The path of least resistance questionable

Page 2

Dear Editor:

When I read the story in Raven's Eye, (July, First Nations team up for economic opportunities, page 1) I couldn't believe it. But it is a reality; the Squamish and Lil'wat band chiefs have agreed to pay the province of British Columbia $25,000 per year for the use of four acres of land in the resort town of Whistler. You read that right: the Natives are paying the white people for land! Should we laugh or cry? It's the first publicized case of First Nations sinking so low as to actually give money to land thieves for permission not to buy, but only use, property that was stolen from them. Whether we mock or shed tears over it, this is the new reality of Native politics in Canada.

The ludicrous deal is part of an economic development scheme agreed to by the province in exchange for the two band councils' participation in Vancouver's successful bid to host the 2010 winter Olympics, a real estate developer's $850 million bonanza that will bring more bored white people, more generic buildings, more pollution-spewing resorts and $387 million worth of paved roads and rail lines into the traditional territory of the Lil'wat Nation. In exchange for agreeing to market their melanin and play the role of Friendly Indian for the otherwise white-washed Canadian Olympic bid, the two band councils were awarded the privilege of operating a tourist attraction-style cultural centre in Whistler village.

There are a lot of questions within local communities as to whether or not the chiefs should have accepted such a blatant payoff for their support of the Olympic bid.

In justifying his actions, Squamish band chief Gibby Jacob said that paying money to the province to get involved in the Whistler tourist trade was the "path of least resistance."

I suspect he believes this is a good thing. Mimicking the masters of the money game, Jacob informed us that, "If you want to get into business, you've got to have the ability to go with the flow." I don't think anyone questions the truth of that statement; but Native people in Squamish and Lil'wat are probably asking themselves deeper questions than Jacob is, and wondering if "going with the flow" is the right thing to do even when it's heading straight down the toilet.

In the new reality of Native politics, principle doesn't mean a thing. Chief Jacob cut to the core of their rationale for walking away from defending the peoples' ancestral rights and instead embracing the capitalists: "you know, we could spend a lot of money litigating, which would eat into the development dollars and profits."

Evidently, beyond adopting just the mentality of their colonizer, the new Native capitalists have even taken to stylistically emulating the crass greed of their new partners in crime. Said Jacob of the Whistler cultural centre deal, "This thing's going to give us the ability to shake all the dollars we can out of the tourists." Nice.

If there is a doubt in anyone's mind that this was anything more than a sell-out of rights designed to benefit elite politicians, forget about it.

You might be able to put forward some creative and almost credible arguments for getting involved in this sort of deal if it seriously addressed the employment problems in your community and if the package included skilled job training, long-term employment opportunities, and guaranteed executive and management positions for band members. But when questioned about the lack of experience and current capacity of the Squamish and Lil'wat nations to run their own show, even in a cultural tourism centre, Jacob responded, "That's the thing about having money, you can buy expertise, right?" Right.

I get it, chief: this is another feeding frenzy where white consultants are paid by Native politicians for the privilege of burying their face in the trough. So much for the community development argument.

Aside from the common workaday corruption that continues to embed itself in the lives of our communities through thesedeals, and the gradual slide to complete assimilation they promote, the worst thing about the whole economic development agenda is that it is founded on a basic concession to white power and the willing surrender of our peoples' fundamental rights.

Who is left to defend the land? In the Olympic partnership, the Squamish and Lil'wat band councils are sacrificing pristine valleys full of cultural memory, medicine and spiritual power so that white people can build ski runs for the Olympics and later, turn them into tourist resorts. And they are promoting the land speculation that is already underway in the corridor between West Vancouver and Pemberton, which will make it nearly impossible for traditional people to continue to use their lands for hunting, medicines and ceremonial purposes, not to even mention the basic wrong of causing the loss of animal habitat and disruption of the natural ecological balance that will happen as a result of huge increases in population and infrastructure.

Chief Jacob was quoted as saying that, "we're setting a trail for the other First Nations. That's how I see it anyways." As if, by this point, we needed to have it explained to us that he and the other band councillors see the path to the future as a forest trail freshly paved over with money.

Taiaiake Alfred

Editor's note: the above letter was shortened for space. The unabridged version is online at www.taiaiake.com.