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Douglas Bay in the ?ehdacho has been designated as a national historic site. - photo courtesy of CPAWS

DELINE/FORT FRANKLIN - After more than 10 years the community of Deline has protected culturally-sensitive land once inhabited by its ancestors. On Tuesday, the Saoyú and ?ehdacho peninsulas on western Great Bear Lake were designated a national historic site.

In Deline, federal environment minister Jim Prentice announced that a land transfer had been completed, handing over title of the 5,565-square-km of land over to Parks Canada for permanent protection as a national historical site.

Raymond Taniton, chief negotiator for Deline throughout the more than 10-year process, said the work could not have been done without the help and knowledge of the community's elders.

"The elders were the key players," he said. "If it wasn't for them, we could never have accomplished what we accomplished yesterday."

He said the elders provided a wealth of information of the area through stories - used by the ancestors of the residents in the area - to demonstrate the cultural and historical value of the peninsulas, a key element required to move forward with the proposal.

"It's all history about how our ancestors used to survive on the peninsula," he said.

Taniton said there are human remains and gravesites on the now-protected area, along with an abundance of wildlife.

The Saoyú and ?ehdacho peninsulas are the first sites to be protected under the NWT Protected Areas Strategy.

"It's the first large scale cultural landscape to be designated a national historic site in Canada," said Erica Janes, a conservation co-ordinator with the NWT's chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, a partner in the Protected Areas Strategy process.

Janes said she was thrilled to be in Deline for the announcement.

"It's been a long slog, so it was really amazing to celebrate," she said.

She said when the area was designated a national historic site, back in the late 1990s, it didn't offer any protection to the land.

Now, the community has a co-management plan for the peninsulas with Parks Canada.

"Part of their management agreement is they will be able to go out and have healing camps and youth camps on the land," she said.

She said the land, which the people around the lake have used for a millennium, are rich in archeological sites and wildlife.

Some of the animals found in the area include grizzly bears, boreal caribou and wolverine peregrine falcons.

Janes said to get an area protected, a community comes forward to the Protected Area Strategies office and requests a certain special area be protected. The community then forms a working group with various levels governments, local organizations, environment agencies, the Protected Area Strategy and industry. The working group then conducts an eight-step process, gathers information about the area, and eventually - if successful - gets the area approved for protection.

There are at least eight additional areas in the NWT that are being proposed for protected area status, including wetlands near Fort Good Hope and boreal forest around Kakisa. The federal government will provide $8.75 million over 10 years to fund the development and operation of the Saoyú and ?ehdacho - around the size of Prince Edward Island.

Taniton said Tuesday's announcement will have long-lasting effects.

"The good thing about this is the next generation - our kids - will know about how our ancestors - how we - lived," said Taniton. "That will come alive again and that's key: to share our stories with the public."

Taniton said it's time to move forward now and decide what to do with the area. He said a board has been formed to manage the area and will meet in the second week of May to implement the new agreement.

For now, he sees cookouts and storytelling at the site, along with a home for a spiritual gathering held every August 15 for residents of Deline.

"Since the beginning, we all stood together and we moved ahead and at the end, it's completed," said Taniton. "So I'm happy."