Water hearts and cultural landscapes: Practical understanding and natural resource management in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Doctoral Thesis, University of Alberta, 2008.

From Abstract:

This study takes as its starting point the hypothesis that manager-harvester relationships are a key indicator of successful co-management processes. Interviews were conducted with senior resource managers from the Sahtu Region of northern Canada to obtain their assessment of evolving manager-harvester relationships before, during and after the establishment of co-management institutions. Interview narratives were analysed to shed light on changes and continuities in the participation of indigenous people in decision-making This led to the conclusion that the institutionalization of collaborative relationships within the bureaucratic framework of co-management has had a negative affect on indigenous participation. Nevertheless, the co-management regime was found to be surprisingly adaptive as a result of certain key continuities in the resource management system; a history of strong relationships between resource managers and harvesters, and a problem-solving approach by managers appeared to be stronger than the depersonalized and bureaucratic aspects of co-management institutions. Thus the study confirms the ongoing significance of social capital as a determinant of successful co-management.

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Request this thesis from Stockholm University.

Carthew, Ruaraidh. Beyond Bureaucracy: Collaborative relationships in the transition to co-management—a case study in the Sahtú Region, Northwest Territories, Canada. Master’s Thesis, Stockholm University, 2007.

In 2000, the Governments of the NWT and of Canada enacted the five-year Cooperation Agreement for French and Aboriginal Languages in the NWT. This agreement extended federal support to official Aboriginal languages in the NWT as well as French, with $4.35M going directly to Aboriginal communities over five years, and financial support for GNWT language services as well. The independent consultants who authored this report were hired in 2003 in order to evaluate the Agreement’s implementation, operations, progress, strengths, challenges, and recommend changes. The evaluation team conducted a literature review, key informant interviews, focus groups, and case study evaluations.

The evaluators made several practical recommendations following their investigation.
Fist, local leadership must play a role in making sure a project meets community needs and is receiving community support; second, local in-kind contributions and volunteerism must be encouraged to supplement local projects; third, activities must be engaging and locally relevant; and fourth, projects need stable government support, simplified application processes, and equitable treatment to succeed. Overall, the evaluators found that the agreement was well-liked and generally well administered, but needed to emphasize coordination between all levels of government, families, and community leadership. While language coordinators were generally well aware of the agreement and its funding implications, this awareness did not typically extend to the rest of a community or region.

Read the original agreement: https://www.ece.gov.nt.ca/sites/ece/files/resources/nwt_agreement_2016-2020.pdf

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Terriplan Consultants and Martin Spigelman Research. Canada-NWT Cooperation Agreement for French and Aboriginal Languages in the Northwest Territories, Final Evaluation Report. Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and Canadian Heritage, March 2004.

From Abstract:

This Masters Degree Project proposes and field tests an evaluation framework designed for renewable resource co-management boards and the Sahtu Renewable Resources
Board (SRRB) in particular. The framework builds on previous co-management evaluations completed in Northern Canada, as well as other more recent methods of organizational assessment. As a partnership was formed with the SRRB, the framework was tailored to reflect Board input and the specifics of this co- management regime. Field testing this evaluation framework yielded general lessons and suggestions for implementing future co- management assessments, in addition to specific findings and recommendations for the SRRB.

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This resource can be requested from the University of Calgary: http://hdl.handle.net/1880/40249

Bateyko, Darwin. Evaluating co-management in the Sahtú: a framework for analysis. Master’s Thesis, University of Calgary, 2003.

Blomqvist’s thesis assesses a culture-based correctional program for Aboriginal offenders in the NWT. Participants take place in bush camps, where they practice land-based skills. Blomqvist finds that while the programs do not address all of the participants’ needs, they do allow individuals to re-establish relationships with family and community, important for creating a life after release. This research was conducted largely in Fort Good Hope.

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This thesis is not currently available online, but is listed on the Trent University database and may be obtained by contacting the author for permission. 

Blomqvist, Jennifer. Exploring the Interface Between Corrections and Culture: A case study of correctional reform in the Northwest Territories. Master’s Thesis, Trent University, 2002.

Steven Nitah, MLA, was Chair of the Special Committee on the Review of the OLA, which also included David Krutko, Roger T. Allen, Brendan Bell, and Michael McLeod.

The guiding questions of the Special Committee were: Do people understand the OLA; is the Act working to protect and preserve all of the official languages; are the needs of all of the OLs being met; what can be done to improve the Act?; and, what can be done to improve the delivery of language programs and services in the NWT? (4)

At the time of writing, the committee was still working and intended to publish a follow-up final report. The interim report goes over some general points about language revitalization, language history in the NWT, and the condition of NWT languages today. They suggest several directions for change and improvement, including greater accountability, a stronger role for the Languages Commissioner, curriculum development, teacher training, evaluation, improved funding, community support, and improved I/T training and services. They also suggest that the GWNT “make one government body or agency accountable for the Act” (8), to prevent diffusion of responsibility.

Access this Resource:

Read this report on the Canadian Parliamentary Review website.

Nitah, Steven. “One Land—Many Voices: Report of the NWT Special Committee on the Review of the Official Languages Act.” Canadian Parliamentary Review Autumn 2002 (2002): 4-9.

In the letter introducing the report, Tutcho comments that the impetus for this report was the privatization of the Aboriginal Language Section of the Language Bureau in 1996 (since its creation in 1973). She notes that Privatization is also known as Devolution.

Concerns:
• Contractors have no legal obligation to perform services at the same level as the OLA, only the GNWT needs to comply.
• Langue commissioner has no jurisdiction over contractors.
• Lack of funding
• Use of unqualified I/Ts. Contractor may provide less well-trained personnel.
• Decrease in some services, increase in their cost.

Recommendations:
• Amend the OLA to bind “agencies, boards, or contractors of the government” just as other legislation such as the Financial Admin Act does. The Federal OLA already has this amendment. (16)
• Add commitment to OLA into contracts explicitly. (16)
• The LC needs to be able to monitor the impact of privatization—right now it has now jurisdiction over contractors, but an OLA amendment would solve this problem. (17)
• Consider developing a certification process for I/Ts that standardizes quality of service.
• Have a registry of I/Ts
• Consider developing more language and I/T materials
• Consider a professional association, professional development, funding, etc.

Access this Resource

This report has been archived by the GNWT department of Education, Culture, and Employment. 

Office of the Languages Commissioner of the Northwest Territories [Judi Tutcho]. Special Report on Privatization and Language Services. Yellowknife, 2000.