In his new book Paying the Land, acclaimed comics journalist Joe Sacco pays a visit to the Dene and other Indigenous people in their vast and majestic homelands in Canada’s Northwest Territories near the arctic circle. Sacco is there to learn the history of Canada’s First Nation peoples, their tragic conflict with the Canadian government, and to understand their new struggle with mining, oil and fracking interests to control and benefit from the extraction of these resources from their traditional lands. In this 12-page excerpt Sacco talks with chief Dolphus Jumbo and indigenous activists and learns about the terrible impact of Canada’s residential schools, and the pull between traditional life in the bush and the benefits and the severe social problems that come with modern life. Sacco is also interviewed on the More to Come Podcast. Paying the Land by Joe Sacco was published in July by Metropolitan Books.
