Goodstoney oppose development

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A $65 million-dollar tourist development slated for the Rocky Mountain House area won't be welcomed by the Indian band which has unsettled treaty land claims nearby.

"We are opposed to any development in the area until our claim is settled," said Chief John Snow of the Goodstoney Blackfoot in Morley. The Morley band have unsettled land claims and treaty settled spiritual land in the Kootenay Plains bordering the planned site.

Snow said the Goodstoney were not aware of plans for development near their unsettled land claim.

"We find it incredible that this development is going ahead and shows no regard to our profound and rich history."

He further commented that the band has already suffered an indignity when Big Stoney graves were flooded at Lake Abraham for the Big Horn dam in 1972.

Edmonton-area businessman Alan Harrison has plans to develop a 750-acre site near Abraham Lake. It will include a golf course, 350-room hotel, interpretive centre and a statue depicting the European explorers meeting the Natives for the first time.

Martha Kostuch, spokeswoman with the Alberta League for Environmentally Responsible Tourism said her group also opposes the project because it is too near the ecologically sensitive Kootenay Plains.

The development will bring an influx of tourists through an area which "is the last little-developed northern montane zone in the province." Kostuch said ALERT will also defend Goodstoney rights in the area.

Harrison has received letters of approval from the Yellowhead Tribal Council and the Albert Metis Nation. Both groups say they support economic development in the area and look forward to jobs for Natives.

Snow expressed dismay that these groups would approve the project without consulting the Goodstoney. He is concerned developers will use these letters to make it appear all Natives approve of the project, when in fact Harrison has asked the support of the wrong people.

"We (Natives) are not all the same," he said, adding the two groups who approve of the development do not have land near the project.

The Goodstoney are "shocked and appalled that this development continues to be organized without our participation. It shows a complete lack of understanding of the history of the people of the area."

The band will write Harrison with their opposition and send copies of the letter to the Yellowhead Tribal Council, the Alberta Metis National and Rocky Mountain House MLA Ty Lund, who has also gone on record as supporting the project, said Snow.

Harrison was required to advertise his project in four area newspapers calling for public comment on the development. The site is now under environmental review with the Alberta Environmental Assessment Branch, Land Use Division.

Letters commenting on the project were originally to be sent by May 8, but a department spokesman said, "the door won't be slammed" on late responses "as long

as it's not six months down the road."