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 The Sahtu Dene were still a nomadic people when industrial
development came to Great Bear Lake in the 1930s. A discovery
of pitchblende ore, containing radium - then worth $75,000
per ounce - led to the building of the Eldorado Mine on the
eastern shore, some 250 km from Déline. During World
War II, the Canadian government took over Eldorado and shipped
the ore south where it was processed into uranium to supply
a secret American project, the atomic bomb.
Cloth sacks of ore were carried around the rapids on the
Bear River by the Sahtu Dene, and re-loaded on barges for
the long trip south. In the early 1960s, when a high percentage
of former workers started to die of cancer, the people of
Déline realized they had been exposed to radioactivity.
Community activists raised awareness, and by 1998 the Government
of Canada agreed to co-operate with the people of Déline
to develop an action plan for dealing with their concerns.
The plan was published in February, 2003.
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