Education on treaties required

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An Angus Reid study reports a 56 per cent majority of Saskatchewan residents believe it's important to settle treaty issues with First Nations.

Judge David Arnot, treaty commissioner for Saskatchewan, released the report to Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association delegates, telling them the study "suggests solid support for moving ahead on treaties."

While 56 per cent fully support settling treaties, 29 per cent of Saskatchewan residents say it's important to settle treaties and 13 per cent don't know or don't have an opinion.

Arnot cautioned that not all the news in the study is good because it reflects a significant split on opinion related to the concept of treaties.

Significantly, 41 per cent of Saskatchewan residents oppose treaties, while 38 per cent support them. In addition, only four per cent of respondents said Aboriginal/First Nations issues should receive the greatest attention from Saskatchewan's leaders. Given the study's margin of error - plus or minus 3.2 per cent - that amounts to a dead heat.

The study contacted 1,005 non-Aboriginal adults in March of 1999. "From my vantage point, the split is not particularly good news," Arnot told SUMA delegates. "But the public has told us they want the straight goods on this - they want impartial information - and I think it's important I deliver the facts. That split simply means we have work to do."

Much as a poll conducted for the Assembly of First Nations in late 1998 revealed, the Saskatchewan study also discovered a tremendous appetite for public education on treaties, said Arnot.

Almost 80 per cent of respondents weren't knowledgeable about treaties and are interested in learning more. Nearly 70 per cent of the respondents believe a better understanding of treaties will bring better relations between First Nation and non-First Nation communities.

Arnot announced a public education initiative called the Treaty Awareness Speakers Bureau that the office of the treaty commissioner is launching. Volunteers from the community, ranging from Gordon Tootoosis to Allan Blakeney, are now available to speak to classes, community groups and service clubs about the history of treaties.