"In the summer months, when there was no school, I would go to my parents' camp at Rabbitskin. My mother would take me, and my brothers and sisters, on the Mackenzie River, the Dehcho. We would go by canoe further up the river, up the head of the line, and set nets and go berry picking.
The kids were put in residential schools so we learned to be educated, but we didn't learn about hunting and trapping. We just spoke English. We lost our language so we couldn't communicate with our parents who spoke Dene. So there was a breakdown in communication.
Parents were grief-stricken, they lost their children.
After college, I worked for the Dene Nation and did the Land Use maping for the Dehcho region. The hunters and trappers told us stories about where they were raised, the cabins they used, where they found game and fish.
In summer they travelled on the rivers and sometimes they portaged. In winter they used dog teams.
Some people travelled quite a distance. William Antoine was raised across the river, about 90 miles away. When they walked back to town it took two days.
The Dene Nation used those Land Use maps at the Berger Inquiry, to verify how vastly the land was used by the Dene. When we went to Yellowknife we put the maps on the wall. Once you put them all together it was like a huge net.
The Land Use mapping was worthwhile because it gave some breathing room to the Dene. More people in the communities could get on board for a land claims settlement.
When Judge Berger came to Fort Simpson, I said: 'All we ask is for a share in this democratic system through control over our lives and land, through what we call the Dene Nation.'
The maps were a bridge from the older generation to my generation. We were a conduit for the knowledge of the elders."