Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2009
[A Commission of Inquiry into the terms and conditions that would have to be established in the event of a natural gas pipeline corridor being built along the Mackenzie Valley heard evidence for about 18 months in all the potentially affected communities, as well as in Yellowknife and some southern cities. The Commission was headed by Justice Thomas Berger, and came to be known as the Berger Inquiry. This article is based on material contained in two papers, entitled ‘Industrial impact’ and ‘An overview’, presented at the Inquiry by the author in August 1976. We are grateful to the Inquiry for allowing us to make use of the material.
1 Dene is the word for ‘Indian’ preferred by Indian peoples of the western Arctic. The Métis are descendants of Indian women who married ‘whites’, especially French Canadian voyageurs. They do not have the status of Treaty Indians, but have lived for many generations in northern communities, by hunting, fishing, and trapping.