The 1986 report by the Canadian Task Force on Aboriginal Languages, which recommended that the writing systems used for the northern Dene languages be standardized within 10 years, resulted in the 1987 Dene Standardization Project. The mandate for the project was to make recommendations on orthography standardization as the first step in the process of encouraging widespread native language literacy, the publication of native language materials, and ultimately the preservation of the Dene languages in a technological era that places high demands for literacy and depends on the print media for the retention and transmission of information. This paper reports on the Dene languages and writing systems in the Northwest Territories, the Dene alphabetic system, and types of and rationale for standardization. Recommendations deal with five broad orthographic issues: alternate pronunciations, alphabet symbols, use of symbols, word divisions, and punctuation. The concluding paragraphs note that the Dene Standardization Project is a model for other language groups undertaking orthographic standardization. (LB)