Watkins, the Dene, and Northern political economy

Abstract

Abstract In the mid-1970s, Mel Watkins was recruited by the Dene of the Northwest Territories in their opposition to the construction of a natural gas pipeline system in their homeland. The experience led him to a major breakthrough in the staple analysis as applied to Canada as he revised the analysis to take Indigenous land rights into account. Watkins’ time in Yellowknife was also the beginning of his lifelong commitment to redress injustices experienced by Indigenous people.