This chapter analyzes Marx’s primitive-accumulation thesis to better understand the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian State. This discussion is informed by a case study of the experience of the Dene peoples of Northwest Territories. It includes an overview of the Dene self-determination movement of the 1970s and 1980s, the Dene Nation’s critique of capitalist imperialism, and the significance of the Dene Declaration of 1975.

From Wards of the State to Subjects of Recognition? Marx, Indigenous Peoples, and the Politics of Dispossession in Denendeh