Edmonton (Aug 28/06) - Raymond Yakeleya knows how to pick them.

The Edmonton-based filmmaker has spent the last year or more working on two huge projects, each dealing with important Northern issues: oil and gas exploration and residential schools.

Yakeleya, who runs the film company Earth Magic Media, has finished initial filming for two documentaries: one on the Norman Wells oil discovery and another on Grandin College, the well-known Fort Smith residential school.

He said the first film examines the relationship between the Dene, the federal government and Imperial Oil before, during and after the signing of Treaty 11, which handed over control of traditional Dene lands in 1921.

"It was the first major oil strike of any import," he said. "At the time, it was considered the largest oil field in Canada."

Yakeleya, originally from Tulita, said the film examines the legality of the treaty and the way it was signed. Treaty 11 gave Dene peoples "the right to pursue their usual vocations of hunting, trapping and fishing," year-round in return for giving up title to the land.

"It seems like a land grab," he said. "When the Dene were presented the treaty barely any of them could speak English. They were not given a lawyer to interpret the treaty. They had no idea what they were signing."

Further, he said the treaty violated the 1917 Migratory Game Birds Convention Act, which protected certain birds from year-round hunting.

"They couldn't keep their promise. The government lied to itself in front of the people," he said.

"Once (the Dene) signed the treaty, they were out of the way."

The second project that Yakeleya is completing is called Grandin College Legacy, based on the residential school in Fort Smith. The school boasts a number of prominent students, including Northern leaders Ethel Blondin-Andrew and Stephen Kakfwi, among many others.

"To come out of that little town and take over the government of the whole NWT, that's quite a leap," he said of the former premier.

He said the school taught more than 400 students in its history. Yakeleya was one of them.

"I think it will be a movie about memories," he said.

"Some (residential schools) were not so good, but some were really great," he said of Grandin's legacy.

While it may be more than a year before either film comes to light, through APTN, CBC, or other avenues, Yakeleya said he has recorded things people need to see.

"We want to format it for schools so it can go into the curriculum of the North. I think that this very important."