NNSL (Mar 30/98) - Descendents of uranium miners in Deline will likely get the chance to present their case to three federal departments.

Representatives from the federal departments of Health, Indian Affairs and Northern Development have all expressed concern about Deline residents hauling dangerous uranium gunny sacks throughout the 1940s and fifties without being told of the potentially lethal nature of the work.

Andy Orkin, a lawyer representing the Deline Uranium Committee is trying to line up meetings with federal officials as well as Northern Development Minister Jane Stewart and Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Ralph Goodale.

A buzz continues to permeate the hamlet after last week's visit of southern scientists, lawyers and researchers to the community.

The meeting unveiled declassified government documents declaring the U.S. government, which ran the mine, knew uranium mining was dangerous as far back as 1931.

Some documents suggested discussing uranium hazards should be done delicately or perhaps not at all.

"I no longer wonder whether the government ought to have known," Dene lawyer Andrew Orkin said. "I now know the government knew in 1931."

Morris Neyelle attended the public meeting and remembered his grandfather, Joe Kenny, who used to work in the mine and died in his 1970s of cancer.

The current Deline resident recalled Victor Dolphus, whose arm was ripped off while he hauled an outboard motor.

Doctors explained cancer made Dolphus' bones brittle enough to tear off, Neyelle said.

But Dolphus was in his 60s, as was Napoleon Kenny, who also died of cancer.

While officials now know hauling uranium clearly comes with it a risk of developing cancer, and even with the news that the U.S. government knew the job was dangerous at the time, proving the cancer deaths came from working at the mine is virtually impossible.

The task is made even more difficult thanks to a smoking rate in Deline of about 50 per cent.

"We started noticing a lot of cancer deaths in the 1970s," Neyelle said. "We were saying to the health board in Inuvik there's a lot of cancer. All they said was that it was because there is so much smoking."

The Dene are pushing for immediate crisis assistance, a comprehensive environmental and social assessment with full public disclosure, cleanups and monitoring.

They are also pushing for an acknowledgement of government responsibility, community healing and cultural regeneration.