Drug, alcohol abuse may be tied to climate change, Elder says
Drug, alcohol abuse may be tied to climate change, Elder says
Published 3:20 am Wednesday, January 28, 2026
By Nancy Vail, special to Northern News Services
A contributing factor to drug and alcohol use in the Northwest Territories could be climate change, says Elder Roy Fabian, former chief of the K’atl’odeeche First Nation.
In addition to dealing with the trauma caused by environmental impacts, climate change is affecting the hopes and aspirations of the Dene people because their very identity and spiritual beliefs are traditionally connected to the land, he said.
The fires, floods and droughts in recent years — in addition to the loss of caribou — are causing a deep sense of loss among Dene and Indigenous youth, whose people have strong ties to Mother Earth.
Where traditional activities used to be related to hunting, trapping and being on the land, those ways of being are eroding along with the land itself, adding to the trauma experienced among Indigenous people who have already survived colonization and now the loss of the very thing that gives their lives meaning: the land.
The growing problems with alcohol and drug abuse may be in part attributed to this disconnection, in Fabian’s opinion.
“As Dene people, we suffered a lot — first because of colonialism and now climate change, and climate change is having a big impact,” the former chief told participants at a three-day workshop on climate change in Hay River, offered by the United Way. “We are trying to find resiliency and how we can prepare ourselves” to go forward.
The purpose of the workshop was to deal with grief and loss, especially related to climate change and some of the hidden traumas Northerners may still be dealing with two years after wildfires tore through the southern part of the territory. Some residents of Enterprise and Hay River have still not found permanent housing. People from the reserve and Enterprise were set adrift when fire ravaged those communities, leveling homes and community structures.
Smoke, reactions from emotional triggers and anger are still feelings that victims deal with, explained facilitators at the workshop, though they might not relate their feelings to the events of two years ago. Many residents suffered numerous losses, including long-term friends who moved away, pets, familiar landmarks and coming home to a changed community.
“Things are just not the same,” noted one participant.
The idea for this workshop was conceived in Yellowknife at a gathering of non-governmental organizations interested in how people in the North are coping. People in the communities asked for a program there too since some of the greatest environmental repercussions were felt in rural areas. The United Way decided to offer the course first in Hay River then in Inuvik, where people could talk about the lingering effects of grief and the long-term effects that fires and floods have had on their lives.
Fabian performed both the opening and closing ceremonies in Hay River.
The longtime advocate for the Dene said that his family may have been one of the last to be raised on the land, growing up in a small village outside Wood Buffalo National Park. In his youth, he explained, young people were allowed to do whatever they wanted because in their culture they believe children are spiritual beings. To impede their God-given inquisitive and investigative nature is to impede the divine itself. Instead, he said, young people are guided but not deterred, unless they show disrespect.
He noted that this freedom to explore the natural world is too often discouraged in mainstream academia, where rigidity and rules replace natural learning. It is through that natural learning and time spent on the land where a healthy respect for Mother Earth is developed, he said. The failure of the education system now may be contributing to this disconnect between humans and the Earth, which is manifesting in climate change events, he suggested.
Divine spirit
Fabian also noted that some Dene believe that everything in nature has a divine spirit which fosters a respectful attitude toward the environment — something that has been lost in more modern times.
“God gave the spirit to Mother Earth, so everything has a spirit. Dene people believe that everything has a divine property and God gave everything (and everyone) a special gift to live by,” he said. “As humans, we look at Mother Earth like it had endless bounty, but we are finding out that is not the case.”
As a result, caribou and Arctic char, for example, are disappearing.
Further, he added, this failure of the education model to incorporate on-the-land outdoor learning into its curriculum has a bearing on young people’s ability to develop their innate creative talents.
This, he reiterates, leads to the loss of aspiration among youth, which may be contributing to the growing problems with addiction.
He is now spending time visiting schools and encouraging this land-based relationship with the hope of rebuilding those lost aspirations in young people again and fostering respect for the Earth and reducing escapism into addictions.
The United Way team started a second series of workshops in Inuvik this week.