Another group seeks to leave the Lubicon Cree

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On June 22, in the posh surroundings of Edmonton's Hilton Hotel, members of the Lubicon Lake Cree Nation called a press conference to an-nounce that they are seeking to form their own band. The break-away group's leader, Billy Joe Laboucan, explained that the Little Buffalo Cree Nation, as they plan to be called, had applied formally for band division in February.

"We have to tell you about an unfortunate divorce situation," said Karen Trace, one of the group's lawyers. "We're now at the separation stage."

"There are irreconcilable differences in Little Buffalo," Laboucan said. "They have left a lot of us out from participating in the political proc-ess in Little Buffalo."

Questions were immediately raised-indeed, they had been raised by Lubicon Lake members prior to the conference-about the timing of the an-nouncement. The Lubicon Lake Band was on the eve of entering into nego-tiations with the federal government over land issues. As well, the confer-ence came close on the heels of a World Council of Churches visit of "emi-nent persons," designed to embarrass the Canadian government into con-cluding a negotiation process beginning to be measured in generations in-stead of years.

Lubicon spokesmen suggested that the announcement was motivated by the Alberta government as a way of undercutting the Lubicons.

"We're not here to impede negotiations," insisted Laboucan.

"We know that land negotiations are about to begin," Trace said. "We've given notice that no settlement will be legal or enforceable without participation of (Little Buffalo) group."

At the core of the dissension is the difference in living standards be-tween the Lubicon Cree and the nearby Woodland Cree, who finalized a land claim settlement under Treaty Eight in 1991. While the Woodland Cree reserve seems prosperous and well-funded, the Lubicons live in considerable squalor. The Little Buffalo group made use of this in a video presentation at the conference, contrasting the two for the assembled media. The eminent persons found that conditions were intolerable to them.

"I think that what's difficult for us is to come to Canada, one of the nations that we have looked at with a great deal of pride-only to find a contrast in that community that is a shock," said American Bishop Vinton Anderson. Laboucan claimed that the shocking difference has been un-avoidable for years, and that his group is not willing to wait any longer for conditions to improve.

"We should have taken a settlement when Premier (Don) Getty of-fered it to us (in 1988)," said Edward Laboucan, an Elder allied with the Little Buffalo Cree. Getty's offer was a reserve of 95 square miles and a cash settlement of $45 million, for the then-477 member band. It was turned down by Chief Bernard Ominayak.

"We thought we would finally get something," continued Edward

Laboucan. "The premier even gave Bernard a horse. We tried to tell

Bernard to accept this offer, but he wouldn't listen." He concluded: "Even if we go back to the Lubicon Band, things will never go right. We have de-cided for ourselves that we can never get along like this and we will not go back."

In written responses to the conference, and in an interview with Wind-speaker, Ominayak said that much of what the Little Buffalo group had said was not true.

"One of the things we had tried to do is to avoid too much negotiation in the media," he said. "We have to come out and tell what it is and how it is. If (the Little Buffalo group) were telling the right, then it wold be OK. But they're not, so we'll have to get our side of the story out there."

Billy Joe Laboucan led an unsuccessful initiative to leave the Lubicon Cree and join the Woodland Cree in 1994. He was defeated in a band elec-tion in 1994 by Ominayak, which independent returning officer Regena Crowchild of Calgary, certified correct and legal.