Deline, Northwest Territories
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Délįne (former name: Fort Franklin) is a community on the western shore of Great Bear Lake, in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is located at Template:Coor dm, 544 km northwest of Yellowknife.
Délįne (pronounced "DE-le-nay") has a population of some 650 people, mainly Sahtu Dene people speaking North Slavey.
The area became prominent when pitchblende was discovered at the Eldorado Mine, some 250 km away, on the eastern shore, at Port Radium. During World War II, the Canadian government took over the mine and began to produce uranium for the then-secret American nuclear bomb project. The village, became a permanent settlement in 1952, with the building of a school.
The Dene from Délįne, who were employed as ore carriers, were not informed about the risks of radioactivity or how to protect themselves. Many of the men from the village began to die of cancer in the 1960s.
External links
- Welcome to Délįne (http://www.deline.ca/)
- Village of Widows (http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/uippra.html)