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I've been reading through Dick Turner's Nahanni, a very interesting book about his experiences trapping and prospecting around the Nahanni River in the 1930s.

In one of the first chapters, Turner talks about his troubles obtaining a trapping licence. They were free in the Yukon but not in the NWT, where they cost $75 a year - a princely sum in depression-era Canada.

As Turner observed, the rationale for the exorbitant fee in the NWT was simple: the Canadian government, which was the only government here at the time, was wary of what occurred some decades earlier in the Yukon. It didn't want to see a tidal wave of settlers storming into the region, bringing with them the social ills and bad habits of the south.

The federal government didn't just feel morally obligated to protect the bands of Dene scattered throughout the territory. It had a legal obligation and one of those obligations was to protect hunting grounds.

Obviously, having a few thousand pork and beaners tromping through the bush, scaring away game and ruining beaver streams with placer mines doesn't support that obligation.

Thus, the Yukon - already settled and politicized in much the same manner as the provinces - remained wide open for further settlement and exploitation. In the NWT, settlers from the south were discouraged ... too a degree.

The discovery of gold in Yellowknife in 1934 created a boom, which opened the doors for more mines, further exploration and more settlers. And in depression-era Canada, where any newly created job market was a blessing, it was hard for the federal government to take an entirely dim view on bustling little Yellowknife.

It's also interesting to note that the very nature of the gold discovery in Yellowknife had a huge influence on how the city and surrounding area was settled. Unlike the Yukon, where anyone with a pan and a sluice box had at least some chance of striking it rich, the gold around Yellowknife was all underground. It required a lot of men and expensive equipment to get it out. And because the gold was concentrated in large ore bodies, it took a long time to get it out, which encouraged a stationary, settled existence over decades.

After the Klondike gold rush of 1897, the Yukon's population skyrocketed to more than 30,000 people. By 1920, with the gold played out, it was down to 4,000 people. Yellowknife, on the other hand, grew slowly and steadily as the gold mines continued to produce. The gold jobs begot homes, roads and services, which created more jobs and services, until a point was reached where it was realized that Yellowknife was the most suitable place for a capital to service the needs of the rest of the territory.

It was the most successful, well-run community around, and thus the task of keeping the NWT up and running fell on this city's shoulders.

So why this trip down memory lane?

Two points: A) Yellowknife, throughout its 75 year history, has been viewed by Ottawa and its successor, the territorial government, as a begrudged necessity - necessary because of the jobs and wealth it created and later, after proving its endurance, as a government service centre.

Point B: After all these years of settled existence, its residents, many of whom are second- and third-generation and know no other home, want some sense of fair play.

Like Dick Turner trying to come up with the $75 to pay for his trapping licence, Yellowknifers are looking to their government, which these days is mainly the territorial government, and seeing in it a body that views them as strangers whose size and success ought to be somehow limited.

That may very well not be true but the perception is certainly there. It's felt when seniors and families with disabilities are told their supplementary medical coverage is being cut even thought it's only a $7-million program, or their elected school boards are going to disappear because they're "inefficient," or their campground fees are doubling this year and don't bother trying to build a cabin somewhere because we - the government - will hound you out.

The height of all pettiness came two years ago when the territorial government threw the city a cold shoulder on its 40th anniversary bash as capital of the NWT. The year before that the legislative assembly denied the city additional MLAs, even though with only seven seats and a population of nearly half the NWT, Yellowknife residents are seriously underrepresented. Can't do that, said the dissenting MLAs; Yellowknife will just wind up having too much control. Well geez, wouldn't that be a bad thing.

- Mike W. Bryant is assignment editor for Yellowknifer. Contact him at 766-8236 or by e-mail at minder@nnsl.com