'A big presence': Remembering Charlie Barnaby, founding member of the Dene Nation
CBC
A former chief of the K'áhshó Got'ı̨nę First Nation and one of the founding chiefs of the Indian Brotherhood, which went on to become the Dene Nation, will be laid to rest in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., Thursday.
Charlie Barnaby, known for his good humour and strong voice for Dene rights, passed away on April 9 at age 90.
Barnaby was one of the 16 chiefs who filed the Paulette caveat in 1973, claiming a legal interest, based on Indigenous rights, to one million square kilometres of land in the N.W.T. The case wound up in the Supreme Court of Canada and even though it was later dismissed on a technicality, it led to a new interpretation of Treaty 8 and Treaty 11 and paved the way for modern land claims and for the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline inquiry.
François Paulette, the chief for whom the caveat was named, remembers that time vividly.
"There were a lot of non-Dene people, in particular in Yellowknife and elsewhere that were kind of … belittling us, making us small, that we would never win a court case like that," he told Lawrence Nayally, host of CBC North's Trail's End.
Paulette recalls a certain amount of trepidation around the case.
"To some degree, we had fear, because we did not have too much knowledge of the law," he said.
But not Charlie Barnaby.
"He was outspoken. He's a big Dene man, a big presence," Paulette said. "He didn't beat around the bush protecting Dene lands."
Nor was he afraid to speak truth to power.
Paulette recalled a meeting with Stuart Hodgson, then commissioner of the N.W.T., in which Barnaby didn't mince words:
"Stu Hodgson turns to Chief Barnaby and he says … 'Chief, can you explain to me why is the price of the wolverine constant? The price doesn't fall. It stays about $500 or so. And why is that?'"
"And Chief Charlie Barnaby just immediately says, 'Mr. Commissioner, the wolverine is like the white man. All he knows is to steal.'"
Paulette said that got a big laugh from everyone — Barnaby was making a play on the Dene word for wolverine, which translates directly into English as "one that steals."
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