It’s become somewhat trendy over the past several years to acknowledge the historical usurping of Indigenous lands.
How many times have you watched or listened to an event and someone in an official capacity, often a bureaucrat, will open a meeting or a presentation with, “We are pleased to be here today on the unceded territory of the [insert First Nation].”
It’s often referred to as a “land acknowledgement.”
The sentiment itself is fine, but as many Indigenous people have rightfully pointed out, words must be followed by actions to truly be meaningful.
With that in mind, Ndilo Chief Fred Sangris made a strongly-worded statement last week. He’s run out of patience with ice roads cropping up on a portion of Yellowknife Bay that belongs to the Yellowknives Dene First Nation (YKDFN).
The Government of the Northwest Territories’ public ice crossing to Dettah is legitimate, Sangris said. However, a slew of additional ice crossings branching off that authorized route have sprung up. It’s people in the tourism, exploration and mining and fishing industries who are responsible for the unapproved passages, according to the chief.
Let’s face it, anyone with a plow attached to a truck or an all-terrain vehicle can clear a basic ice road these days. It doesn’t take a company with deep pockets and an abundance of resources.
All of these unwanted passages over the ice are creating hardships for YKDFN’s traditional hunters and fishers, according to Sangris.
“And that seems to be having a huge impact on our own Dene way of life in the bay. The last few years have been really bad,” the chief said. “There’s no respect for Indigenous people. People are building ice roads or doing whatever they want in our backyard.”
It can also be unsafe. Unmarked ice roads are hazardous to snowmobilers, many of whom whip across the lake on powerful snow machines to get to cabins. A few years ago, a Yellowknife man wound up with a broken arm after crashing into the berm of a privately-constructed ice road.
Litter is another common and unsightly byproduct of people travelling on ice crossings.
It’s all caused enough turmoil that Sangris warned of the potential for confrontation in the future.
Hopefully that can be avoided.
Nobody wants to see Yellowknife and the North become over-regulated, but the Yellowknives are raising valid concerns.
Sangris is demanding proper consultation and better management of this situation, one that he lays at the feet of the federal government for not maintaining terms of the treaty and sufficiently monitoring disruptive activities on the bay.
If we’re really respectful of First Nations’ territory, don’t just repeat the en vogue sentiment during meetings, behave accordingly. Meanwhile, those of us who consider ourselves “allies” — another term that’s become de rigueur — should feel free to drop a line to Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada to let the federal government know that we share the YKDFN’s concerns and want something done about it before it sparks unrest.