Hydraulic fracturing is about to move into the Canadian Arctic, with companies exploring the region’s rich shale oil deposits. But many indigenous people and conservationists have serious concerns about the impact of fracking in more fragile northern environments. Among the dozens of rivers that flow unfettered through the Canadian North, the Natla and the Keele may be the most picturesque and culturally important. They are especially significant to the Dene people of the Sahtu region, which straddles the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories. Both of the rivers flow crystal clear out of the Mackenzie Mountains along the Yukon/Northwest Territories border before coming together in their final course to the Mackenzie River. Conoco-Phillips fracking project in Sahtu Photo credit: Conoco-Phillips. A Conoco-Phillips shale oil fracking site in the Sahtu region of Canada’s Northwest Territories. For hundreds — if not thousands — of years, the Mountain Dene people have been […]