Finding Dahshaa

The social suffering and self-determination of Indigenous peoples are important public policy issues in Canada today. This book asks a fundamental question regarding Canadian-Aboriginal relations: Are self-government agreements an effective path to self-determination?

Finding Dahshaa describes self-government negotiations between Canada and the Dehcho, Délînê, and Inuvialuit and Gwich'in peoples in the Northwest Territories. It contrasts boardroom negotiating sessions with moosehide-tanning camps and community meetings in small northern communities to show that Canada's Aboriginal policy has failed because injustice and social suffering have become part of the process itself. Moosehide-tanning practices, which embody values central to Dene self-determination, offer an alternative model for negotiations. Through parallel narratives, the author shows how attaining self-determination is akin to finding dahshaa, a rare type of dried, rotted spruce wood essential for achieving success in this core cultural process.

An informed and passionate account, with a foreword by Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus, Finding Dahshaa is the first ethnographic study of self-government negotiations in Canada.