DID YOU KNOW?

· Former Indian Affairs minister Jane Stewart had promised to re-create the specific claims process so the government would not get to decide which claims against it were legitimate and would not get to be judge and jury in the claims settlement process. After raising hopes for an independent claims tribunal, Stewart backed off saying the central agencies of government would not approve the proposed changes. She was replaced as minister shortly thereafter. Coincidentally, she is now the provincial negotiator on the Caledonia blockade.

· First Nation specialists in land claims complain that the Crown pays on average five cents on the dollar when it gets around to paying at all. And it's a take-it-or-leave-it proposition at the bargaining table. If a First Nation goes to court to get a fairer deal, the specialists say funding is cut in a punitive fashion in order to keep the First Nation at the specific claims table where the government has complete control.

· Aboriginal peoples in the U.S. own six times more land per capita than Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

· The Navajo Nation territory is larger than all of the reserves in Canada, south of the 60th parallel, put together.