For the first time in several years, the Tłı̨chǫ and Yellowknives Dene First Nations have come together on an official level with an agreement to work closely together in the future.
The announcement was made on the YKDFN Facebook page on May 16th, referring to the long history the two Nations have shared together ever since their past Elders, Edzo and Akaitcho, formed a peace treaty.
Dene Chief Ernest Betsina shared some words on the announcement, saying that “It’s basically just open dialog between the two First Nations to talk about possible opportunities that are out there, and we did have a history of working together, so maybe there’s an opportunity for us to work together again.”
Chief Betsina added that this development is still very fresh, and the two Nations are still working out the details of how and when they will be working together.
“We need to hear what the Tłı̨chǫ has to say, and they have to hear what we have to say, and we can possibly work towards a Memorandum of Understanding. We have to inform our council what we’re doing and inform our Elders. We have a community meeting coming up, so we need to inform our membership of us reaching out and possibly working together in the future.”
That meeting is currently set for June 14th.
Chief Betsina finished by reminding the Dene membership of the history shared between their Nation and the Tłı̨chǫ.
“It’s just a matter of ‘how do we do that?’ There’s still a lo of work ahead of us, so we look forward to informing our members in the future.”
