Big Bear descendants seek reserve

Page 14

Alex Little Bear is disturbed by the slow response from Indian Affairs in dealing with his people's specific land claim. In the meantime, he and 20 descendants of Chief Big Bear who signed Treaty 6 will continue to occupy a section of Crown land 30 miles southeast of North Battleford they says belongs to them. The land is currently leased to somebody else.

Chief Big Bear signed Treaty 6 in 1882. Little Bear says the chief was his great-grandfather. Big Bear's people fled south of the border in the wake of the rebellion of 1885. Now about 300 people of mixed heritage who never joined a band want to get the reserve they say was promised to Big Bear. The majority now live in Montana.

On May 16, Little Bear's family members passed a resolution declaring the section of land they now occupy in the rural municipality of Glenside no. 377 as "Native traditional lands." Little Bear says the section is "a part and result of Treaty 6 signed during 1882 between Chief Big Bear and Her Majesty the Queen."

Little Bear says the federal government tells him they have to get recognition as a band before the issue of a reserve can be dealt with, but only 60 to 80 of his people still in Canada are eligible to apply for band membership. Canadian residency was one of the conditions attached to the $20,000 Indian Affairs gave them to do genealogy research in 1993, Little Bear says. Since then, they have been getting the same form letter from the department every few months, saying their file will be reviewed.

"I really don't know what their position is," Little Bear said of the federal government. "I can just go from the research that we've done. I can't see any problems. There might be some legal ones there if we go individually, but if we get recognized as a band, I can't see where there can be any problems. There's no doubt about who we are."

Tevor Sutter, Indian and Northern Affairs communications manager, had a week of hard digging to find any record of their dealings with Little Bear.

On June 12, Sutter located a departmental media report stating they had advised a media outlet that Indian Affairs can't release information about Little Bear without his written consent.

On June 13, Sutter said the department will be writing Little Bear within the next couple of weeks about the claim.

Jim Miller, a researcher at the University of Saskatchewan, recalls that he "did a report" for Little Bear six or seven years ago. "I thought it appeared they had a legitimate claim," he said.

The land Little Bear is occupying is leased to George Pritchard, 94, who has kept up the rent but is in arrears with taxes. According to Little Bear, Pritchard's grandfather knew Little Bear's ancestors, he supports their claim to the land and he has unofficially turned the land over to Little Bear's group.

But Gordon Hamilton, manager of leasing and sales administration at Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food, says "There has been, as I understand it, some family disputes or what have you that have clouded the issue as far as [Pritchard's] use of the land."

Little Bear says eight adults and 12 children have been living on the land "for about a year." They have a telephone, but no well, no permanent road and are extremely under-housed. They travel 15 miles to Cando for water and drive the children half a mile to catch a school bus.

Little Bear, who is 57, is on social assistance and says most of his family receives welfare or a pension. He has no money to pay for legal help with the claim, but Mike Riou, a lawyer from North Battleford, has undertaken some work for Little Bear's group.

Riou says "in response to my two official inquiries, they are not a band, no money has been set aside for them, and I get the form letter saying their entitlement to Indian status under the Indian Act is going to be processed sometime during the next few months."

Little Bear says this is the same response he has been getting for 15 years. He adds he is unable to get suppor from the Assembly of First Nations unless he is supported by the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. The provincial organization won't support his efforts until the group is recognized by the federal government as a band.

No one can say how long it will be before the province tells Little Bear's people to move. Pritchard has been served with a notice of termination of his land lease. Little Bear says Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food knows his people are living there.

Hamilton says "We have no indication that there is a treaty land entitlement selection on this, or that whatever treaty land entitlement in the process, whether the band was going to satisfy the third-party interest."

He adds "unless the band qualifies under the framework agreement, Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food is not in a position to deal with them." That means, ultimately, that if Pritchard does not pay his back taxes, the province will put the land up for lease again, Hamilton said.