Economics blamed for Peerless tragedy

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The president for the Alberta division of the Native Council of Canada (NCC) attributes many of the problems of Peerless Lake residents to economics and the fact that the federal government "reneged on a once-promised reserve for that community."

Doris Ronenburg, speaking at a press conference on March 14, said that a 48-year-old survey of the area in 1935 by government was not followed through.

Rather, charged Ronenberg, the government gives "welfare dollars to communities and when the community is frustrated through the welfare dollars, then you throw at them programs like AADAC" when "they should be looking at the land base question of the people where these people could develop their own self-determination through economic development ventures."

The 1935 survey "recognizes that these people are Indian people with Indian status and, that being the case, that land would have sub-surface rights" said Ronenburg. She argues that had the government gone through with its commitment, the residents of Peerless could have been drawing oil royalties and "going into economic development ventures, going into other program areas - maybe self-sustaining areas like hydroponics."

As it stands right now, says Ronenberg, the province owns the land. On that note, she attacked Alberta for withdrawing funds of the Isolated Communities Board which had functioned for four years until 1974. The board, she continued, was comprised of involved people who would "share their common problems and common solutions and address, from the community level, what their communities require.

"The provincial government stopped the funding to this board when the communities involved started addressing the land base question" which they did not want to deal with, remarked Ronenberg.

According to her, self-determination accompanied by a "proper land base with the proper resources" is very much a part of the solution to helping communities like Peerless Lake.

"When you put on the ledger the amount of money that's been made by governments, both federal and provincial, on the resources...(and) the amount of monies that have been spent on the Aboriginal people of Canada, there's no comparison," she explained.

Ronenberg went on to state that through the treaties, "the resources under the land base are still ours and so I think that when they're talking about Aboriginal people being an economic drain, I don't think the picture is correct because the resources in question were ours."

To Ronenberg, the land and its resources are paramount. It is for that reason she has issued a personal invitation to Premier Don Getty to attend a land conference at High Prairie April 18-19. "We want to reopen that land question that these people have been looking at for the last number of years." Through NCC, she hopes to apply sufficient pressure to also re-establish the Isolated Communities Board. The High Prairie meeting is to be attended by three representatives from each of the isolated communities and if the board is re-established, funding for it will be the next step, said Ronenberg.

Ronenberg was critical of services and personnel who go in and out of the community. "You cannot develop a program (outside the community) and parachute it into a community and expect that it's going to be effect. It can't be, it's got to develop from the grassroots level," she exclaimed.

As an example, the shortcomings of such organizations as AADAC were mentioned. Ronenberg claims that "most of the AADAC people that go to the community are not Indian and of those Indian people that have been hired, many of them don't speak Cree." She also pointed out that many of the community people don't speak English and that, in itself, is a major problem. In addition there are others who say "that AADAC is nothing more than a bandaid solution..there should be educational workshops on some of these solvents and the damage that they can do to the brain tissue or to the body," Ronenberg said

The people, she continued, "have to develop their own communities, but it has to be on their terms," and they have to "catch up with the rest of society." A positive approach is needed to satisfy "cultural and recreational activities which all contribute to the building of the social fabric in our communities."

The issue regarding land concerns is both a provincial and federal matter. When questioned about the effectiveness of Indian Affairs Minister David Crombie, Ronenberg replied, "he has been quite good, he has been listening." She went on to note that he did establish five reserves in Ontario last year and "I will be sitting down with him next week."

The main purpose of meeting with Crosbie, said Ronenberg, is to uncover why the federal government failed to follow through with the establishment of a reserve at Peerless Lake. This is one of two major questions Ronenberg wants answered. The remaining question is that of the province and why it cut its funding to the Isolated Communities Board.