Paying the Land

Comics journalism about the The Dene, who, by their account, have lived in the vast Mackenzie River Valley since time immemorial. To the Dene, the land owns them, not the other way around, and it is central to their livelihood and very way of being. But the subarctic Canadian Northwest Territories are home to valuable resources, including oil, gas, and diamonds. Joe Sacco travels through the frozen North to interview people in the Dene Nation about the costs and benefits of mining and development. He draws out the destructive legacy of Indian residential schools, the government land claims, and the economic colonialism that plagues indigenous people to this day. Amidst an epic landscape, he shows the daily lives and needs of trappers, chiefs, activists, priests, and more, and shows that even in the face of exploitation there's always hope.