One of the more interesting bits of history from here in Deline, on the shores Great Bear Lake, has to do with the uranium mined at Echo Bay and shipped down to the USA as part of the Manhattan Project. This was a massive effort, eventually involving some 220 tons of ore shipped to the United States.

This top-secret operation resulted in the two atomic bombs dropped on the unsuspecting Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in August of 1945, effectively putting a halt to the Second World War.

One of the other root stories of all of these activities had to do with Port Radium, where a Dene man named Beyonnie found an odd rock which he showed to a prospector named Gilbert Lepine. A few years after this rock was assayed Lepine staked his claim to the land in question, eventually resulting in Port Radium.

Over the years, a small town of three or four hundred people grew on the rocky spot, centered on the extraction of what the relatives of the Dene here called the 'Money Rock'. One estimate says the mine made an average of more than $30 million per year over the operation's lifespan of 50 years, Victor Beyonnie's dad, the person who found the rock was only given a sack of flour, a tin of lard and some baking powder for his part in all of this.

One of the related productions of these sad but true events was featured in a video titled "Village of Widows," which mentions a large number of uncompensated cases of cancer-related deaths amongst the Dene workers at this one mine. In another study of Port Radium the cause of the deaths may well point to the fact the people who were hired to physically carry the raw uranium ore were never told of the dangers involved. Many were paid a meager $5 for a 12-hour day.

One striking figure throughout all of this involves the Prophet Etseo Ayah, a man who foresaw all of these earth-shattering events. A little known detail of his involvement at the time of the Second World War has a group of people representing the Canadian Government and the Military coming right here to Deline to ask this man to help out in the war effort, with his powerful prayer.

He correctly predicted the end of Hitler's stranglehold on the world and said that no harm would come to Canada or the USA. One would do well to take a second look into this disturbing part of our Northern and Canadian history and I for one do hope that we can at the very least support more in the way of compensation for the relatives of those who tragically died with so little recognition. Mahsi cho, Thank you.