This dissertation considers the incommensurable interests of people, fossil capital, federal
energy politics, and place in Northern Canada during the 1970s. By the late 1960s, the
insatiable North American appetite for fossil fuels had turned its attention toward the
Arctic region. After the discovery of rich deposits in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in 1968, largescale
energy projects were proposed to access and exploit these Arctic natural resources.
Canada participated in this northern oil rush; an exploration of oil and gas in the Arctic
regions was accelerated in the early 1970s. The next challenge involved transporting the
oil and gas to southern markets. In 1974, the Canadian federal government initiated the
Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry to investigate the social, environmental, and economic
effects of the pipeline routes proposed by a consortium of American and Canadian oil
companies through the Mackenzie River Valley in the Northwest Territories where it
would connect with existing pipeline infrastructure in northern Alberta. The Inquiry’s
report recommended against immediate construction, encouraging instead a ten-year
moratorium. Inquiry commissioner Thomas Berger’s report rationalized the delay to
make time for settling Indigenous land claims in the region and for taking conservation
measures to protect some key areas in the Mackenzie River Valley. In this dissertation, I
examine how the discussion around pipeline construction shaped the meaning of the
North, self-determination, and cultural recognition. In this dissertation, I particularly
focus on how Indigenous peoples asserted their claims by rejecting state-driven policies
and the interests of fossil-fuel capitalism in the North. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Through the close reading of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry hearings, I examine
how the discussion around energy development shaped the 1970s’ contentious Canadian
politics of nation and North. Central to this debate, I focus on how Indigenous peoples
asserted their land claims by challenging and refusing the settler state policies and the
interests of fossil-fuel capitalism in the western Northwest Territories in the 1970s. By
using the Inquiry process, northern Indigenous peoples challenged the idea that the state
had a legitimate authority to decide and control the future or destiny of a territory or
peoples in its defined borders.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/28252 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Ozbilge, Nevcihan |
| Contributors | Egan, Michael, History |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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