Deh Cho declare sovereignty

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The Deh Cho Tribal Council's first annual assembly ended with a declaration of rights that proclaims the region's sovereignty from the federal government.

The declaration of rights affirms the Deh Cho Dene's belief that their inherent right to self-government cannot be extinguished on settling a land claim.

"Only sovereign peoples can make treaties with each other," the declaration says. "Therefore our Aboriginal rights and titles and oral treaties cannot be extinguished any EuroCanadian government.

The Tribal Council has had no reaction from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. DIAND'S policy is that treaty rights must be extinguished when a land claim is settled. The Deh Chi leadership wants control over the region, which is rich in oil, natural gas and minerals.

The wording of the declaration follows the advice of Elders who spoke throughout the assembly, Fort Simpson Chief Herb Norweigian said.

"What was written down was almost word for word what they said," Norweigian said.

Elders urged the Deh Cho leadership not to give up treaty rights and to continue as part of the Dene Nation.

"If we're not careful, we will lose all our land and all of those things people have been after for many years," Daniel Sanfrere of Hay River said.

Another Elder said anyone who wanted to break up the Dene Nation was crazy. The Dene Nation has been criticized as irrelevant after two N.W.T. regions - the Sahtu and he Gwich'in - broke away from the umbrella group and settled their own land claims. An annual assembly in Fort Norman later this month is supposed to settle the direction the Dene Nation takes in the future.

"We're going in there with a clear position that the Dene Nation does have some work cut out for it," Norwegian said. The Deh Cho Tribal Council seeks the Dene Nation playing a crucial role in the development of a Western Arctic constitution made necessary division of the N.W.T. into two territories, he said.

Dene from Deh Cho region camped for a week on the shores of Kakisa Lake, near Fort Providence.