Elder's prayers not answered

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Almost two weeks ago now, Jim Many Bears took what little money had had and bought two $99 bus tickets from Gliechen to Ottawa.

Over the next few days, Elder Many Bears and his granddaughter, Diane Brass, sat in cramped bus seats across better than 3,000 kilometres, travelling to Ottawa to ask blessing for the First Ministers Conference.

"I prayed that they should have good thoughts," says the Blackfoot elder. Unfortunately, his prayers were not answered.

From the conference's start, four provincial premiers stood against the entrenchment of the Aboriginal right to self-government. This opposition, with Quebec's refusal to participate in the talks, sank the conference halfway through its second day.

British Columbia Premier, Bill Vander Zalm, stood as the prime opponent of Aboriginal peoples' inherent right to self-government and is said by many to have been the man most responsible for the talks' failure.

He and Alberta Premier Don Getty, usually with the support of premiers Grant Devine of Saskatchewan and Brian Pickford of Newfoundland, stood as the main supporters of the concept of contingent rights for Aboriginal peoples.

Contingent rights, as described by Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief George Erasmus strip aboriginal people of all inherent rights and then give them back those the federal and provincial governments choose.

"Such rights," says Erasmus, "are not a gift, nor a present."

Chief Erasmus questioned whether they could depend on the good faith of the provinces, even if Aboriginal peoples were willing to accept the largesse of the feds and the provinces.

Citing the 40-year struggle of the Lubicon people for their own lands east of Peace River, the record of British Columbia on land claims and the present problems of Innu hunters in Labrador, he asked, "Where is there this tremendous good faith of the provinces?"

While Metis leader, Jim Sinclair, had even harsher words for the provinces, saying that their breaking of the talks makes it "open season for racists," Elder Many Bears credits the problem to a lack of understanding.

"The whiteman understands only his own way," says the Elder, "the Indian has learned both the white way and his own."

In counterpoint to Vander Zalm, who constantly asked the dollar cost of self-government, Elder Many Bears showed a lack of concern for money. The elder's trip to Ottawa took all the money he had. "Now I'm broke, but I'm not afraid," he said. "When white people have no money, they go crazy. I am not afraid, money is not everything."

For all the disappointment that the inherent right to self-government wasn't entrenched in the constitution, there was optimism among Aboriginal groups coming out of the conference.

The one bright spot in the dark hours of the conference was the unbroken solidarity of the four Aboriginal groups at the negotiating table, the AFN, the Inuit Committee on National Issues, the Metis National Council and the Native Council of Canada.

Narcisse Blood of the Prairie Treaty Nations' Alliance, which was not included at the table, says that it is just as well that there was no agreement at the conference to which his people had only observer status.

The PTNA, which represents Treaty Indian Nations in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and northeastern British Columbia, says relations between First Nations and Canada must be bilateral (excluding the provinces, or at least reducing them to a role secondary to First Nations and the feds) and must be based on the treaties that already exist between the Crown and First Nations.

Unless the federal government can be convinced to hold another First Ministers Conference on Aboriginal Constitutional Matters, it is likely that the question of the inherent right to self-government will eventually end up in the courts.

"Going to the courts, as we have stated, is not our preferred course of action," says AFN Chief Erasmus, but "if we don't convince the ministers at some point to addess the entrenchment of rights in the constitution again, we will have to go to the courts, whether we like it or not."

While Aboriginal leaders, in the face of the opposition of four provinces and the desertion of Quebec, were unable to change the constitution, they are a self-confident and determined group coming out of the talks.

In the words of Chief Erasmus, "Looking back on the last 20 years, I think it is apparent that, with or without a constitutional agreement, our powers will grow."