Canadian conservation policy for the North has been influenced by the aesthetics of the noble barren wilderness, a celebration of the harsh environment that developed national character. Mid-20th-century perceptions of the decline of the caribou in the North served as indicators of the decline of the wilderness and led to charges that the indigenous Dene and Inuit were despoilers of the environment. The effects of the federal conservation policy included the exclusion of the native populations from their traditional means of sustenance.