Posts By: First Nations Drum

By Jackie Humber

Amongst the tumbleweeds and sagebrush of the Arizona desert, young William LaVanway chased wild horses and mustangs. It was his way of life.

William LaVanway is 100 percent Navaho and proud of it. He is the only galloper that has a feather in his galloping hat.” The feather is for the Navaho people. We don’t have crosses. We have guardians and my guardian is the eagle. My feather is supposed to be an eagle feather. So that’s my guardian,” said LaVanway.

He is the son of a Navaho mother. His father, who has passed away, was a doctor who later became an airplane mechanic and pilot. He owned and managed an airport.

LaVanway’s passion for horses and knowledge of teamwork was introduced to him at a very young age while growing up in Arizona.

“We would catch the baby horses and break them together. Then we would sell them as our source of income. It didn’t seem like work,” said LaVanway.

In the spring of 1990, Lavanway’s second passion led him to British Columbia. Tae Kwon Do was being introduced as an Olympic sport. LaVanway’s team was trying out for the Olympics. “Our team made the Olympics but because Tae Kwon Do was founded by the Koreans and they chose to send girls, that left us out,” explained LaVanway.

LaVanway has extensive knowledge in Martial Arts. While enjoying the mountains, greenery and waters of BC, LaVanway decided not to return to the dust and dirt of Arizona. He was fortunate to meet and be taken in by Hastings Park trainer Pat Jarvis, Albert Jarvis and the Jarvis family.

“They are very good people. Pat taught me a lot and Albert taught me too,” said LaVanway.

LaVanway spent the next few years working along side of Pat at the family farm. One summer afternoon LaVanway went with Pat to race a couple of horses at Hastings track.

“I thought this is fun. There’s nothing like British Columbia. You can do anything you want and enjoy life,” said LaVanway.

He was already a seasoned galloper when he decided to go to Kwantlen College and learn to be a farrier.

Love at first sight
Life was going great for LaVanway. He was shoeing horses, galloping and living his passion. Then the day came that changed his life forever: as he galloped one day, he looked over, and something interesting caught his eye. “There was this beautiful girl washing feed buckets. She had grain all over her hair. It was a picture perfect sight,” reminisced LaVanway. “She looked up and blushed and I said there’s the girl I’ll marry.”

The girl’s name was Elizabeth and although she left Hastings Park for a couple of years LaVanway held her memory close.When Elizabeth returned, LaVanway wasted no time and began to date her. Soon after the two became a team and married on Valentine’s Day.

Since then, LaVanway and his wife have started a family with the addition of a girl named Anastasia. They also opened a training centre in Langley, and William has obtained his trainers’ license at Hastings Track.

His main teammate is Elizabeth who works side by side with him all year long. “In the winter I break babies with Elizabeth and then in summer we still break babies and train together. We are a team. That’s what makes it work,” said LaVanway.

LaVanway’s biggest fan at the racetrack is Hall of Fame trainer George Cummins. “I can go to him when we have problems and when we have good times. George Cummins is a wonderful person. If you could learn just a little of the things he’s forgotten, you’d be a genius,” said LaVanway, who considers Cummins to be his elder. In Navaho tradition, this is the highest honour.

Each morning LaVanway and his wife Elizabeth can be seen galloping along Hastings track before the birds wake and before the sun rises. LaVanway often looks to the trees to see if his old friends have returned. “Usually two eagles sit in the tree next to the quarter pole, but this year I only saw one. That made me sad because of all the eagles that were killed,” said LaVanway.

This year LaVanway hopes to have more successes at the racetrack. “Every year I hope we have more winners and if anything I hope we can have a happy year so we can enjoy ourselves. I’ve had a lot of help from everybody. Everyday I learn and I just enjoy life. It’s not very often you can live your passion,” said LaVanway.

By Lloyd Dolha

The nation’s premier aboriginal event – the 2005 National Aboriginal Achievement Awards – will take place at the Saskatoon Centennial Auditorium and Convention Centre on March 31, 2005.

Each year 14 outstanding aboriginal achievers receive the NAAA in diverse fields such as arts, business, law, education, community development, health, heritage, medicine, public service, science and sports.

The NAAA will honour 12 career recipients, one lifetime achiever and one youth whose award includes a $10,000 scholarship.

Coming from all walks of life, this year’s 14 recipients showcase the diversity, contribution and achievement that can be found among Canada’s First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

Details of the hosts and entertainment have yet to be released, but the gala event will feature performances by some of Canada’s top aboriginal entertainers and will include video vignettes of award recipients. This year’s recipients include:

Bertha Allen, Lifetime Achievement Lolly Annahatak, Social Services
Gwich’in First Nation Inuit of Nunavik, Quebec

Andy Carpenter Sr., Environment Douglas Golosky, Business and Commerce
Inuit of the Northwest Territories Metis, Alberta

Dr. Thomas Digan, Medicine Judy Gingell, Community Development
Six Nations of the Grand River Territory Kwanlin Dun First Nation, Yukon Territory

Joe Jacobs, Arts and Culture Dr. Gerald McMaster, Arts and Culture
Six Nations of the Grand River Territory Red Pheasant First Nation

Fauna Kingdom, Youth Sharon Firth, Sports
Metis, Manitoba Tel’lit Gwichin First Nation, N.W.T

Dr. Eber Hampton, Education Brenda Chambers, Media &Communications
Chickasaw Tribe, Oklahoma, (Saskatchewan) Champagne & Aishihik First Nation

John Joe Sark, Heritage & Spirituality Dr. Emma LaRoocque, Education
Lennox Island First Nation, P.E.I. Metis, Lac La Biche

This year marks the 12th anniversary of the awards and the new face of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation CEO Roberta Jamieson, at the helm of the nation’s premier aboriginal organization.

“The foundation is honoured to recognize the recipients today, people who have converted their potential into accomplishment, enriching us all with their gifts. They are a symbol of hope and encouragement for tens of thousands of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit youth who have so much to offer Canada and their own peoples if their own potential can be nurtured and realized,” said Jamieson.

The National Aboriginal Achievement Awards was created in 1994 to celebrate and promote positive role models for aboriginal youth. The awards are part of the work of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, a non-profit organization that encourages and empowers young aboriginal people to advance their educational and career opportunities. Since 1988, the Foundation has provided more than $16 million to deserving aboriginal students across the country, with scholarship disbursements reaching more than $2 million each year.

The last time Saskatchewan hosted the awards was in Regina in 1988.

By Danny Beaton; Turtle Clan Mohawk Nation

The Living Rainforest in England invited me to participate in discussions and presentations for ten days to promote the protection of our sacred Mother Earth from a Native American perspective. My old elders instructed me to go to England and help the people heal. They said I could do no wrong, that I would be welcomed and respected for what I would do to help their situation.

Offer their ancestors tobacco for a gift and make sure to ask their permission to speak on their homeland. Sing when you are tired, my teacher Robertjohn Knapp told me. Sing when you are not sure of yourself, sing when you are hurt. Sing when you need peace. I put tobacco down whenever I could to the spirits of England, for the people of Stonehenge, to the ancestors of the stone. I honoured them and asked for their permission to speak out. And I asked for their protection, wisdom and guidance.

Throughout my talks in England and at the Living Rainforest, sharing teachings and songs, I stressed that I was told to honour their ancestors, and I would remind people that Stonehenge was one of the seven wonders of the world. And that their ancestors were like ours, honouring their grandfathers, the stone people, and the natural world, and all our relations.

There is a powerful movement in England that aims at educating children and society of the beauty and importance of protecting our sacred Mother Earth, and the need for society to return to spiritual values. There is also an intellectual movement in England for solving the problems of autism. The British Empire has intellectualized its ideas of religion, philosophy, humanities, economics, law, geography, and education and exported them to the world for generations.

The descendants of the British colonial experience in superiority in India, Africa, Canada, Ireland, and other countries around the world are trying to solve problems created by Western thinking/ ideology and centuries of exploitation. Many academics and intellectuals are using the struggles of indigenous peoples and environmental destruction around the world to portray themselves as leaders in the fight against injustice.

But in fact, the result of their rhetoric is the denial of leadership of the original people on their territories and their way of life. People with financial status or academic or political status have no right to put themselves above the peasant or indigenous peoples. Nor do non-indigenous peoples have the right to make laws or set standards for indigenous nations to live by or under. True leaders and educators do not seek to gain status from people. But true leaders have compassion and work for spiritual leaders of the land.

“In the final analysis, the survival of Native America is fundamentally about the collective survival of all human beings. The question of who gets to determine the destiny of the land, and of the people who live on it – those with the money or those who pray on the land – is a question that is alive throughout society.” (Winona Laduke).

Common goal with no plan
Many academics are completely sincere in their concerns for justice, equality, peace and harmony. Many academics and intellectuals will sincerely honour our true leaders, chiefs, clan mothers, healers, singers, firekeepers, faithkeepers, and do everything possible to bring honour, respect and restoration to the indigenous cultures that have been assaulted by Western domination.

There are non-native educators who are struggling to find ways of learning, who have a reverence for the ones who have maintained a way of life with the natural world and laws by traditional native ceremonies. There are non-native people around who will voice their stand with us, and do everything possible to honour our way of life on our territories, which we call Turtle Island, and who will admit to the failings of their ancestors. There are some people with outstanding values who will struggle with keeping the facts and truth alive by denouncing broken treaties and stolen land in North America.

Peter Matthiessen wrote Indian Country, one of the greatest books I ever read about the state of Indian affairs and struggles since the white man set foot on American land. Our white brother has viewed the wilderness as something other, as a hostile or beckoning landscape he could shape to his own ends. But the American Indians view this very differently. In Indian country, the land is sacred and man is at one with it.

Environmental desecration in the name of progress and spiritual transgression are the same thing and will invite the same eventual destruction. The Indian cannot love the Creator and desecrate the Earth. The Indian existence is not separable from Indian culture, which is not separable from the natural world. By seeking to dominate it, non-natives set themselves in opposition to a vital healing force of which they were a part, and thereby mislaid a whole dimension of existence. Respect for nature is reverence for the Creator and it is also self-respecting since man and nature, though not the same thing, are not different.

Father Thomas Berry, a true elder of non-natives who has participated in native justice, said Christians should listen to native elders for the next hundred years and put away our bibles if we were to learn anything at all from history. The great work before us, the task of moving modern industrial civilization from its present devastating influence on the Earth to a more benign, healing presence, is not a role that we have chosen. It is a role given to us, beyond any consultation with ourselves.

We did not choose. We were chosen by some power beyond ourselves for this historical task. We do not choose the moment of our birth, our particular culture, or the historical moment when we will be born. We do not choose the social status or spiritual insight or political or economic conditions that will be the context of our lives. We are, as it were, thrown into existence with a challenge and a role that is beyond any personal choice. The nobility of our lives, however, depends upon the manner in which we come to understand and perform our assigned role.

The crusaders might be considered the beginning of the historical drive that has led European peoples in their quest for religious, cultural, political and economic conquest of the world. This movement was continued through the period of discovery and control of the planet into our own times when the western presence dominates politically in the United Nations and economically in such establishments as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. We might even interpret this western drive toward limitless domination in all its forms as leading eventually to the drive towards human domination over the natural world.

Wounded need to heal
The struggle to solve problems and to heal is of the utmost importance. We must be ready to admit that we are wounded, and learn to heal ourselves and protect ourselves the same way for our sacred Mother Earth. Life cannot survive with the continual minimalization and marginalization, abuse and exploitation of indigenous wisdom, culture, resources and territories. England is no different from the Americas, and the Americas are no different from anywhere else in the world. We are all wounded. But in America, natives are the first to admit that we are wounded and for native peoples we have our sacred ceremonies to heal ourselves.

People need to join forces and strengths together and support the native elders, indigenous wisdom-keepers of the world, spiritual leaders of the world, and give them their voice, let them have their power with the universe. Let their wisdom be heard. They cannot be told how they’re supposed to live and how things are going to be. The ceremonial elders have an insight into the problems that western society has created. Native people of the Americas are the leaders of their own country, even after colonization.

We are not living on universal land where we are subservient to people of financial, educational or political status. Indigenous peoples did not create the world’s problems. There is a great beauty when non-native people do everything they can to create justice and respect for our elders, for indigenous elders and cultures who have survived five hundred years of culture shock.

As Chief Oren Lyons states, “devastation on a scale of unimaginable injustice. I’m amazed at how tolerant our people are of history. And how we think of your children, not just our own, how we talk about the future, the Seventh Generation, we don’t just talk about Onondaga children or Six Nation children, we talk about all children. Our instructions are that every man is an uncle and every woman is an aunt or a mother to every child. And any child that asks a question must be respected and answered as a human being.”

Elder Ted Strong says, “This enslavement and impoverishment of nature is no more tolerable or sensible than enslavement and impoverishment of other human beings.”

England no different than Americas
The peoples of England are suffering like most countries of the world. In America and Canada, there are still many native peoples with traditional culture and ceremonies to heal from. I truly believe England has lost their healing ceremonies. One of my greatest experiences that I had when I was in the UK was my chance to meet and speak to hundreds and hundreds of elementary schoolchildren who opened their hearts and minds to native culture. They were filled with excitement when they heard the sun was their brother and that he made things grow and that without our brother we could not see each other as we travel about, that our brother keeps us warm throughout the day.

I told them that our elders were our wisdom-keepers and that we were the protectors of our Sacred Mother the Earth, and that our mother gives us her sacred nourishment and all her beauty for us to see. I mentioned that the moon was our Grandmother and the night sun. Our grandmother is a special lady – she controls all the great oceans and tides. The flowers are our sisters, the animals our brothers. I shared with the children all that we are taught by our old elders. I told the children the leader of the birds was the eagle because he flew the highest and he would warn of danger when danger was near. The leader of the forest was the deer, I told them, because he could run the fastest and warn all other life of danger when danger was present. I told the children that we were no better than the animals, and our elders taught us the natural laws and we belong to the natural world just like their ancestors used to live.

I brought along my turtle rattle, drum and native flutes and shared songs that some old elders had shared with me. This to me was amazing, singing and drumming and planting the songs into their little minds, being able to plant seeds of our knowledge into their little minds. It felt good knowing at least one of us, of my people, was able to remind them of the sacred, and that we must respect all of life with our actions and thoughts. I shared with them that our elders teach us to work with the life-giving forces, that our old elders teach us to honour and be thankful to the air, the waters, the fire, and our Mother the Earth. That we were taught to talk to Creation, animals, birds, insects, fish, plants, and that we all have duties and responsibilities.

When I showed my film The Iroquois Speak Out for Mother Earth at Oxford University, I realized then that there were no native studies programs in the UK for the students to learn about our way of life, of thanksgiving and respect. A life with a spiritual foundation, with ceremonies to communicate with the natural world, and healing ourselves with the sacred fire, water, air and earth. North American native people have influenced most aspects of education and justice here in Canada.

Our elders teach us that our ceremonies are not for ourselves but for all Creation, and for everyone’s benefit and safety. In Canada and the United States, native peoples still maintain sacred ceremonies to honour and give thanks to the life-giving forces and the natural world. Our old elders say that our ceremonies are for honouring and maintaining peace and harmony. My heart is sad because I see the people in England that want to heal and need ceremonies. I feel they are a wounded nation.

In Canada, we know we are wounded. We are hurt inside. Our minds and our spirits, even our bodies, are hurt from colonization and dominant forces. We need to heal together. We need to put our forces together so that all of life benefits. So that life ceases to suffer. Our way of life must be honoured and respected, not forgotten or hidden in some agenda. In America, our old elders are the true lamas and cardinals of our continent.

Our ancestors were disrespected and raped. But we must continue the struggle for truth, justice, Mother Earth, and our children’s future. Our way of life is to share. We have never stopped sharing. We have always shared, we have always been respectful to our brothers and sisters across the great waters.

Hope for the future
I told the children, we have a way of life with all the animals, birds, insects, fish. We talk directly to the rivers and plants, and that the cosmos is our family. We are connected to all of life and we understand Creation has a right to be happy.

I am honoured to work with my elders, and I am honoured to work for our people. The way we are taught and we do not just pray for ourselves, we pray for everyone. To all of life, so life continues.

The director of the Living Rainforest is my brother Karl Hansen, and I travelled to the Amazonia with him fifteen years ago. Part of the mandate for the Living Rainforest is to give indigenous peoples the same respect that the plants and animals receive. Our old elders agree that the lungs of Mother Earth is the Living Rainforest.

My greatest hope is that organizations like the Living Rainforest will continue to maintain a working relationship with indigenous peoples in Canada and the world. My journey to the UK was amazing because the people who came to hear me were England’s most beautiful for their love, compassion and interest in native people and culture and their concern for a better world.

In this world, we have moments of awakening, in this life we have moments of deep thought, sometimes by pain and sometimes by beauty. We have chances to do great deeds with action that has a direct connection to all the life-giving forces and forms, the spirit world. Overwhelming destruction is threatening the elements of life on our sacred Mother Earth.

Here in Indian country, we have ceremonies to bring balance and respect to everything that moves from the four directions. Our truth is the way with the natural world, not the unnatural. Our minds, body and spirit need to be connected to a way of life that responds and respects Creation and our sacred Mother Earth, and that we become one mind, one force, one smile. In the spirit of our ancestors, and our sacred Mother Earth.

By B.H. Bates

In this day and age, the sixth sense – a sense of humor – is as necessary as the other five. For without it, the native would be lost, or would soon be told to do so.

As a people, natives are among the best at seeing the “HA, HA” in almost any situation, even in those where others might be shaking their heads and wringing their hands with worry. A native would probably be the first one in a group of people to ‘crack wise!’

Let’s say a group of people, including a native, walked though the woods and came upon a dead body. Perhaps a lady would scream, another may bow their head to say a little prayer and yet another could pass out cold at such a sight, but not the native – he might say something like: “Check and see if he has a wallet. I think he owed me five bucks!”

Of course I’m only kidding, a native would never make fun of the dead, at least not out loud. But you can rest in peace and be assured that he’d be chuckling to himself, as he thought it.

I’ve noticed a similar trait among the African-American people. The tendency to make light of almost any given situation, be it, as ordinary as someone accidentally spilling coffee on their shirt or as horrific as an attempted assassination.

In my opinion, as a person of native heritage, the one connecting factor is hard times – times of hunger, isolation and desperation. During these trying times, it’s normal to want to band together, assure one another and comfort one another by acting alike. It’s a very natural occurrence, it’s even been observed in the animal kingdom.

And that’s where humor comes in. What better way to lift the human spirit, than to make someone laugh? And, again, in my opinion – “Natives, in general, are very funny people!”

An example of this theory comes from my own childhood. Growing up as a poor little Indian boy on the old Rez, I saw it first hand. Picture a group of native men sitting around the front steps of an old, unpainted, broken down Rez house. They’re all about the same age and unemployed; they’re just hanging out enjoying the first warm days of spring.

One of them raises his head and sniffs the air. It’s the smell of cooking coming from my Auntie Martha’s house. He says: “Can you smell that?” And then it starts, quicker than a blink, one of the Bros pipes-up, “Uh, oh, Willy shit himself.” Another, jokes, as he sniffs the air, “Beans! He had beans!” They all laugh for a moment, until yet another Bro interjects, “No, no! It smells like, Willy had beans, moose meat and bannock!” Again, another round of laughter ripples through the band of Brothers.

The ‘one-ups-man-ship’ continues until one of them utters something stupid or unfunny. Better known on the reservation comedy circuit as a ‘Boner.’

The reason I’m using this childhood memory as an example is because it just goes to show how natives can have a sense of humor, even in the face of hunger. Here are these guys poking fun about food, even as their tummies are growling! Funny stuff … eh?

But not all natives are created equal; take the native women, for instance. If the legend is true – that the Creator made women from the bone of a man – I can tell you it sure wasn’t the funny bone! I’ve observed a definite difference in the behavior between the ‘out-ies’ and the ‘in-ies!’

And I can prove it by this simple little test. Imagine this: say you’re walking around outside and you see your son walking toward you, he’s wearing his best Sunday clothes. Suddenly he slips in the mud! Then he lands in some fresh dog shit! And to top it off, he rips the crotch out of his pants!

Now be an honest Injun, what’s the first thing that came to mind, as you imagined the sequence of events unfolding? If you thought: “Oh, my, are you Okay?” Or “That’ll never come clean!” Or “Damn it, I just bought those pants!” Then you, dear reader, are either an ‘in-ie’ or an interior decorator.

If you’re still grinning at the thought of junior landing on his ass in that pile of sticky, smelly doggy doo … You, my friend, are more than likely an ‘out-ie!’

But in defense of those of you who prefer the seat down – you’re hard wired by nature to be the way you are. As a native woman, you’re more likely to be serious, sober and stoic for the simple reason – women marry men! Funny stuff …eh?

y B.H. Bates

This is an official notice to all people of native heritage:

CHRISTMAS WILL BE CANCELLED, UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!

Because of the ongoing land disputes, self-government issues and also because of the ever growing trend among indigenous people to believe in the so-called ‘Great Spirit ‘ (and not ‘our’ God) – the ruling government has declared that the holiday of Christmas will be disallowed to the aforementioned people(s).

In view of the hostilities, we (the government) have caused, between native and non-native fisherman; no longer will natives be allowed to eat turkeys on the twenty-fifth day of December, nor enjoy candied yams, stuffing, mashed potatoes (with or without gravy) or any other associated goodies. Example: Christmas cake.

Furthermore: Because of most natives refusing to knuckle-under to the unrealistic demands made by our beloved lawyers, natives are hereby warned not to listen to Bing Crosby’s version of White Christmas! Other restricted music includes Oh, Come all ye Faithful, The First Noel, Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Joy to the World. Any aboriginal (Injun) caught with said restricted materials, will be held in contempt.

Some allowances will be tolerated. Examples: A Child is Born, Feliz Navidad and of course Little Drummer Boy.

Re: Christmas Trees
Again because of some native bands ‘claiming’ rights to the use of forest lands or expecting a percentage of the outrageously huge profits, we (the same government) find it necessary to prohibit First Nations (Red-skins) people the use of a decorated evergreen tree.

Subsection (A) Re: Uses of Christmas Trees/ decorating
We (whitey) respect the Indian’s use of feathers, animal hides and bark as decoration, used during ceremonial circumstances.

Subsequently, we, as of today, forbid people who live on ‘our’ reservations the use of Whiteman’s ‘tacky silver tinsel, flamboyant golden garlands and garishly coloured ornaments.’

Any native caught with such decorations will receive the punishment of ‘ostracization’ by the non-native public. The only exemption to this rule will be the: tacky, flamboyant and garish ‘gay’ natives.

Another thing we are determined to eradicate is all this: “Joy, love and peace among man shit!” As of the publication date of this newspaper, we here at www.GreednPower.ca.gov will consider any show of affection or kindness an act of treason – punishable by loathing, hatred and ignorance!

An official government letter has already been sent to Santa Claus A.k.a.: Chris Kringle. A.k.a.: Saint Nicholas. A.k.a.: the Jolly Man in red. In said letter we expressed our belief that the North American native has been very naughty this year and that the fathers of confederation would prefer that the natives endure even more poverty, disease and hunger. And Mr. Claus was also instructed not to deliver any goodies to any reservations or we’d bust every bone in his head and tax his fat ass into the next millennium!

Concerning the tradition of giving gifts
We find it necessary to make outlaws out of any native(s) who intends to exchange loving, thoughtful or heart felt gifts. We (the Lords and Masters), out of the kindness of our hearts, gave natives – small, desolate, barren reservation lands in exchange for the rest of the country! And how do you repay us? Now, after all these years, you want us to renegotiate all of those treaties we (the old boys club) broke! How dare you!

Subsection: ‘Gift giving’
The decorating/wrapping of any ‘gift’ will also be deemed an offence. This includes any art work done on any surface, such as paper, canvases or wooden masks. In fact any art work done by natives must be given or sold at a ridiculously low prices, to greedy shop owners, for resale at a ridiculously high price.

Speaking of ‘cost,’ we here at your (our) government offices have determined that out of the FIVE BILLION DOLLARS set aside every year, for Indian affairs – for the life of us, we just can’t figure out how we can possibly give you the ‘average’ Indian “less than nothing, zero, zip, nada!”

I mean it! We here at Indian Affairs have lost sleep trying to think of even more ways to spend more of the moneys intended to ‘help’ the poor, poverty-stricken Indian. We even tried to hire more staff, to hire even more staff, to fill all of the totally useless and redundant positions in the massive machine of government bureaucracy. But sadly, we can’t find another way to screw you over!

So we decided to just ‘not’ – wish you a Merry Christmas! Then we remembered if we didn’t send out Christmas cards we’d save Indian affairs thousands upon thousands of dollars … so Merry Friggin’ Christmas!

By Lloyd Dolha

Two of Canada’s largest Métis organizations have denounced their prospective provincial governments over the implementation of their rights to harvest wildlife as prescribed by the Supreme Court of Canada in last September’s landmark ruling that established Métis harvesting rights as equal to other constitutionally recognized aboriginal peoples.

In defiance of a provincial directive, the Métis Nation of Ontario held a highly publicized special hunt on October 12, in a traditional Métis hunting territory south of Sudbury – an area in which the Ontario government refused to recognize the Métis’ right to hunt.

“They entered into a solemn agreement with us and at the height of the harvest [season], they unilaterally implement their interpretation of the agreement,” said Tony Belcourt, president of the Métis Nation of Ontario.

Earlier this year on July 7, the MNO and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, reached an Interim Harvesting Agreement that recognized the MNO’s Harvesting Card System.

Under the terms of the agreement, the MNO and the MNR agreed to allow Métis to harvest wildlife under the card system subject to a mutually agreeable process of research and evaluation of the MNO’s Harvester’s Certificate System. Since that time, the two parties have been at odds over the implementation of the agreement.

Then on October 7, the Ontario government sent out a press release stating they would only recognize those MNO harvester’s cards in areas north of Sudbury.

In the announcement, Natural Resources Minister David Ramsey said that any agreement with the Métis of Ontario must be consistent with the 2003 Powley decision of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Ramsey stressed that Métis hunting rights, as defined by Powley, belong to historically-based geographically-specific communities within certain geographic limitations. Following the announcement, Belcourt said he felt “betrayed” by the Ontario government and threatened confrontation and legal action against the MNR.

Hunting cards have been issued by the MNO since 1995 and the issue of Métis hunting rights has evolved through the Ontario courts in several hunting rights cases over the last ten years.

The Métis Nation say that their Harvester’s Certificate System is a rich source of genealogical history on Métis individuals who qualify for the right to hunt.

However, even the MNO admits in their background information that there is a need for further research due to uncertainties that have arisen due to a lack of historical with respect to the existence and continuity of Métis communities in the south and east of the province.

Regardless of the uncertainties surrounding the genealogical history of the Métis in some quarters of the province, Métis north and south of Sudbury are taking to the woods to harvest wildlife.

“We’re telling our people to go out and harvest, which they are doing, and so far there have been no charges, confiscation of equipment or meat from any of our harvesters,” said Belcourt.

Manitoba example
In Manitoba, the arrest of a Métis hunter has the Manitoba Métis Federation also threatening direct and legal action against the province of Manitoba.

Goodon has vowed to fight the charge with the backing of the Métis federation.

“There may be a day when the resistance of the 1800s comes back to this province, where we give our lives to defend our people, ” David Chartrand, president of the MMF, in reference to the 1869 Louis Riel rebellion in Manitoba.

Chartrand was responding to the October 20 arrest of Métis Harvester Identification Cardholder Will Goodon.

Chatrand accused Premier Gary Doer of betraying the Métis people of Manitoba by reneging on an oral agreement to honour hunting cards handed out by the Métis Federation for the fall hunt.

At the annual general assembly of the Manitoba Métis Federation in late September, Premier Doer pledged that his government would follow the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Powley and respect the Métis right to hunt.

Conservation Minister Stan Struthers agreed that his department would honour the MMF Métis Harvester Identification Cards and respect the rights of the Métis.

But on October 20, respected Métis leader and chair of the Cherry Creek local of the MMF, Will Gooden met with Boissevain Conservation officers to discuss the ongoing concerns regarding the application of Métis rights in the province.

Gooden was charged with illegal possession of a migratory bird for not holding a valid provincial hunting license and both the gun and carcass ere seized by the Boissevain Department of Conservation.

“I was chair of the MMF annual general assembly. I was within ten feet of the premier when he promised to respect Métis rights and follow the Powley decision,” said Gooden.

“After hearing his message to the Métis people, I didn’t think I would have to skulk in the bush like a criminal. Métis hunters have the right to feed their families in our traditional ways. The minister has no right to play games with the lives of our people.”

Both the MMF and the Manitoba government have been at the table for months in an attempt to negotiate the scope of the Métis right to hunt.

Though an extensive consultation process with the Métis people, the MMF developed a Métis Harvesting Initiative that includes the Havester Identification Cards, a Métis Conservation Trust Fund and the Interim Métis Laws of the Harvest.

The Métis began issuing the Harvester Identification cards in early September.

At the time, Chartrand met with Minister Struthers to discuss Métis harvesting rights. During the meeting, Struthers made it clear that his department would charge cardholders if they break the law.

The minister also said the province is working on new rules for Métis hunters to bring their hunting rights more in line with First Nations rights but he did not know when the new rules would come into effect.

“We can’t ignore Powley. It’s there and it is what we have to govern by,” said Struthers. “In the meantime, there’s rules out there that the natural resources officers will, be enforcing, and we’ve been clear with that from day one.”

By Shauna Lewis

“To the Native people of the whole province we can give our assurance that your children will be accepted at this school by the Staff and Student Council, eager to smooth their paths with kindness and understanding. We need now only students to take advantage of the opportunity, so that some day our doctors, lawyers, social workers and departmental workers will be fully trained University graduates of our own race.”

~ Ellen Neel (Kwicksutaineuk), 1948
Source: The Native Voice, November 1948

Totem PoleThe year was 1948. The occasion: a UBC Homecoming football game. On October 30 during the half-time intermission, students and sports fans bore witness to the dedication and rise of the late Kwakwaka’wakw artist, Ellen Neel’s Victory Through Honor totem pole. With her husband Edward and respected Chief William Scow at her side, Neel gave the University of British Columbia two special gifts: the totem pole and the permission to use the Thunderbird name and crest for UBC athletic teams.

The beautiful gifts symbolized not only the movement towards a more culturally inclusive academic institution, but according to Neel’s daughter Theo, the totem pole represented a sort of cultural umbilical cord for those Native students who found themselves far from home and culturally displaced.

The 1948 totem stood for First Nations acknowledgment, empowerment, and according to the younger Neel, “the pole is a representation of the legends,” legends, that are integral in Kwakwaka’wakw cultural history. The Neel pole represented all that is sacred and empowering to First Nations people, and until January of this year, the original stood outside the campus’ main student services building. Rotting from the inside out, and sadly the victim of vandals, the 56-year-old testimony of cultural inclusion and veneration was not only rapidly decaying, but due to its steady decline and location, the pole was becoming a public safety hazard.

News of the pole’s demise spread fast and consequently led to the establishment of group of individuals devoted to the task of breathing life back into the sacred and important piece of First Nations history. Known simply as the Victory through Honor Pole Committee, more than two-dozen members including Michael Ames, director of the Museum of Anthropology, and author and professor of UBC’s art history department, Charlotte Townsend-Gault; established a team that would ultimately work towards restoration of the Kwakwakwaka pole.

It became apparent that the original pole was way beyond repair. Concern over the restoration of the original pole was replaced with the realization that a replica would have to be made.

On October 18, 2004, Elders, faculty, students, media and esteemed guests gathered once more outside UBC’s Brock Hall to witness and celebrate the rededication of Neel’s renowned pole.

The ceremony commenced with Kwakwaka’wakw Chief of the Heiltsuk Nation and Master of Ceremonies Edwin Newman, extending a welcome to guests and gratitude to former Musqueam Chief Delbert Guerin and the community for granting him and other Kwakwaka’wakw people permission to visit traditional Musqueam territory.

In commenting on the trailblazers who have had a hand in the revival of the Northwest coast artistic tradition, Chief Newman declared it was “people like Charlie James, Mungo Martin and Ellen Neel who had the courage to keep our culture alive with their carving.”

Not only did Neel have a part in the resurgence of traditional stylization; she was the first trained woman carver on the Northwest coast. From carving in a time when there was still a ban on the Northwest coast potlatch system, to allocating a place in a tradition primarily dominated by males, Neel broke down many barriers in the Native art scene.

For their tireless efforts in replicating the original pole, carvers Calvin Hunt, Mervin Child and John Livingston were given praise and recognition. Also recognized were Kwakwaka’wakw artists/carvers Doug Cramner and Elder George Hunt.

Martha Piper, the president of UBC, and Madeleine McIvor, acting director of UBC’S First Nations House of Learning, were two of four individuals called upon to witness the totem’s unveiling.

“On this day, we celebrate the vitality of traditional protocols in contemporary situations,” declared McIvor. “Today’s ceremony attests to the good thinking and hard work of the Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, the Musqueam peoples, and the University in bringing together three distinct cultural protocols in one unified and cohesive celebration.”

Larry Grant, a Musqueam resident, commemorated the moment and solidified the good ties established between the two Nations through the presentation of a Coast Salish blanket. This gift is “so that everyone is aware this was all done in friendship,” Grant stated as he handed the blanket over to a Kwakwaka’wakw woman sitting nearest to the podium.

Having the opportunity to speak with Grant, we touched on the historic relations between the Coast Salish and the Kwakwaka’wakw peoples. Admitting that past community relations between the two Nations haven’t always been peaceful, Grant emphasized that the establishment of a Kwakwakaw’wak totem pole on Musqueam territory is a sort of contemporary peace pipe, or as Grant put it, “a hand reaching out to try and bridge the differences between the us.”

Grant also made reference not only to the newfound connection of the two coastal Nations, but also to a tri-part interconnectedness established within the coming together of the Coast Salish culture, the Kwakwaka’wakw culture and the University culture. “A common goal,” said Grant, focuses on the need “to learn about and respect each others protocols and cultures.”

Elder and former Judge Alfred Scow’s talked with me about the importance of academia and the ever-changing processes of learning. “There has always been a learning process amongst our people from stories and legends of what our ancestors passed down to us,” stated Judge Scow. He emphasized that in contemporary times “we have to have the transition…the spirit of learning is going in a new direction.” Mr. Scow hoped that through the totem people would understand the “privileged presence of our traditions or cultures and our (Kwakwaka’wakw) people.”

The actual tangible remains of the original Victory through Honour totem pole can be found within Alert Bay’s U’mista Cultural Center.

Chief Arvol Looking Horse Brings Unity Riders Across Canada To Six Nations Reservation

By Dr. John Bacher & Danny Beaton, Turtle Clan, Mohawk Nation

Dr. Dawn Hill, professor of Indigenous Studies at McMaster University, has spent more than twenty years of her life organizing events and activities to honour her people and creation. Drum Beat, a recent project, gathered people in defense of traditional Native values and Mother Earth. Drum Beat. It joined indigenous people from across North, South and Central America to honour the life giving forces and the Great Mystery.

The International Indigenous Elders Summit, which took place on the grounds of the historic Chiefswood Park, on the banks of the Grand River, Ontario, Canada; was held from August 27 to September 1, 2004, and began with the spectacular arrival of the Unity Riders on horseback. This group of Native Americans rode from British Columbia on a spiritual journey with a message of peace.

The Summit brought together Native spiritual leaders from the Arctic to the Amazon. They came to develop a message to the world that will help heal the earth and unify Native peoples. This message will be delivered to the United Nations in May next year – the last year of The Decade of The International Celebration of Indigenous Peoples.

Toronto Mayan activist Fernando Hernandez helped bring elders from Central and South America to share their visions and knowledge. Some of the most distant elders who came were Humberto Piaguaje, a Ziona from Columbia, and Mayan Manuel Ruis Ruis.

The Elders Summit was the product of many good minds. It was held under the auspices of the Haudenosuanee Confederacy Council. Two days were spent involving recitations of the Great Law of Peace and Code of Handsome Lake.

Like all gatherings of Longhouse people, the summit began and ended each day with a recital of the Thanksgiving Address, which expresses thanks for all the elements of creation.

The Summit also received support from the Six Nations Elected Council, and from McMaster University, as a result of the work of Dawn Hill, chair of its department of Indigenous Studies.

The dramatic unity ride that began the Elders Summit was the eighth annual epic trans-continental journey since 1996. These rides, like the summit, seek to inspire Native youth with the values of their heritage, away from the slick glamour of the trinkets found in Wal Mart stores.

Those fortunate enough to see it were awed by the power of the epic travelers on foot and horseback, blessed by the sacred ceremonial staffs and regalia of the magnificent great plains horse-buffalo culture.

Riders share experiences
One of the Unity Riders, Eric Mitchell of the Okanagan nation from British Columbia, captured how awestruck the participants were on the first day at the climax of the Unity Ride. Passionately he explained, “What you are feeling is our spirituality. It is about helping each other. You have heard of the Creator, the good things that our traditional spirituality is about.”

I have discovered much about our ways across the continent through the Unity Rides. In 1996 when the rides started was the first time that I ever ate a buffalo. In 1998, I discovered Moose and Elk meat. The next year I began to appreciate salmon, after all our tee shirts became red with salmon juice. Until the Unity Rides began our peoples had abandoned for a hundred years, our tradition of building dug out cottonwood canoes. After the inspiration provided by the Unity Rides we now have 25.

One of the youthful Unity Riders from Six Nations, Jessie Brant, explained how, before the unity ride, he had never been around horses before. He started his involvement after the Strawberry Festival at the Longhouse. His running in the rides was difficult especially in the beginning. His first ride was in North Dakota. The next day there was a tornado.

Melvin Patrick from British Columbia explained how the ride gave him a new respect for horses. He found that, since the horses worked so hard to carry us all day, we found a new respect. The first thing we did when the day began was to rise up and take care of our horses.

The Unity Ride began from South Dakota and had their origins in profound spiritual visions among the Lakota people, haunted by painful memories of the massacre at Wounded Knee more than two decades ago. The prophet of the movement was a Lakota holy man, Curtis Lee Ray.

After going on a Vision Quest, he directed fellow Lakota elders White Plume and Birgil Killss Straight, to go on horses to the location of the Camp of the leader of the Ghost Dance, Big Foot, who was later killed by U.S. soldiers at Wounded Knee. The Ghost Dance was a 19th century spiritual movement of Native people, who prayed for the restoration of millions of buffalo who once roamed the Great Plains.

The epic horse travels initiated by the Lakota were undertaken to release the spirits and complete the grieving cycle for the Ghost Dance victims of Wounded Knee. The Big Foot Memorial Ride to honour the spirits of the Ghost Dancers involves a 180-mile ride. It takes place in the bitter cold weather of December 15 to 29. The route follows the same path the Ghost Riders took in their reverential trek to restore Great Plains ecology.

Throughout the gathering a number of the elders, including Mohawk Jake Swamp, who celebrated his 30th wedding anniversary with his wife Judy on the last day of the summit, stressed that to understand Native ways of respect for the earth, the first thing you have to do is to loose your marbles. This colourful phrase symbolized in a light hearted way, the ridicule and abuse that many of today’s elders experienced in their earlier efforts to revive Native cultural traditions of respect for the earth. White Plume has recalled how when he began the Big Foot Ride, they said we were play-acting at being Indians.

Despite the initial ridicule, White Plume found that the spectacular grandeur of the epic rides created a new respect for Native ways by opening up closed minds. Soon he recalled people began jumping on a horse, freezing and suffering the same ordeal as Big Foot. Now White Plume believes, we have fulfilled the dreams they had. Our language is back. Everybody is concerned about that today. The buffalo are also back. On the Pine Ridge reservation there are nine buffalo operations, and every grandma has bought their grandson a horse.

One of the first Big Foot riders, Birgil Killss Straight participated in the Elders Summit. He described the ill affects on the diet of the Lakota people from contact with Europeans, formerly dependent on great herds of free roaming buffalo. He stressed how it was only 281 years ago that the Lakota people made contact with the first white man. In 281 years the whole thing turned around. We lost respect for the land and for the women. We were destroyed and we help destroy.

For us to preserve the land is very essential. What we eat now with chemicals and pesticides is destroying our minds.
Eric Mitchell explained how the inspiring message of the commemoration of the Ghost Dance went to larger groups of Native people through the Unity Rides.

After the Big Foot Ride became such a success the Lakota people discussed how the beauty of epic horse riding should not be just confined to the Pine Ridge community. They wanted a ride that would bring together the various Lakota communities in Canada and the United States, which are divided by hundreds of miles. After having such unity rides to bring together the Lakota people, the idea emerged of a Unity Ride to bring together Natives from all over the continent.

Chief Arvol leads ceremony
Lakota Chief Arvol Looking Horse conducted the ceremonies honouring the completion of the 2004 Unity Ride at Chiefswood. At the age of twelve he was given the enormous responsibility to become the 19th generation Keeper of the Pipe of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman.

He began by honouring brother horse placing a blanket on a brown and white traditional Native horse from the Oneida nation of Wisconsin. He then explained how, “In time the horse will bring back life to the people. We honour the animal that is truly a clean spirit. This land is our mother. We honour the horse spirit. We honour the horse nation today. We sing and pray for this horse and the many horses throughout the land.”

After honouring the horse nation, Arvol Looking Horse gave a similar prophetic tribute to the buffalo. He prophesied how, “Many years ago they pretty much wiped out the buffalo. Our prophecies told us that we must bring back the spirits of the buffalo and that is what we are doing. This a very crucial time with earth changes and climatic changes. We are trying to maintain our traditional ways, sing our songs and carry our staffs.”

The setting at Chiefswood Park, featuring a two-acre restored prairie, an explosion of wildflowers more common in an era when bison roamed free and beneath towering oaks, was quite appropriate for an Elders Summit. During the six days more than a thousand participants must have sat in the tent below the stage marked by the two-row wampum, which was the scene not only of speeches, but of music and dancing.

More environmental abuse in the works
Chiefswood Park is historic because it was the home of Chief George Johnson, father of the famous poet Pauline Johnson. His fame to be one of the greatest Iroquois Confederacy chiefs is based on a successful defense of traditional lands from illegal logging, causing him to be three times seriously injured from attacks by poachers. Chief Johnson’s home became the site of Native speakers raising key issues facing the earths protection today.

One of the elders who stressed the impact of corporate environmental abuse was Lubicon nation representative Rennie Jobein. He warned that, “The polar bear may become extinct in 10 years because of global warming. This is a product of the terrible greed of white men on this continent. There is a picture of gold seekers in the Yukon climbing up a hill. They look just like ants. That is a good example of greed. The destruction of Lubicon lands began in 1978. Today we are living on bottled water. The pollution is so great that we don’t even allow our children to swim in it. Nobody seems to care. I have spoken all over the world but nothing changes. The way this system runs today if Jesus Christ was to come down and sit at the Lubicon negotiating table he would be crucified again. We all are under assault, each and every one of us. The oil wells, the seismic wells, the clear cuts the white man is proud of! They are destroying themselves, but the sad part is that they are taking us down with them too.”

Innu Elder Elizabeth Penashue gave one of the most moving presentations at the conference. She spoke movingly of her struggle to protect the Innu traditional territories in Quebec and Labrador, from the assaults of mining, clear cuts and a planned hydroelectric dam. This is the Churchill Falls Two project, which if actually built, would involve massive flooding. To stop this ecocidal scheme she has lead educational canoe trips down threatened sections of the Churchill River. While she spoke a hat was passed around at the Summit to raise money for these efforts.

Elizabeth Penashue began by describing the impact of the first Churchill Falls project. She lamented, “On our lands we have had a hydro dam since 1965. It has caused us a lot of problems on our land. People lost a lot of their possessions from the flooding it caused. Our burial grounds are under water. Our canoes, fishing gear and cabins are under the water. All kinds of animals have suffered from the flooding, beavers and especially caribou. When governments contemplate about building dams, why don’t they think about the animals? When I think about what happened I just want to cry.

“We are also suffering from low level flying by military jet aircraft. There is also nickel mining on our lands. There is a lot of clear cutting. Many of our traditional medicines are gone. If the trees are all gone what are we going to eat? We don’t eat baloney in the store. The people used to be strong from eating wild meat. With no more exercise and fresh food, we have diabetes and cancer.

“When I pray it makes me strong. That is why I don’t want to stop what I am doing.

“When I fought the low level flying, nine women were put in jail in one small room. I said when you put the handcuffs on I am going to do something again to help my people. I don’t want to see another great mess from a new dam on the Churchill River. That is why I will be on a canoe trip next week. I will go with my husband and my children. When I see the animals, they talk to me. They say, ‘Elizabeth don’t give up. I need a forest and clear water. ‘ That is what I hear from the Porcupine and the other animals. We have lived here for thousands of years and I will live here till I die. We have never signed a treaty to give up our lands and I will never sign a treaty.”

Draft created for United Nations
At the conclusion of the Elders Summit two declarations were developed out of the six days of consultations among participants. Mohawk elder Jake Swamp explained that these will be circulated to various communities before a final version will be submitted to the United Nations in May. The draft Elders Declaration was called Kindling a Fire. It stressed that, our heart rests on our kinship with one another and with all beings of the universe and cosmos. We are grounded on Mother Earth.

A number of principles were expressed in the Elders Declaration. The first was that Violence against Indigenous women must cease and that Women are the mothers of our nations and their authority must be recognized within and outside Indigenous nations.
The declaration urged that Historical treaties must be recognized and interpreted from our perspective. It also called for education in Native languages, an end to assimilation policies and practices, respect for traditional laws and review by international tribunals of the persecution and murder of Native people. A detailed program for the protection of the environment was developed. This included strengthening environmental assessment processes by including the traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous peoples, prohibiting genetic engineering and honouring Sacred sites and artifacts and lands.

Great concern for the protection of the earth was also found in the Indigenous Youth Declaration. It stressed: “Youth have a right and responsibility to practice a traditional way of life, where, as guardians we implore ourselves to take action to protect, preserve and restore Mother Earth and all Creation and to free our people from hindrance and/or prosecution.”

By Staff Writers

The Penticton Indian Band has set up a trust fund to help the families of three men shot to death on the band’s reserve on October 30, 2004.

Killed in the shootings were Quincy Paul, 29, a member of the Penticton band; Robin Baptiste, 24, a member of the Osoyoos band living in Penticton; and Damien Endry, 20, who lived in Oliver. Endry was a Caucasian whose stepfather is a member of the Osoyoos Indian band.

All three of the men killed left children behind.

Billy Gabriel, 18, was shot in the arm and his 31-year-old brother Tommy Lee, was shot in the face in the incident as well.

The teenager reportedly feigned death by falling into a nearby creek during the spray of bullets, holding his breath underwater. Billy floated underwater to safety.

Tommy Lee was flown to Kelowna hospital from Penticton where he underwent a six-hour emergency surgery to remove bullet fragments from his face.

The shooting incident took place in the afternoon on Green Mountain road at a popular party spot.

Dustin Paul, a 24-year-old member of the Penticton band, was taken into police custody after he left the Penticton hospital; after being treated for a knife wound to the throat.
Paul is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.

Speculation regarding the motives of the shooting includes a two-week old bar fight between Dustin and Tommy Lee; a drug turf war, and rivalry between the two bands.

Dustin Paul is said to have attempted suicide in the after math of the shooting by slitting his own throat with a knife.

Penticton Chief Stewart Phillip declined to comment on the tragedy. In deference to the families involved, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, the organization representative of the interior bands, postponed their annual general assembly for 30 days.

By Lloyd Dolha

The federal government has signed off on a framework agreement with a Northwest Territories First Nation in an effort to avoid further delays to the $7 billion Mackenzie Valley pipeline.

Deh Cho Grand Chief Herb Nowegian met with Andy Scott, minister of Indian and Northern Affairs and federal negotiators on November 5, to seek an out-of-court settlement of two lawsuits the Deh Cho have launched that challenge the review process for the pipeline.

“We’re just trying to get everything back on track,” said Nowegian. “We’ll try to bulldoze our way through this one here as quick as possible and keep the whole process moving forward.” An out-of-court settlement “would be in everybody’s interest.”

There are no details available about the framework agreement because the two parties have signed a non-disclosure clause, said a spokesperson for the minister.

The Deh Cho have filed two court applications to block the review panel’s hearings until they get greater representation on the panel.

One application was filed in early September with the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories. A second similar application was filed in the Federal Court of Canada in mid-September. The Deh Cho alleges that they have been unfairly excluded from the environmental review process.

The statement of claim asks the court to grant an injunction stopping the pipeline review until the Deh Cho are included in the review process or declare any decision reached by the panel as invalid.

In August, the federal government established the seven-member joint review panel to handle the complex environmental assessment of the mega-project. The panel includes representatives from the federal government, N.W.T. First Nations and the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Review Board.

One member of the panel is a former chief of the Pehdzeh Ki First Nation, part of the Deh Cho. But the Deh Cho does not recognize him as a formal representative.

The Deh Cho are the only major aboriginal group the N.W.T. have not signed on to the project; and are the only group without a representative on the review panel. They are also the only aboriginal group that does not have a land claim in the territory.

Greater role needed
Nowegian said they need a stronger voice because they don’t have a land claim to protect their interests over land, self-government or resources.

Forty per cent of the pipeline’s 12,000-kilometre planned route would cross land that is claimed by the Deh Cho. The 4,500 mostly Dene members of the Deh Cho cover almost the entire southwest corner of the Northwest Territories.

“We’re trying to get party status to the agreement,” he said. “The details of how we’re going to do it are still pretty premature to talk about right now.”

Norwegian, however, acknowledged that a greater role for the Deh Cho in the review process is on the table as part of the settlement.

The proposed pipeline will pump more than one billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from the field of the Mackenzie Valley Delta and has been on the drawing board since the early 1970s.

Final approval is expected to take at least two years and the pipeline is targeted to begin operations by late 2009.

And there are powerful interests standing on the sidelines.

The players
Aboriginals are the second-largest stakeholders, with the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, owning one-third of the project.

The APG allows Aboriginal people in the Mackenzie Valley to share in the long-term, substantial dividends to be earned from ownership in the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline.

The APG was created in 2000 following meetings in Fort Liard and Fort Simpson. Thirty Aboriginal leaders from all regions of the Northwest Territories signed the resolution that created the APG and set its goals.

The APG represents the interests of the aboriginal people in the Northwest Territories in maximizing the ownership and benefits in the Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline.

Major energy companies have already spent millions in exploration to open up the vast gas reserves and are likely to welcome any settlement.

The Mackenzie Delta Producer’s Group, includes Imperial Oil Resources, Conoco Canada, Shell Canada and Exxon-Mobil Canada.

In October, pipeline proponents filed their application to start building the project.
Imperial Oil of Toronto, the largest stakeholder, has yet to file key applications including a lengthy environmental impact statement.

Imperial Oil has said it has no position on the on-going controversy, noting that the issue is between the federal government and the Deh Cho.

Shell Canada said it does not believe the Deh Cho’s legal action is a big problem for the project.

But other companies wanting to explore for natural gas in the territories like Devon Energy Corp. are frustrated by the pipeline’s many delays.

“It’s really taken a lot longer, even now, than we really thought,” said Devon president John Richels.