ALSO BY JOE SACCO

War Junkie

Safe Area Goražde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992–

1995
Palestine
The Fixer: A Story from Sarajevo
Notes from a Defeatist

War’s End: Profiles from Bosnia, 1995–1996

Footnotes in Gaza
Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt
(with Chris Hedges)
Journalism
 Metropolitan Books
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

eISBN: 978-1-250-79041-5

Names: Sacco, Joe, author, artist.

Title: Paying the land / Joe Sacco.
Description: New York : Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, [2020]
| Chiefly illustrated.
To the people of the
land
NOTES ON DENE LANGUAGES

The Dene languages of the Northwest Territories are part of a

larger language family called Athabascan which extends down to
northern Mexico. I have endeavored to use Dene place names
whenever possible and these and a few Dene-language words are
sprinkled throughout the text. The written Dene languages are
still evolving. In the absence of standard/universal/regularized
spellings, Dene words are rendered in the International Phonetic
Alphabet and with the most up-to-date spelling.

The main Dene languages referenced are listed below, along with
websites that provide more information for those who are
interested.

The Shúhtaot’įnę (Mountain Dene) of Tulít’a speak a dialect of the

Sahtú region’s Dene language, known to linguists as North Slavey.
Three North Slavey dialect dictionaries, including one for Tulít’a,
can be found at:
NOTE ON TROUT LAKE
http://www.sahtudec.ca/view.php?action=documents&id=63.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As always, a project like this, with one person’s name on it, has a
long list of behind-the-scenes contributors and participants who
deserve thanks and credit.

Shauna Morgan is responsible for this book happening, though

not for any mistakes, which are mine alone. She had tried to
organize a talk by me in Yellowknife and told me that if I visited
she would introduce me to some of the local issues related to the
Dene and their environment. I couldn’t make it, but about three
years later, when I first began thinking of exploring how resource
extraction intersects with indigenous people, I looked her up, we
wrote back and forth, and quite quickly the framework of a visit
to the Northwest Territories began to take shape. She planned our
trips according to my interests, set up numerous interviews, and
acted as my guide and driver. More than that, she was a good-
While
humoredI was in Yellowknife,
comrade, someone Kris
with Schlagintweit
whom I couldand HelenoffBowen
bounce ideas
kindly let me stay at their warm and lovely home. I very
on the long drives between communities. She is currently on themuch
enjoyed their dinners and our many relaxed conversations.
Terry Woolf gave me a ride with his dog team, which was one of
the most delightful experiences I had in the Northwest Territories.

Jim Antoine, besides sitting down with me twice for extensive

interviews about his experiences with the Indian Brotherhood, the
Dene Nation, the Berger Inquiry, and his tenure in the legislative
assembly and as premier of the Northwest Territories, made an
herbal tea from scratch for me to alleviate a very bad cold I
suffered.

This book wouldn’t be half of what it is without the kindness,

help, and patience of Dolphus Jumbo, chief of Trout Lake (now
Sambaa K’e), who gave his time to Shauna and me when we
visited his lovely community. Meeting Dolphus is what made me
decide to turn what was ostensibly a two-part magazine piece into
a book. On our second trip, Dolphus opened up his house and
Igave
thank
us aall mytointerview
place sleep. subjects in general. People told me
difficult stories about difficult times or intimate stories about their
Paul Andrew,
connection to Valerie Conrad,
the land, Willard
and they simplyHagen, David
trusted that and Theresa
I would use
Etchinelle, Frederick Andrew, and Stephen Kakfwi all answered
what they said in the right way, mostly so others might learn from
additional questions over the years. Morris Modeste looked over
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JOE SACCO is the author of Footnotes in Gaza , for which he

received the Ridenhour Book Prize, as well as Palestine ,
Journalism , Safe Area Goražde , and other books. His comics
reporting has appeared in The Guardian , Details , The New York
Times Magazine , Time , and Harper’s . He lives in Portland,
Oregon.