Trading protest for politics an effective move

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Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Ovide Mercredi gave a stern warning to both the national chiefs and the national media last month as the assembly's annual meeting wrapped up in Calgary.

Natives in Canada are mad, he said, mad enough to resort to acts of "retaliation" should they be pushed too far. The vague and veiled threat brought back images of Oka.

Mercredi's forecast is a tad melodramatic. Oka proved that armed rebellions simply don't work. Military-style protests, complete with road blocks, guns and zealous warriors, are obsolete, as we ourselves are in danger of becoming. The law makers in Ottawa, armed with the national budget and Indian Act, still have the final say over First Nations activities. As long as that control is legislated policy, bullets and barricades won't get us anywhere.

The Native protesters of the future would be better to follow the lead of the Kla-qui-o-aht People on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. They invited the internationally recognized environment lawyer (nephew of the late John F. Kennedy, who was murdered during his first term as U.S. President, and son of Robert Kennedy, a senator who was also murdered while in office) BobKennedy up for the weekend. It was a press sensation.

The media event started as Kennedy, with family in tow, came ashore at Clayoquot Sound in a traditional canoe carried four Natives. Kennedy toured the sound with members of the Kla-qui-o-aht Band and later addressed 600 people gathered for the 12th annual Nuu-Chal-Nulth Indian Games. He criticized the Canadian government for not considering Native interest. He criticized the American government for being in bed with the Canadian government. People listened. Reporters, even compared his speaking abilities to those of his famous father and uncle.

When it was over, Kennedy went back home to New York. Although the loggers were still waiting to cut trees, the word was out. The Kla-qui-o-aht were not a group of uncouth radicals on a pitiful roadblock somewhere. They were hosting international lobbyists.

Forfeiting the blockade mentality to the non-Native environmentalists was a smart political move. No one cares as much when we get arrested, anyway. What the Kla-qui-o-aht have discovered is that the only way to fight politics is with politics.

But the weekend coup was only one small battle in a much larger war. The Kla-qui-o-aht still want to work out a land claim settlement with the B.C. and federal governments, a claim that includes much of the yet-to-be-loggged regions of Meares Island and parts of Pacific Rim National Park. The band has also decided to boycott the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, with the permission of the other bands in the Salish Nation, as their official protest unless the government agrees to start negotiations.

Unfortunately, they stand little chance of working out a land deal with either government because B.C. decided some time ago to allow logging in all but a quarter of the region's old growth forest. With all those hemlock and cedar dollar signs just waiting to be felled, the province won't likely talk to any of the Salish people about land claims until the sound has been reduced to patchy stubble.

Boycotting the games is not a bad idea, but it probably won't get the Kla-qui-o-aht what they want. After all, what does the B.C. government care if a few Natives don't show up? They might have better luck if they got the games moved to Clayoquot Sound so all participants and spectators could see what clear-cut logging does.

One thing's certain: there'd be plenty of room for track and field competitions.