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Arctic Yearbook 2014
20th century, the establishment of a resource economy in the North resulted in conflict over land
but that even more than this, it was a conflict “between goals, preferences and values.”
Evolution of Land Claims
It is now relatively normative to consider that the appropriation of indigenous land was a
colonial tool used by the Canadian government through the land treaty process. Basically,
agreements were formed to outline rights to land, that while on the surface were supposed to
provide equal benefit to the indigenous populations and federal government, they significantly
privileged the government and marginalized the indigenous groups (Usher 2003). Treaties 8 and
11, for example, concerned land in Northern Canada, although Treaty 11 covers much more
land in the region that belonged to the Dene. In both cases, the Dene did not believe that
signing the treaty meant that they were giving up their rights to the land; rather, they saw it as a
way of building a relationship with the state (Berger 1977).
In terms of resource development, the government used Treaty 11 as a way to gain access to
natural resources for development. However, many of the Dene did not fully understand the
value of the resources they on the land covered by the treaties (Fumoleau 2004). The Dene
worked to rectify this wrong, and in 1973 both of these treaties were voided based on the
differing interpretations of the treaty and because reserve lands were never created as outlined in
the treaty (Irlbacher-Fox 2009). In 1994 the Sahtu Dene and Metis reached a new agreement in
the Mackenzie Valley area of the NWT.
Elsewhere in the Canadian Arctic, there were no historical treaties, and it was not until the early
20th century that the idea of comprehensive land claims developed. The territorial North was
neglected in times of peace, and sovereignty asserted by few and scattered RCMP and RCMP
posts (Grant 2010). Several subsequent landmark land claims, however, brought the Inuit into
the land claims process: beginning with the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of the
1970s, and the Inuvialuit comprehensive land claim, also negotiated in the 1970s. Furthermore,
“In the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in 1974, Cree and Inuit exchanged
aboriginal rights to land and resources for cash, title to hunting areas, and exclusive hunting and
fishing rights in some areas. The James Bay agreement created significant new political
institutions and paved the way for expanding co-management elsewhere in Canada and beyond”
(Caulfield 2004: 123). Although in other ways the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement is
not seen as an unqualified success story for the Cree, Innu or Inuit – and although since that
time, there have been further arrangements in the region, such as the establishment of the
Nunavik regional government – the James Bay Agreement was one of the first steps towards
current self-government arrangements in Canada. Followed by the Inuvialuit Settlement
Agreement, Nunavut, Nunivak, the Tlicho land settlement, and a number of other new selfgovernance and territorial arrangements, the era of greater indigenous control and selfgovernance accompanied the latest rounds of resource extraction in the north. Indeed, in many
ways resource development and self-governance were related to each other. In 1984, the
Inuvialuit of the Mackenzie Delta, for example “signed an agreement with the federal
government that exchanged aboriginal claims for a cash settlement, title to some 91,000 square
kilometres of land, and mineral rights. These developments led to the division of the Northwest
Territories and the creation of the new Nunavut Territory in 1999. The Nunavut Agreement,
Everett & Nicol