Thesis (M.S.)--University of Alberta, 2009. / Title from pdf file main screen (viewed July 30, 2009) "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in rural sociology, Dept. of Rural Economy". Includes bibliographical references.

The Sahtúgot’ı̨nę have lived in the Sahtú Region around Great Bear Lake since time immemorial. Our Elders believe that spirituality is the foundation for our language, culture and worldview and that it is essential for our language and culture to be taught in the context of spirituality. This thesis provides a description and a definition of spirituality from the perspective of the Sahtúgot’ı̨nę, distinguishing spirituality from concepts such as worldview, culture and medicine power. In keeping with our traditional ways of preserving and transmitting knowledge to future generations, the paper relies heavily on stories passed on to us from our Elders. The paper elaborates on key concepts of Sahtúgot’ı̨nę spirituality. First, like human beings, all animals on this earth have a living spirit or bets’ı̨nę́. Other entities on this earth - plants and trees, the water and the wind - are also living beings with their own yǝ́dı́ı. Specific geographic sites with a special significance to the Sahtúgot’ı̨nę are also said to be yǝ́dı́ı. The other key concept is the existence of three dimensions of existence and their inter-relationship which is crucial to the understanding of Sahtúgot’ı̨nę spirituality. / Graduate

This inquiry answered the questions: What is the most culturally respectful method for a cross-cultural researcher to discover how northern Aboriginal people learn and make decisions about their health? What will be the common patterns of learning among northern Saskatchewan Aboriginal people who have altered their life path? And what strategies will any common patterns suggest for the development of health promotion and community development programs specific to the cultures and people of northern Saskatchewan? Six Aboriginal people, whom I call my teachers, were selected because they had turned their lives around to more closely approximate a Cree idea of health called mithwayawin or the Dene idea of health called hote Zgehenai. A literature search and consultations with my teachers suggested that a respectful form of cross-cultural inquiry was possible in northern Saskatchewan communities. Furthermore, there were common themes suggesting a foundation of wellness and resilience indicating that similar resiliency factors exist in northern cultures as exist in other cultures. As well, common patterns suggested a lateral thinking and learning style or creative problem solving that is different from vertical or linear thinking common to the scientific-industrial cultures. Moreover, other themes suggested that the teachers had a preference for accumulating experience over abstract analysis indicating the desirability of active participation by community members in defining health challenges, arriving at solutions and planning and implementing changes. Furthermore, other themes suggested that the teachers life long learning occurred in a holistic context indicating that health promotion strategies could provide rich social, physical, spiritual and mental contexts within which Northerners can learn. As well, other themes suggested that the teachers used an Aboriginal ecological learning process indicating that health promotion efforts could consider working to revitalize the cultural beliefs, values and practices and could provide a rich environment of spiritual, physical and social activities so that the people would have the opportunity to fully develop their brain, mind, body, memory continuum and thereby achieve balance. The findings further implied that increasing general health knowledge among Northerners and using a community health development process in northern communities are strategies that northern health promotion and community development workers could consider employing in their work. More detailed and specific strategies are suggested.

This inquiry answered the questions: What is the most culturally respectful method for a cross-cultural researcher to discover how northern Aboriginal people learn and make decisions about their health? What will be the common patterns of learning among northern Saskatchewan Aboriginal people who have altered their life path? And what strategies will any common patterns suggest for the development of health promotion and community development programs specific to the cultures and people of northern Saskatchewan? Six Aboriginal people, whom I call my teachers, were selected because they had turned their lives around to more closely approximate a Cree idea of health called mithwayawin or the Dene idea of health called hote Zgehenai. A literature search and consultations with my teachers suggested that a respectful form of cross-cultural inquiry was possible in northern Saskatchewan communities. Furthermore, there were common themes suggesting a foundation of wellness and resilience indicating that similar resiliency factors exist in northern cultures as exist in other cultures. As well, common patterns suggested a lateral thinking and learning style or creative problem solving that is different from vertical or linear thinking common to the scientific-industrial cultures. Moreover, other themes suggested that the teachers had a preference for accumulating experience over abstract analysis indicating the desirability of active participation by community members in defining health challenges, arriving at solutions and planning and implementing changes. Furthermore, other themes suggested that the teachers life long learning occurred in a holistic context indicating that health promotion strategies could provide rich social, physical, spiritual and mental contexts within which Northerners can learn. As well, other themes suggested that the teachers used an Aboriginal ecological learning process indicating that health promotion efforts could consider working to revitalize the cultural beliefs, values and practices and could provide a rich environment of spiritual, physical and social activities so that the people would have the opportunity to fully develop their brain, mind, body, memory continuum and thereby achieve balance. The findings further implied that increasing general health knowledge among Northerners and using a community health development process in northern communities are strategies that northern health promotion and community development workers could consider employing in their work. More detailed and specific strategies are suggested.

This thesis examines Dene engagement with the diamond mining economy in Canada’s Northwest Territories. While historic treaties, policy and regulation create situations of powerlessness, the space for the negotiation of a bilateral relationship between Treaty mining companies and communities exists, formalized as Impact and Benefit Agreements. An initial emphasis on socio-cultural impacts and vulnerability of the communities in relation to the mines illuminated variable outcomes. This led to a central focus on how outcomes are negotiated, with the outcomes strongly related to forms of community and cultural resilience. Surprisingly, the ability to bounce back, or be resilient (not vulnerable), as defined by the Tåîchô and Yellowknives Dene communities is central to community response and well being in this new economy. The possibility of self determination and the potential to be in relationships of reciprocity are found to be fundamental drivers of community health and thus resilience. Study of the Tåîchô Cosmology surfaces the centrality of reciprocity to cultural resilience wherein the quality and nature of the relationships as inscribed in past and present agreements themselves are of defining importance. New relationships with mining companies are entered with the expectation of reciprocity by communities, so that the exchanges are economic, social, cultural, spiritual and symbolic. This thesis outlines this process as it plays out in the mining economy and as it is manifest in spaces of negotiation, each of which invokes social capital and reciprocity. These include negotiations between: diamond mining companies and the communities; government and communities; diamond mining companies and the workers, and miners and their families and communities. Each of these negotiations is vital in creating the possibility of employment and business. However, relationships with the settler government and with Treaty mining companies are constrained. Many of the limitations identified relate to the assumption by settler society of the universality of their particular values, practices and culture. The thesis argues that Treaty mining companies can shift approaches, both in the orientation to relationship and in the implementation of agreements through the lifecycle of the mine.

This thesis examines Dene engagement with the diamond mining economy in Canada’s Northwest Territories. While historic treaties, policy and regulation create situations of powerlessness, the space for the negotiation of a bilateral relationship between Treaty mining companies and communities exists, formalized as Impact and Benefit Agreements. An initial emphasis on socio-cultural impacts and vulnerability of the communities in relation to the mines illuminated variable outcomes. This led to a central focus on how outcomes are negotiated, with the outcomes strongly related to forms of community and cultural resilience. Surprisingly, the ability to bounce back, or be resilient (not vulnerable), as defined by the Tåîchô and Yellowknives Dene communities is central to community response and well being in this new economy. The possibility of self determination and the potential to be in relationships of reciprocity are found to be fundamental drivers of community health and thus resilience. Study of the Tåîchô Cosmology surfaces the centrality of reciprocity to cultural resilience wherein the quality and nature of the relationships as inscribed in past and present agreements themselves are of defining importance. New relationships with mining companies are entered with the expectation of reciprocity by communities, so that the exchanges are economic, social, cultural, spiritual and symbolic. This thesis outlines this process as it plays out in the mining economy and as it is manifest in spaces of negotiation, each of which invokes social capital and reciprocity. These include negotiations between: diamond mining companies and the communities; government and communities; diamond mining companies and the workers, and miners and their families and communities. Each of these negotiations is vital in creating the possibility of employment and business. However, relationships with the settler government and with Treaty mining companies are constrained. Many of the limitations identified relate to the assumption by settler society of the universality of their particular values, practices and culture. The thesis argues that Treaty mining companies can shift approaches, both in the orientation to relationship and in the implementation of agreements through the lifecycle of the mine.

This thesis examines Dene engagement with the diamond mining economy in Canada’s Northwest Territories. While historic treaties, policy and regulation create situations of powerlessness, the space for the negotiation of a bilateral relationship between Treaty mining companies and communities exists, formalized as Impact and Benefit Agreements. An initial emphasis on socio-cultural impacts and vulnerability of the communities in relation to the mines illuminated variable outcomes. This led to a central focus on how outcomes are negotiated, with the outcomes strongly related to forms of community and cultural resilience. Surprisingly, the ability to bounce back, or be resilient (not vulnerable), as defined by the Tåîchô and Yellowknives Dene communities is central to community response and well being in this new economy. The possibility of self determination and the potential to be in relationships of reciprocity are found to be fundamental drivers of community health and thus resilience. Study of the Tåîchô Cosmology surfaces the centrality of reciprocity to cultural resilience wherein the quality and nature of the relationships as inscribed in past and present agreements themselves are of defining importance. New relationships with mining companies are entered with the expectation of reciprocity by communities, so that the exchanges are economic, social, cultural, spiritual and symbolic. This thesis outlines this process as it plays out in the mining economy and as it is manifest in spaces of negotiation, each of which invokes social capital and reciprocity. These include negotiations between: diamond mining companies and the communities; government and communities; diamond mining companies and the workers, and miners and their families and communities. Each of these negotiations is vital in creating the possibility of employment and business. However, relationships with the settler government and with Treaty mining companies are constrained. Many of the limitations identified relate to the assumption by settler society of the universality of their particular values, practices and culture. The thesis argues that Treaty mining companies can shift approaches, both in the orientation to relationship and in the implementation of agreements through the lifecycle of the mine. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Mining Engineering, Keevil Institute of / Graduate

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Almost every year, Aboriginal communities are evacuated from northern regions of Canada to nearby cities because of threats due to forest fires and flooding. In this thesis, I present the perspectives of twenty members of the Hatchet Lake First Nation, who were evacuated from Wollaston Lake in northern Saskatchewan during the summer of 2011. My main research question is, how do residents of Wollaston Lake describe experiences of disruptions to well-being and distress during the evacuation and in the evacuation centers? My methods are qualitative, as I conducted open-ended interviews and participant observation while residing in the community for six weeks during the summer of 2012. Following the approaches of Geertz (2000), Garro (2000), and Mattingly (1998), I engaged in a narrative analysis of these data. Three main themes are evident in community members’ discussions of their experiences. First, participants focus on the ways that the fire and displacement disrupted the well-being of fellow community members and, to a lesser degree, their relationships with the land surrounding their town, and their roles within the community. Residents of Wollaston Lake portray a version of well-being that is rooted in the social, rather than individual, self. The second theme relates to family roles, as mothers, fathers, adult children, and guardians describe the various ways that these roles were disrupted during the fire and evacuation, and the distress elicited by these disruptions. These narratives are indicative of the discrepancies between the circumstances experienced during the fire and evacuation, and the values and behaviors that they associate with family roles. The third theme relates to expectations and blame, as community members recall the various ways that the evacuation failed to meet their expectations, and they attribute blame to those that they deem responsible for these inadequacies. Specifically, community members focus on expectations relating to the handling of the threat of fire, the organization of the evacuation, and their interactions with members of the host communities. These findings indicate the incongruities between current emergency management practices in Saskatchewan and the needs of this community. The implication of these findings is that, in order to minimize distress during future disasters, organizers must develop plans that account for the distinct social norms and vulnerabilities of the communities with which they work.

Culture and all of its aspects are best reflected in the home environments. Home is not only a house which is a shelter but a place with social, psychological and emotional associations, and manifests in the continous use of a house. Continuity of use in the home environments is both conceptual and physical, and this can be observed in traditional or historical domestic contexts, to which the Ottoman vernacular house is an example. This study introduces the village of MenteSbey and its 19th century vernacular home environments within their socio-cultural context. MenteSbey was once a prominent center for kadis, Ottoman state officials and judges. The profession of kadilik played an important role in the social development of the village that in turn affected the domestic architecture, which can be grouped into two as kadi and standard houses. MenteSbey houses constitute a good example for tracing &quot / home&quot / , &quot / continuity of use&quot / and &quot / status&quot / in the Ottoman house as some are still inhabited by the families descending both from the lineage of kadis and other families of the 19th century. Seventeen of these houses are documented with their plans, photographs and inhabitants in the study. This study is also an initial step for the possible cultural, architectural and historical studies in and around MenteSbey in the future, and most of all for preserving MenteSbey and its houses for the coming generations.