The author, an acclaimed journalist/cartoonist best known for his graphic novels about war zones, travels to a different kind of conflict: the fossil-fuel and mining industries’ destructive influence on a First Nations community in the Canadian Northwest Territories. Heartbreaking and powerful, this book drives home that the climate crisis was affecting people long before temperatures started to rise.

Interesting book. Will be intriguing for like-minded. All the best to the author.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

I didn't get a chance to finish this, but it is such an important book. The art is beautiful and really moving. I will definitely check this out from my library so I can continue to read about the history of indigenous people in Canada.

This is a great graphic novel about what happened to the Indigenous People's in Canada. The author has clearly done his research and cares deeply about this topic.

A beautiful, necessary, and harsh story about what Native Canadians, specifically the Dene, suffered under forced integration and imperalization from the white government.

Yet another astounding book by Joe Sacco. He provides an incredible window on the lives and history of indigenous people in Canada, frequently told in the words of his subjects. Each story was more engrossing than the next.

Joe Sacco creates another documentary style graphic novel, this time focusing on the Dene, one of the First Nations of Canada. For generations, the Canadian government took advantage of the indigenous people, making treaties with them they didn't understand, giving everyone $5 a year and taking whatever they wanted. Forcing the children to go to Residential Schools where forced indoctrination occurred by nuns, trying to strip the Indians out of the Indians. The children were ripped away from their parents for 10 months out of the year, not allowed to see their siblings and often abused. It's truly harrowing what many of the children went through.

Sacco also visits other issues like protecting the environment versus providing jobs in a remote regions of the Northern Territories. This is a very well-researched, never-boring graphic novel told mostly through first person interviews.

In Paying the Land, Joe Sacco turns his comics journalist’s eye on the Canadian north, visiting a number of Dene settlements via a winter road (meaning they’re fly-in towns during the summer), collecting interviews and experiences. In fewer than 300 pages he manages to introduce the local history, the situation with oil & gas (and the recent bust of that industry), the mining and fur trades, the trauma of the residential school system, the Truth and Reconcilliation Comission, the northern suicide epidemic, and the politics surrounding land claims. The art is, as with all of Sacco’s work, fantastically detailed and is what allows him to say so much in so few pages.

Having read about the various topics in narrower forms from Canadian sources, it was fascinating to see a broader overview from an outsider’s perspective, written for a foreign audience, especially one that manages to so perfectly mix the historical, personal, and political. Brilliant work.

This is an amazing graphic novel about an infuriating, heartbreaking history. It begins as reporting on the conflicts and choices made among the Dene, indigenous to Canada, but it eventually becomes about the ways in which colonization and explicit policies of removing children to abusive government and religious schools have created personal, familial, and cultural trauma and tragedy. Elementary school should never involve systematic beating, rape, cultural insults, and on-purpose alienation and repression, but this was a purposeful strategy by the government to erase Dene culture and force assimilation. This is a state-sponsored tragedy that is still affecting people today. So many horrible things have been done on this continent in the name of progress and greed and western civilization. Sacco doesn't have many answers, and many of those involved in the current problems of abuse, drugs, and resource exploitation feel like they are just cogs in the machine. And what's sad is so do those who are involved in cultural preservation and restorative justice and encouraging democracy. It helps to know that there are people still fighting, even if it hurts more to know about the evils that we have done (and are still doing) to each other.

This is a fascinating book looking at the deni Culture. It touches on the trauma of the residential schools and with how communities are managing resource extraction and land deals. The author has done extensive research and finds people to tell these stories. I was left wanting a bit more though, Maybe because there are so many people it can be hard to connect with all of them. But overall a good educational read.

Thanks to Henry Holt and Netgalley for sharing the ARC of this graphic novel. I was not familiar with Joe Sacco before reading this, but will be checking out his previous works now. A talented author and artist, Sacco captures the historical and current racism and societal changes facing the Canadian indigenous people. I feel I have a greater understanding for their situation, and also for that of indigenous people in the United States, who have many of the same issues. Recommended for anyone who enjoys fact based graphic novels.

Paying the Land explores in depth the Dene people and their relationship with the land - how that land's ownership and their people have been stolen, recreated, and are fighting to survive in the changing political climate. Sacco's work is intricate and detailed - I appreciate being taken on the road in the second part and given an idea of how difficult it can be for modern transportation to make it through the harsh North. The issues examines are done so from multiple perspectives, and all from the voices of people who were there. For me, visually, the horizontal lines used as shading did tend to mask the detail for some panels, but this might have been due to me reading it on a screen instead of a physical copy.

I would recommend reading this alongside This Place : 150 Years Retold, an graphic novel anthology of works by and about indigenous peoples in Canada.

I first encountered Joe Sacco’s work during an undergrad course on non-fiction literature (the course was focused on unusual formats and how they affected or increased accessibility for readers). We were assigned to read Safe Area Gorazde. I had never given any thought to the role that comics could play in in journalism or other works of non-fiction literature until that graphic novel fell into my life and ripped through any lingering preconceptions that I may have had that comics were only for frivolous things. It’s one of only a handful of books that I can pick out and say truly changed my life. As one of the unnamed men in this book, Paying the Land, states, it “is not a cartoon. It’s not a joke. It’s something really fucking serious.” That man was worried that a comic might diminish the severity of the issue at hand and was opposed to Sacco’s project, though his words seem to echo the sincerity of emotion I felt when reading his work for the first time: It’s not a joke. It’s really F*ing serious. The inflection on the words are different. That man felt that a cartoon could not be serious; reading the final product, the reader is struck by how very serious the format can be. There is certainly a moral debate on the table about whether a graphic novel should be used to discuss serious subjects, but it does appear that Sacco puts enormous effort into making sure that he falls on the respectful side of that moral line.

When I noticed that this book was available for request through NetGalley, I was eager to read it and am grateful that the publisher, Henry Holt and Company, approved my request.

Paying the Land lived up to my expectations. The formatting of the illustrations is organic, full of full page landscapes and panels that frequently run together rather than dividing the page into the more traditionally discrete boxes that people usually think of when they hear the word “comic,” and perhaps to a slightly lesser degree, to the idea of graphic novels. It’s strange to say that black and white line drawings can be vibrant, but the pages and individual panels of this graphic novel are full to overflowing with a sense of life. The sharpest lines tend to delineate the role of the journalist and how parts of the narrative were assembled, constructed from interviews and trips through dangerous winter roads, as the story was deliberately sought out. The one complaint that I have with the illustrations is that while the content of the text is in no way whitewashed, the illustrations or individual people of color definitely come across that way on occasion; I would argue that there are definitely points were the book would have benefited from illustrations that were in color or in different stylistic choices in shading the line art. There is something extremely jarring in a line art drawing of a very white looking Martin Luther King Jr. In a book so focused on the identity and reclamation of identity for the Dene peoples, this seems like an ill-fitting design choice.

"When Charles II handed what is now the Northwest Territories over to the Hudson Bay Company, no one thought to tell the Metis and the Dene...the Dominion extended its control...through treaties...required the Dene and Metis to recede, release, surrender and yield...their rights, title, privileges...for $5 a year, for some bullets and fish nets...cloaked in verbal assurances...the Dene [had] given up all their land...that would guarantee their livelihood based upon fishing, trapping...[but in the Dene viewpoint] the Land does not belong to us, we belong to the Land."

Through the medium of comics journalism, Joe Sacco humbly draws himself into the background of this graphic novel as "the curious questioner" who amasses first-hand testimonies of Dene willing to share their stories. "Without the land we cannot be Dene. Without the land, we are weak people. Ownership is not how we look at the land". Dene elders state that land needs to be revered, treated gently...pray to the land and pay the land...gift the land." As nomads, the Dene hunted "by the season, by the moon" to determine where animals were. There were no defined male and female roles. "You look at what needs to be done and you do it". As long as the subarctic Northwest Territories of Canada were thought to contain "inhospitable land", the Dene could hunt, trap and fish. In the late 1800's, the discovery of petroleum and gold, threatened changes to the indigenous culture and way of life.

"Is there really such a thing as the best of both worlds...the formula that balances the knowledge that has been passed down orally since 'time immemorial'..." versus industrialization and extraction of resources? The cost of industrialization cannot be understated. For 150 years, up until the 1990's, residential schools forcibly removed indigenous children from their homes "the aim was to educate the 'Indian' out of them". Upon their return home, many have fought a life-long internal battle lacking self-worth, unable to connect with others. Many can no longer communicate in their ancestral language. As Fracking continues, many become dependent on alcohol, welfare, and government handouts while the old ways of community are being replaced with systems "built for capitalism to succeed, at the cost of the environment". Fracking has "created division between those who seek economic opportunity and those who believe the practice is a defilement of the land".

"Paying the Land" by Joe Sacco is a non-fiction graphic "documentary" in the words of the First Nation. Some tribal members wish to conform to Western culture and mores while others would choose to reclaim lost land and continue to instill Dene heritage in the younger generations. Joe Sacco's in depth, thoroughly researched comic, replete with extensive interviews with the Dene and amazing artistic graphics begs the question, "At what cost, progress?" Compelling, insightful, factual...a heavy, but highly recommended tome.

Thank you Henry Holt & Company, Metropolitan Books and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

'Paying the Land' with words and art by Joe Sacco is a nonfiction account ot the Dene of the Mackenzie River Valley in Canada.

There are multiple narrators in the book and multiple subjects. The author interviews many Dene about mining, governance, residential school, and alcoholism. All while the people struggle not to lose their heritage. There are lots of problems and solutions are hard.

This book is primarily comprised of interviews. In other hands, this might have been a very tedious read, but Joe Sacco is a master of the non-fiction graphic novel. His page layouts make the conversations flow with interest and content. I found it to be a very moving read, and I feel like the subject matter is treated fairly.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Paying the Land is a nonfiction graphic novel about the indigenous peoples of Canada. The book covers the politics of land and resources, residential schooling, and horrors of abuse, both physical and substance. It is a tough read at times, but there is also great hope to be found in the changes that are being made: Dene (the Canadian name for the indigenous population) are able to hold government office. The powerful stories are accompanied by intricate drawings featuring crosshatching and detailed scenes of Dene culture. Sacco’s work is travelogue, history, and sociological study. He includes himself in the narrative which provides a personalized introduction to each of the book’s participants.

Sacco acknowledges that the Dene have hard choices to make and the community is not always in agreement. This is what makes the book such a gripping read. Education vs indoctrination. Jobs vs destruction of the ecosystem. Traditional cultural vs an escape to the outside world. Each thread is an awesome task to wade through on its own, but Sacco does the exceptional and weaves all the stories together making a complete and complex series of conflicts to follow. And what a brilliant series of drawings that he gives us to illustrate these issues. One pages reveals the skinning of the animal and the next shows the decimation of villages due to alcoholism.

If you are at all interested in the relationship between Native Peoples and governments, this is essential reading. Partner that with this artwork and you have book that approaches being a masterpiece.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Henry Holt and Company, and the author for an advanced copy for review.

Strong, content-dense exploration of contemporary Dene experiences. For those already familiar with Sixties Scoop, residential schools, and the colonization of the far north there will not be much new information, but for folks new to the topic this is an excellent settler-written primer to be used in conjunction with own voices texts on the same topic. I appreciated Sacco's efforts to explore a variety of experiences, some of which are in conflict with one another, and his efforts as a settler journalist to prioritize the words, lives, and beliefs of indigenous people.

Award-winning comic journalist Joe Sacco traveled to Canada's Northwest Territories interviewing and documenting the struggles of the Dene people. Detailed illustrations capture the everyday life of the Dene, from nomadic past to the present, as they deal with the long-term effects of systemic exploitation of Indigenous people and their land. As an outsider, Sacco wisely lets locals do most of the talking and worked with Dene representatives who examined his illustrations for accuracy before publication. First person interviews with elders and younger generation Dene reveal not only multigenerational traumas, but differing views on how First Nations people can move forward. Are they willing to gamble on a future of fracking? And at what cost to the environment, their culture and their agency? Like his previous works (Safe Area Goražde, Palestine), Sacco presents the lived experiences of others with a journalist's objectivity, but captures emotional truths with his drawings. Like a documentary in comic book form, readers of Paying the Land will gain a greater understanding of current issues such as the protests over the Keystone XL pipeline project as well as the pain colonization and forced assimilation have caused generations of North American Indigenous Peoples.

An engaging work of journalism told through the accessible and visually impactful medium of graphic novel, “Paying the Land,” by Joe Sacco, shares the often under-reported stories of the Dené of Northwest Canada. This book explores the history of industrialization –particularly mining and resource extraction- in the Canadian Northwest Territories and the increasingly destructive results of government and corporate interference in Indigenous communities. Through a series of abbreviated interviews, readers have the opportunity to view the testimonies of people who lived, suffered, and fought to preserve Indigenous culture and defend the Dené peoples’ connection to threatened land. The subject matter is often difficult and emotionally charged, but explores critical narratives to understanding past and present issues facing First Nations.

Beyond weighty subject matter, there were a few stylistic points that slowed down the reading experience including the densely packed pages which felt visually overwhelming. Perhaps this was a deliberate choice to slow down the experience and make readers spend more time considering what was being discussed, but the effect was slightly distracting and made it difficult to focus on the overarching story. Also, early in the book, interviews feel slightly disjointed but gain clarity and start to connect more clearly as the story unfolds.

Overall, this is an important and easily accessible work for readers looking to expand their understanding of the human rights issues facing Indigenous communities, and is an engaging reminder of how our understanding of the past impacts our ability to shape the future.

Thank you to Henry Holt & Company and Netgalley for an advance copy of this ebook.

Great new book from a veteran of "comics journalism". This time he travels to Canada's Northwest Territories, to examine how resource extraction intersect with indigenous people there. His two trips resulted in an insightful, nuanced story - of colonization, abuse and robbery, but also of proud heritage, connection to the land and some kind of vision for future. He interviews a lot of interesting subjects. His drawings are made with humor and compassion. Highly recommended for everyone interested in non-fiction, not necessarily in comics per se.

Thanks to the publisher Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book.