What the border divides : settler geographies and the making of the Northwest Territories

• Main Author: Stoller, Mark
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2019
• Subjects: Canada; Indian; Mackenzie Valley; Northwest Territories; Nunavut
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/71909

This dissertation is a critical examination of the historical and political geography of the North- west Territories from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. The study is presented in five body chap- ters, which integrate methods and theories from political geography, settler colonial studies, and northern studies. The study traces the history of Dene political mobilization and resistance to the persistent encroachment upon their lands that resulted from heightened speculation about the mineral and petroleum resources throughout Denendeh, the traditional lands of the Dene. In do- ing so, it links this history to contemporary scholarship that addresses how Indigenous peoples are represented, and how this representation factors into the historical appropriation of Dene lands. The dissertation examines Dene struggle from multiple angles, each of which is used to highlight different aspects of settler colonial relations of power in Canada. These are thematical- ly organized around discussions of time and temporality and their roles in making settler space. Chapters address the politics of postwar Indian Policy as it relates to the Northwest Territories, the expansion of the Mackenzie Highway and the role of Dene labour in it, efforts by Dene to map their historical lands, Dene participation at the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry in the 1970s, and the subsequent period of land claims negotiations of the 1980s. In each of these, longer histories of Dene struggle for treaty rights and land are incorporated with critical discus- sions of economic and political development. The study concludes at the signing of the Nunavut Agreement in 1993, and recounts the various ways that time is a dimension of settler geographies. Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Graduate