Just as dahshaa--a rare type of dried, rotted spruce wood--is essential to the Dene moosehide-tanning process, self-determination and the alleviation of social suffering are necessary to Indigenous survival in the Northwest Territories. Finding Dahshaa shows where self-government negotiations between Canada and the Dehcho, D?l?n?, and Inuvialuit and Gwich?in peoples have gone wrong and offers an alternative model for negotiations through descriptions of tanning practices that embody the principles and values of self-determination.

An informed and passionate account, with a...