"Brendan Felix Head, 14, prepares to de-feather a duck in The Thelon, the largest and most remote game sanctuary in North America, which almost no one has heard of.  For the Akaitcho Dene, the Upper Thelon River is ""the place where God began.""  Sparsely populated, today few make it into the Thelon. Distances are simply too far, modern vehicles too expensive and unreliable. For the Dene youth, faced with the pressures of a western world, the ties that bind the people and their way of life to the land are even more tenuous. Every impending mine, road, and dam construction threatens to sever these connections. In July and August, 2011 a group of youth paddled to their ancestral hunting ground and spiritual abode.  this next generation of young leaders will be the ones who will need to speak for the Thelon the loudest. (Photo by Ami Vitale)"
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