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Gloria EnzoeBoard Member
Thaidene Nëné Xá Dá Yáłtı |
Gloria Enzoe’s late parents are Liza and Billy Enzoe. Her mom is Dënesųłıné and Sahtú Got’ı̨nę through her late grandpa. Her dad is Tłı̨chǫ. Kaché and Desnéthchée are an important part of Gloria’s story. Her maternal grandfather, Abel Nitah, had a house in the village at Kaché. Her mother, Liza, played a key role in initiating the first spiritual gathering at Desnéthchée.
Gloria has fond memories of the early years of the gathering. “There were no structures then. Everyone just put a blanket down and sat down. It was beautiful. For me, it was also the swimming haven of all swimming havens.” She remembers the Elders, women in pleated skirts and kerchiefs, men in plaid shirts, all of them wearing homemade slippers. “We did a lot of praying, and a lot of talking about the importance of healing and the importance of praying and healing to having healthy families.” Most nights there were drum dances.
A trip to Ts'ąkuı Thedá, the lady at the falls, was always a highlight of the gathering. People hiked to the falls then, so the Elders made sure the trail was maintained. What really stands out about the gathering, though, was that each year Ts'ąkuı Thedá would bring the people an animal. “It would come down the river,” Gloria explains. “I thought it was strange, but my mom said, ‘She is welcoming us. She is happy we are there. She is giving us a gift.’”
For someone so young, Gloria Enzoe has a long history with Thaidene Nëné. “I was there when we started really talking about a protected area due to development within our traditional territory,” she explains. In the early 2000s, Gloria became the first program coordinator for Thaidene Nëné. One of her responsibilities was to bring the Elders together to talk about their vision for the land. And not just once or twice, but repeatedly. She was also tasked with researching what a protected area could look like and then talking that through with the Elders. These were not always easy conversations. “It was kind of difficult to talk about parks and protected areas,” Gloria says, “because of our history as Dene with those things. There were a lot of trust issues that we needed to overcome. It was also important that we create something that was unique to us. I knew that if we could do that, it would be great.”
In 2008, following the direction of the Elders, Gloria started Ni Hat’ni Dene, which means Dene watchers of the land in Dënesųłıné yatı. “Ni Hat’ni Dene was created by the Elders for the Elders. I was just the person that walked in both worlds that helped them make their vision a reality,” Gloria explains. While the Łutsël K’é Dene and other Indigenous nations have always taken care of their lands, formal guardians programs are a relatively recent development. In 2008, there were only a handful of other nations engaged in this kind of work, most of them on the West Coast. Gloria remembers visiting Bella Bella and Haida Gwaii, an experience that was really important to further developing Ni Hat’ni. “They had really good protected areas and monitoring programs. It was great to go out with their guardians to see how they do things.”
Gloria’s experiences at Desnéthchée informed how she designed and ran Ni Hat’ni. “Growing up, we learned a lot about the importance of the people that lived in that area. We learned about whose families have lived where and the history of those families. Every year, my mom took our family to visit certain gravesites. She would tell us who was buried there and we would pray. When I ran Ni Hat’ni, I made sure that we mapped out all of the cabins and whose house was where. We tried to bring people out to the places that their families lived, so they would understand their family and the area.”
When Łutsël K’é was fundraising for the trust that now enables the nation to carry out its responsibilities within Thaidene Nëné, Gloria remembers a funder asking her, “How will you keep Thaidene Nëné alive ten years from now? How will you sustain it?” It’s a question that she continues to ask herself and the answer is both in the past and in the future. “I remember what the Elders said when I was working with them all those years ago, about the importance of keeping Thaidene Nëné the way they wanted to keep it. I also think about the saying, nes kınye xá, which means for your children.”
Gloria thinks a lot about her responsibilities within Thaidene Nëné in relation to her children. “I’m a mother. I’ve birthed children. That’s important. As long as I can fight for them to have clean drinking water, land to rejuvenate them and ensure their wellness, that’s a good job to have. Their whole lives, my kids have seen me advocate for our community, our land, our water. They see why it is important to take care of our home, and our home is not just four walls. It’s a vast area. We have a responsibility to care for the animals and for the water.”
Today, Gloria is carrying out that responsibility as a member of Thaidene Nëné Xá Dá Yáłtı, the people who speak for Thaidene Nëné.
Gloria has fond memories of the early years of the gathering. “There were no structures then. Everyone just put a blanket down and sat down. It was beautiful. For me, it was also the swimming haven of all swimming havens.” She remembers the Elders, women in pleated skirts and kerchiefs, men in plaid shirts, all of them wearing homemade slippers. “We did a lot of praying, and a lot of talking about the importance of healing and the importance of praying and healing to having healthy families.” Most nights there were drum dances.
A trip to Ts'ąkuı Thedá, the lady at the falls, was always a highlight of the gathering. People hiked to the falls then, so the Elders made sure the trail was maintained. What really stands out about the gathering, though, was that each year Ts'ąkuı Thedá would bring the people an animal. “It would come down the river,” Gloria explains. “I thought it was strange, but my mom said, ‘She is welcoming us. She is happy we are there. She is giving us a gift.’”
For someone so young, Gloria Enzoe has a long history with Thaidene Nëné. “I was there when we started really talking about a protected area due to development within our traditional territory,” she explains. In the early 2000s, Gloria became the first program coordinator for Thaidene Nëné. One of her responsibilities was to bring the Elders together to talk about their vision for the land. And not just once or twice, but repeatedly. She was also tasked with researching what a protected area could look like and then talking that through with the Elders. These were not always easy conversations. “It was kind of difficult to talk about parks and protected areas,” Gloria says, “because of our history as Dene with those things. There were a lot of trust issues that we needed to overcome. It was also important that we create something that was unique to us. I knew that if we could do that, it would be great.”
In 2008, following the direction of the Elders, Gloria started Ni Hat’ni Dene, which means Dene watchers of the land in Dënesųłıné yatı. “Ni Hat’ni Dene was created by the Elders for the Elders. I was just the person that walked in both worlds that helped them make their vision a reality,” Gloria explains. While the Łutsël K’é Dene and other Indigenous nations have always taken care of their lands, formal guardians programs are a relatively recent development. In 2008, there were only a handful of other nations engaged in this kind of work, most of them on the West Coast. Gloria remembers visiting Bella Bella and Haida Gwaii, an experience that was really important to further developing Ni Hat’ni. “They had really good protected areas and monitoring programs. It was great to go out with their guardians to see how they do things.”
Gloria’s experiences at Desnéthchée informed how she designed and ran Ni Hat’ni. “Growing up, we learned a lot about the importance of the people that lived in that area. We learned about whose families have lived where and the history of those families. Every year, my mom took our family to visit certain gravesites. She would tell us who was buried there and we would pray. When I ran Ni Hat’ni, I made sure that we mapped out all of the cabins and whose house was where. We tried to bring people out to the places that their families lived, so they would understand their family and the area.”
When Łutsël K’é was fundraising for the trust that now enables the nation to carry out its responsibilities within Thaidene Nëné, Gloria remembers a funder asking her, “How will you keep Thaidene Nëné alive ten years from now? How will you sustain it?” It’s a question that she continues to ask herself and the answer is both in the past and in the future. “I remember what the Elders said when I was working with them all those years ago, about the importance of keeping Thaidene Nëné the way they wanted to keep it. I also think about the saying, nes kınye xá, which means for your children.”
Gloria thinks a lot about her responsibilities within Thaidene Nëné in relation to her children. “I’m a mother. I’ve birthed children. That’s important. As long as I can fight for them to have clean drinking water, land to rejuvenate them and ensure their wellness, that’s a good job to have. Their whole lives, my kids have seen me advocate for our community, our land, our water. They see why it is important to take care of our home, and our home is not just four walls. It’s a vast area. We have a responsibility to care for the animals and for the water.”
Today, Gloria is carrying out that responsibility as a member of Thaidene Nëné Xá Dá Yáłtı, the people who speak for Thaidene Nëné.