LAND OF THE ANCESTORS

THE NEW THAIDENE NËNÉ NATIONAL PARK RESERVE IN THE N.W.T. IS THE HEART OF THE SACRED DENESǪŁINÉ HOMELAND AND A PROPHESIED FINAL REFUGE OF CLEAN WATER (AND ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY) IN NORTH AMERICA

- LAURIE SARKADI

ON A SPLOTCH OF SANDY BEACH leading to the blue-green waters of Great Slave — the deepest lake in North America and also the cleanest, according to Dene who’ve spent a lifetime dipping their cups into it — two carefree teenagers sling fishing rods for trout while their leader Terri Enzoe worries.

They are all Ni Hat’Ni Dene Rangers, guardians of the land, a conservation program led by the Denesǫłiné of Łutsël K’é, Northwest Territories. Fishing is in their job description, a way of knowing the bounties of their homeland so they can inherit the responsibilities of its stewardship. Both 16-year-olds have moved from Łutsël K’é to larger centers where they’ve lost their language to English and virtual realities, yet that world is dissolving for them here. Amid the sheared red cliffs, narrow channels, and mysterious depths of Great Slave Lake’s much-vaunted East Arm, they hunger for the knowledge of their ancestors.

They hunger for what Enzoe knows.