We investigate how to define 1-motives M 1 (c) (X), M 2d−1 (c) (X) for X a variety over a perfect field k of positive characteristic, such that the ℓ-adic realizations of these 1-motives are canonically isomorphic to H 1 (c) (X k , Z ℓ (1)) and H 2d−1 (c) (X k , Z ℓ (d)) respectively. This is the analogue in positive characteristic of previous results of Barbieri-Viale and Srinivas, except that we only consider the ℓ-adic realization but also consider compactly supported cohomology. The 1-motives M 1 (X) and M 1 c (X) can be defined by standard techniques, and indeed this case is probably well known. But the 1-motives M 2d−1 (X) and M 2d−1 c (X) require stronger tools, namely a strong version of de Jong's alterations theorem and some cycle class theory on smooth Deligne-Mumford stacks which may be of independent interest. Unfortunately, we only succeed in defining M 2d−1 (X) and M 2d−1 c (X) when X is a variety over an algebraically closed field, and only up to isogeny. Nevertheless, as a corollary to our definition of these 1-motives, for a variety X over a finite field k we deduce independence of ℓ for the cohomology groupsPETER MANNISTO Definition 1.3. [Del74, Définition 10.1.1] Let k be a field. The category of (free) 1-motives over k, denoted M 1 (k), is the category of 2-term complexesof commutative group schemes over k, where L is an étale-locally constant sheaf such that L(k s ) is a free finitely generated abelian group, and G is a semi-abelian variety over k. The morphisms in M 1 (k) are the morphisms of complexes of sheaves.In [Del74, Sect. 10], Deligne constructs realization functors T ℓ : M 1 (k) → Rep Gal(k s /k) (Z ℓ ) (for ℓ = p), and if k ⊆ C, a realization functor from 1-motives to mixed Hodge structures. Deligne conjectured in [Del74, 10.4.1] that certain mixed Hodge structures associated to a separated finite type scheme over C arise naturally from 1-motives; in particular, he conjectured that the mixed Hodge structures H 1 (X, Z(1)) and H 2d−1 (X, Z(d))/torsion occur as the Hodge realizations of 1-motives M 1 (X) and M 2d−1 (X), respectively, defined purely algebraically. This special case of Deligne's conjecture was solved in [BVS01], and much more general cases were handled in [BRS03] and [BVK12].For étale cohomology, one can make the following conjecture, which is an ℓ-adic analogue of this special case of Deligne's conjectures on 1-motives. Note that we restrict ourselves to the case where k is perfect; as noted in [Ram04, p. 3], it is not clear that this conjecture should be true for non-perfect fields.Conjecture 1.4. Fix a perfect field k of characteristic p ≥ 0, and let Sch/k denote the category of separated finite type k-schemes. Then there exist functors, with the property that for all primes ℓ = p,In addition, let Sch d /k ⊂ Sch/k be the full subcategory of d-dimensional separated finite type k-schemes. Then there exist functorswith the property that for all primes ℓ = p,1.5. In [BVS01], Barbieri-Viale and Srinivas solve this conjecture in the case where char k = 0, for non-compactl...