Canada's Deninu Ku'e First Nation is seeking compensation from the De Beers diamond company for the Snap Lake diamond mine, located some 220 kilometers northeast of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, the Northern News Service reports.

Louis Balsillie, acting chief of the Deninu Ku'e, says his First Nation does not have any agreements for compensation with any of the three companies currently mining diamonds in the NWT. According to the CBC, the Deninu Ku'e are the only members of the Akaitcho Dene Treaty 8 First Nations who are not the recipients of an Impact Benefit Agreement (IBA) for the Snap Lake mine.

Balsille pointed out that all the First Nations who are compensated by De Beers for mining activity - Yellowknives Dene in Ndilo and Dettah and Lutsel K'e – receive approximately C$250,000 a year, amounting to some $250-$270 per person. He said that the Deninu Ku'e, like the other First Nations, are all descended from the Akaitcho. "We're one person. When it comes to money, it's like you're pushing us aside," he said.

The Deninu Ku'e First Nation has employed an anthropologist, Linda Vanden Berg, who has been working since 2008 to prove the First Nation's ancestral connection to the Snap Lake mining land. Berg says that the Lutsel K'e and Deninu Ku'e are descended from the same ancestors and argued that if one group receives an IBA, the other should.

De Beers Canada official Cathie Bolstand, said that the company would continue to talk with the First Nation about its concerns, but would not issue any more IBAs for the Snap Lake diamond mine.