What’s going on at Lindberg Landing?

Relations between people connected to a small cluster of homes beside the Liard River are deteriorating amid rumours and accusations.

In 2019, five new families moved to Lindberg Landing, a collection of land leases just north of Nahanni Butte off Highway 7 in the NWT’s Dehcho region

Clinton Leussink’s family made the move after buying into leases with Sue Lindberg, a longtime leaseholder in the area and its namesake. The two had become friendly through Leussink’s work trucking supplies into isolated northern communities.

“I stopped by Lindberg Landing one day having heard about it, and there was Sue, living in the bush all alone,” Leussink told Cabin Radio.

“She was definitely getting to that point in her life where she needed support, or she was going to have to leave.”

At 85 years old, Lindberg has spent the past 45 years living at Lindberg Landing, continuing on after her husband, Edwin, passed away.

In 2019, Leussink and Lindberg entered into an estate agreement that would allow her to live the rest of her life on the land she loves.

Leussink is married with children. His brother, Joseph Leussink, has also moved to Lindberg Landing with his wife, followed by another family and a young man. The new families are raising five young children on the land.

The families say they are using Lindberg Landing to raise livestock, grow a large garden and host travellers, hunters and tourists throughout the year, as they say was traditionally the case.

“Sue is just beside herself. She said: this is what I always wanted, this is what Edwin always wanted, is to see other people around,” said Leussink.

“She’s just in heaven, so to speak … There’s kids running around outside her house, people coming over for dinner, having her over for dinner.”

In an email to Cabin Radio, Lindberg said her new neighbours had proven themselves “honest, hard-working, thoughtful, kind and helpful.”

The new families “have made it possible for me to continue living here,” she wrote.

“I am quite happy with having more neighbours around now, and am thinking that when and if they get to be known, the rumours will stop.” 

‘Not nice neighbours’

While Leussink said the new families are harnessing their history of fur trapping and trading to build a community – “every relationship we try to have is based on being friendly, getting along,” he said – others see their presence differently.

Besides Lindberg, there are a few other longstanding leaseholders at Lindberg Landing.

Among them is a man named Steve Herrett, who wrote to the Dehcho First Nations in August 2023 alleging land and water use violations.

Herrett, who is 73 years old, said his relationship with the new neighbours was positive at first. He said the young men offered to chop wood for him and he hired them for odd jobs.

One of the new residents even offered to purchase his lease, Herrett said, but he declined as he wanted to keep living independently at Lindberg Landing, as he said he has for the past 40 years.

Last fall, however, Herrett left his home at the Landing. By then, he said, he felt “unsafe.” He said he has since filed multiple complaints with RCMP. (RCMP declined to comment, stating that privacy laws prevent the disclosure of related information.)

Herrett has lived in Fort Simpson for the past year, either in a camper trailer or staying with friends.

Among Herrett’s allegations – none of which could be independently verified by Cabin Radio – are that he had been blocked or followed by residents at Lindberg Landing when trying to access public roads or the Liard River. Others have made the same allegation.

Photos of Herrett’s private driveway show piles of debris, garbage and tree trunks lying in the middle of the road, the suggestion being that they were placed there by a hostile actor.

Leussink said he has no knowledge of anyone being turned away from a public access road, stating that some situations had been “misconstrued.”

“In terms of blocking water access and/or road access, that’s never happened here to the best of my knowledge,” Leussink said. “This is one of the most welcoming communities in the Northwest Territories. I’m looking out the window right now, and my yard is full of people … They’re all here visiting.”

A further point of contention at Lindberg Landing is a nailed-in cross found at the top of the access road.

Lifelong resident Don Antoine said he no longer visits the land he has spent his life on and generally avoids the area.

“They put a cross on a tree inside the highway,” said Antoine. “This is Dene land. Why are they doing that?”

Leussink said the cross was put up by residents in an attempt to blend in and recreate religious artwork as seen in communities across the North.

“People have this idea that they’re coming down to some sort of Hutterite or Mennonite colony, which, nothing could be further from the truth,” Leussink said.

“I think one or two people just decided to spread that around without actually finding out if it was true or not.”

Aidan Hoven said he and his wife joined other families two years ago in making the move to Lindberg Landing because they wanted a quiet, peaceful life in the bush.

“I just want to make a good life for my family,” Hoven told Cabin Radio. “Everyone wants to not offend or cause any fights with any neighbours.”

More recently, Hoven said he has experienced side glances and strange interactions when spending time in larger communities, which he attributes to rumours about what is going on at Lindberg Landing.

“You can just feel it in the general interactions that you have with people,” Hoven said.

“You just start to feel a little less welcome, like everyone’s looking at you funny.”

‘A little bit of a grudge’

According to NWT public records, there are 11 government-issued leases at Lindberg Landing. Six are residential, two commercial, two industrial, and one is a cabin lease.

Three of the residential leases have recorded start dates of January 1, 2024. The others have start dates that range from 2004 to 2022.

Last January, a meeting was held in Nahanni Butte to discuss concerns about Lindberg Landing, which is the traditional territory of the Nahæâ Dehé Dene Band.

Minutes from that meeting show representatives of Nahanni Butte, the NWT’s Department of Environment and Climate Change and the Naha Dehé Parks Corporation were in attendance, as was Herrett.

Lindberg said residents at the Landing were not aware of the meeting until after the fact.

The meeting focused on alleged lease violations caused by the new residents, including an area that was reported to have been cleared down to the bank to open up access to the river.

The minute notes state that ECC was “aware of the infraction” and an inspector issued a stop-work order, directing that residents not use the access and leave it for “natural regeneration” to take place.

“ECC monitors all activity on public land to ensure that activities requiring land use permits, water licences, or tenure has the proper authorizations in place,” read a statement from the department to Cabin Radio.

“Activities that occur without the proper authorizations may result in corrective enforcement actions, such as a stop-work order.”

Asked about the water access, Leussink told Cabin Radio the spot had offered river access for 40 years. Residents had cleared overgrown trees to maintain it, he said.

Hoven recalled being issued the stop-work order from ECC, which he said required that he stop using logging equipment in the area on the basis that he was cutting timber beyond the scope of his free timber-cutting permit.

“It’s totally backwards and it doesn’t really make sense to me,” he said.

Hoven said ECC inspections have occurred almost monthly at Lindberg Landing in the past year.

“We had one general inspection, and then a timber-cutting permit inspection … then kind-of a ‘this is just an unofficial visit but I’ll still take a lot of pictures’ inspection. It’s been a lot,” Hoven said.

“I think there’s a little bit of a grudge.”

While Leussink believes issues with the GNWT can be chalked up to a lack of “direct communication,” Hoven said he does not feel well supported by the GNWT when it comes to understanding his rights and responsibilities.

He feels he is held to a higher standard than others in the area, which “really does feel like harassment.”

ECC “showed up at my door with two RCMP and a bunch of conservation officers” following one set of apparent complaints, Hoven said.

“I wasn’t home, and they essentially intimidated my wife and children at that time,” he asserted.

“They claimed we were breaking the law … that I was using the land in the wrong way.”

Asked about events at Lindberg Landing, ECC declined to discuss “ongoing investigations as they may lead to legal action.”

‘Divide and conquer’

There’s a separate dimension to the evolving nature of Lindberg Landing: what the people who hold leases there are actually allowed to do, and how those leases are allowed to change.

A document known as an Interim Measures Agreement governs how land and water in the region can be used while the Dehcho Process – negotiations between Indigenous, territorial and federal governments – moves toward a conclusion.

First Nations in the area consider the changing identity of the leaseholders at Lindberg Landing, the adding of new names to leases and the drawing up of new lease boundaries to be a breach of that interim agreement.

The GNWT and the Dehcho First Nations don’t agree on how that agreement should be interpreted.

Toyeke Adedipe, a spokesperson for the NWT’s Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, said the interim agreement instructs the GNWT to consult with First Nations on “the sale of land or issuance of new leases and licences” – but not “renewals or assignments of existing leases.”

Adedipe asserted that consultations took place with affected First Nations in 2022 regarding lease boundary amendments.

Grand Chief Herb Norwegian of the Dehcho First Nation said those consultations never took place.

“These things are very quick and slick,” Norwegian said of the consultation process.

“They’re making up some new rules for themselves. The Interim Measures Agreement applies to all land transfers, transactions.”

Chief Steve Vital of Nahanni Butte agreed, stating that the GNWT does not conduct proper consultation with his community, “especially on our traditional lands.” Norwegian called it a “divide-and-conquer tactic.”

The situation as it stands is unresolved.

Locals, some Indigenous and some not, say they feel pushed out of Lindberg Landing by the new residents. The new residents say they’re facing an unjustified backlash. They invite others to “see for themselves” what is going on at the Landing.

First Nations say they feel left out of important decisions that affect their land and people, including decisions that govern who gets to do what at Lindberg Landing.

“We still have an Indigenous, inherent right to take care of our land,” Norwegian said.

“The Dehcho is the government of this territory … and the authority of the First Nations, they are legitimate governments, and they need to be respected.

“That is our territory and we will stand firm.”

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Correction: October 25, 2024 – 6:45 MT. An initial version of this article stated Parks Canada attended the January meeting in Nahanni Butte. However, the Naha Dehé Parks Corporation was in attendance, not Parks Canada. We have since updated the article to reflect this.

Correction: October 28, 2024 – 8:45 MT. An initial version of this article stated Edwin Lindberg passed away in 2018, however online records suggest he passed at an earlier date.