At a recent session in Aklavik, the big questions were asked to a knot of about 20 people at a circle of tables in the community hall: questions like "What is self-government?" and "What does self-government mean to you?"

Some of the answers that came back were things like a desire for more control over education so something as small as an example used in a child's math lesson more properly reflects life at the tree line: as one session leader put it, "How many people here know what an apple orchard is? But how many people know what a dog team is?"

Other answers were more concrete: money, and the power to decide what it is spent on at a local level, rather than accepting decisions from an office in Yellowknife.

While in some Sahtu communities, individual hamlets are moving towards more self-governing powers, Bob Simpson, the chief negotiator for the Beaufort-Delta self-government office, says he hopes a consensus can be found among the different communities that make up the region.

"We're hoping people have a common theme and that we can form a regional consensus," he said.

"Education, for example, is always a priority whether you are white, Gwich'in or Inuvialuit, and as negotiators, people in the region might tell us to push for that at the table."

Negotiators meet with the territorial government regularly and Simpson says the purpose of the public meetings, which will wrap up next month, are to educate residents about the process and to get feedback about what people in the region want negotiators to push for: things like protection of culture and language, for example.

That protection may take the place of guaranteed seats for aboriginals on elected councils and talk like that has already caused ears to prick up in Inuvik, the largest and most racially diverse Delta community. Models of government that call for certain numbers of seats to be set aside for native representatives and voted on solely by native voters have already caused some town councillors there to brand the models "racist."

"There's a lot of fear about that, especially in Inuvik," Simpson acknowledged.

"People are worried how the inherent rights (of natives) are balanced with the rights of a Canadian citizen."

Sessions in Inuvik are set for early March. Negotiators hope to have held sessions in all eight communities by the middle of next month, after which they will issue a report on the sessions. Fieldworkers are also visiting individually with residents.

When the process got under way in 1996, a target of 1999 was set for inking a final model to coincide with division in the East, but Simpson said that was a bit ambitious given what is involved.

"Land claim negotiations took 15 to 20 years, and we're supposed to do this in four to five years?" he asked.