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MEET THE CANDIDATES: Why Norman Yakeleya thinks he should be the Dene National Chief

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Dene Nation Chief Norman Yakeleya wants the GNWT to meet with Indigenous governments to ensure Indigenous principles are incorporated into the future of a community-oriented child welfare system.

Over the next three editions, News/North will interview each of the three candidates for National Chief of the Dene Nation – Eileen Marlowe, Richard Edjericon and Norman Yakeleya – ahead of the Aug. 22 election. First up is Yakeleya, who has served in the past as the Sahtu MLA, chief of the Tulita Dene Band, a land claim negotiator and a chair of the Sahtu Tribal Council.

NN: How will you work to improve the lives of Dene peoples?

Norman Yakeleya: is a former Sahtu MLA and chief of Tulita Dene Band. NNSL file photo

I would say it's a team effort, in cooperation with the grand chiefs, by forming a stronger alliance that supports the mission of the Dene Nation. Another way would be to look at re-establishing the executive council with elders in on the decision-making process and another one I want to look at is to have a review of our current constitution and update it so it meets today's challenges, with some of the new tools we have to strengthen and protect our treaties.

NN: What are the top priorities in your platform?

One of the three major themes is culture – to know who we are, why we are, where we're going is through our culture – and to strengthen our culture with traditional ceremonies and really focusing on on-the-land programs. And the second is unity, pulling the people together. And the third is the healing of our nation and looking at different healing methods – going back to our old healing methods.

NN: What has Dene Nation been doing right? What can Dene Nation improve upon?

It originated in the early 1970s as the Indian Brotherhood and they stood together as a nation of people to express their beliefs and values and identified themselves as people of the land and the water. Then later, as the Dene Nation, it advocated to the rest of the world that we are a nation of people. We’re maintaining that mission statement, reminding the government that we have treaties, we have land claims, we have self-government and to remind people we have a way of life and we are a nation of people. In regards to where the Dene Nation is right now, we're in a new era. We have a lot of young people, so we need to improve on how we are going to continue with a new generation of young leaders.

NN: What role will elders play when you are chief?

Elders are our guides and our teachers, knowledge holders and keepers of the traditions and the ceremonies said they are going to be a key, central part of the Dene Nation. My vision is for elders to be part of the executive council, with us listening to them and their thoughts, their words on our future. In our small communities, the role of elders has somewhat been put aside and we need to bring them back to their rightful status in our society and learn from them so they can provide us with guidance to the survival of the Dene Nation.

NN: What are your feelings on resource sectors, including mining, oil and gas and other exploration in the territory?

We have a rich land economically and also spiritually. Today we have new treaties through the land claims and self-government, that provides new rules on how we're going to manage our land and work our land through such agreements as the impact-benefit agreements and access agreements.
And we have land set aside where there's absolutely no development whatsoever. I know some people, they want to keep it open for all development, but there's places where absolutely no development will happen. We've got to take a stand sometimes and it's not always the popular choice, but we got to think about our children's children's children. So, we've got to think long and hard on it. At the same time, we want to be self-sustaining people and we need the economic strength of our resources to help our children go to post-secondary education, to start their own companies and businesses and to use the land properly.

NN: How would you work to improve environmental issues?

We've got to protect our water and the land is very important to the Dene. That's who we are. We're from the land and the water and that's what sustains us and we've got to ensure that our water and our land is taken care of and that's going to be one of our biggest challenges in today's society, to protect the land through the mechanisms that nations that have negotiated through land claims and self-government agreements.

NN: How will you unify regional Indigenous governments?

We have to go back again through the elders and ensuring that the elders are there to guide us through this process, sitting down with the regions answer some basic questions – such as who we are and why did we come together – and do an assessment to look at where we are today, what is it we need to do to stay together, what kind of agreements we would need to work on to work together.
If the Tlicho needs the nation, we need to fall behind the Tlicho and support them. If the Gwich'in needs help, we need to all, all of us, fall behind the Gwich'in – or the Sahtu or Dehcho or Akaitcho. And at the same time, honour and respect their own jurisdiction, their own decision-making process. If we're going to survive, we need to come together like a hand and five fingers and make a fist and we need to protect our people.

NN: With the settlement of land claims and self-government agreements, what role do you see for the GNWT in Denendeh?

We know there's a need for GNWT, but we also know that now we'd like to start the process of taking care of our own backyard, initiatives such as housing, health education and economic initiative. We've got to break that dependency slowly. But we also need to train our young people. We've got a high population of youth, so we want to look at youth leadership programs on the land, plus also in academic areas where, like the Tlicho said, we're strong to people if we go forward. Yeah.

This interview has been edited and condensed.