Instead, Deh Cho First Nations will forge ahead with planning for their own government.
"We are taking responsibility for developing our own self-government," said Grand Chief Gerry Antoine after the release of a statement to the Aboriginal Summit. "If there are any amendments to the NWT Act, they must reflect Deh Cho initiatives."
The decision by the Deh Cho Assembly to pursue the Deh Cho process rather than get involved with constitutional talks came last spring, Antoine said.
"It's the only direction we've been given," he said. "We may attempt to look at relationships with other regions."
The statement states that, "for too many years, federal and territorial policy makers have taken on themselves the responsibility of looking after our people."
The Deh Cho leadership is using three main principles under the Deh Cho Land and Governance Proposal.
The first is to affirm Deh Cho jurisdiction over lands and resources, more specifically, constitutionally valid jurisdiction.
"We are not opposed to sharing the resources our lands provide ... what we want is to break the existing pattern where somebody else assumes a superior right to use, profit from, and make decisions about Deh Cho lands in order to apply a different cultural model," read the statement.
The leadership also stated that it doesn't accept the view that the NWT Act, as a federal statute, is superior to or holds sway over the rights of Deh Cho people.
But Deh Cho First Nations do accept that the Crown, in right of the Canadian government, has its own constitutional authorities.
The second principle of the Deh Cho proposal is to establish a "truly public Deh Cho government," the document states. The Deh Cho model is similar in spirit to that of the Nunavut government.
"Committed to this approach, the Deh Cho Leadership does not see a need to distinguish aboriginal self-government from public government.... A public Deh Cho government would return to aboriginal self-government."
The third principle underlying the Deh Cho proposal is a "return to taking responsibility for caring for our lands and people."
"At present, we receive programs and services from existing administrations and try to co-operate where we are able; however we are often at a disadvantage, having no opportunity to contribute to the design and financing of programs and services."
The Deh Cho proposal sees the Deh Cho government holding jurisdiction, financial and otherwise, over programs and services.
"We are very serious about what we're doing," Antoine said. "We're pro-active. We won't go away."
A special assembly of Deh Cho First Nations will be held at the Hay River Reserve Dec. 9 to discuss the next steps on the road to self-government.