Jasper Cree ready to blockade - invade

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Eighty years after being kicked out of their homeland, the Rocky Mountain Cree want Jasper National Park back.

And they'll do anything it takes to get the land back - or land similar to it.

They've already taken the first step by setting up an around-the-clock information protest camp just inside the park's eastern gate, and are waiting for National Parks Service authorities in Ottawa to set up an independent commission to look into their claim.

Following an emergency meeting with an assistant deputy Minster just after the camp was set up on Sept.. 9, the Natives gave the parks service a one-month deadline to act.

After that they'll launch a full-blown blockade of Highway 16 into the park, they warn. Passing motorists are handed leaflets outlining the reasons for the Jasper land claims.

The protesters, who support the Mohawks at Oka, say they will also spread out and squat on select pieces of land throughout the 4,200-squar-mile park.

The group representing 700 to 2,000 people scattered around the province and whose Cree and Iroquois ancestors called the park home, say planning for the protest camp began well before the current troubles at Oka, Quebec.

Spokesman Lester Howse says the protest camp, and any future action, has won the support of Indian leadership from at least "four treaty areas."

Howse says the Cree were thrown off the land in 1911, around the time the park was formed.

He says the Indians were told they could settle on nearby Crown land - and keep it forever.

But thing haven't worked out that way and the only land they now have is a handful of small parcels of land known as co-ops. These were set up by the province in the 1960s after the town of Grand Cache was built to serve mining and forestry interests which moved onto the land the Natives settled on after being expelled from Jasper.

Although they are short on official documents, the Rocky Mountain Cree say they've collected statements from elders, outlining promises made at the time the park was formed.

Howse and elder Charlie Desjarlais say they won't allow the Indian affairs department to become involved with land claim negotiations, and will deal only with the parks service.

A declaration sent to Ottawa says: "Today we are declaring to all people concerned and especially to those governments who have established themselves in our territory, that we will be taking control."

It adds that "prior to the establishment of the park, our people were totally self-sufficient and were not in need of anything from the outside world. This way of life was drastically changed for all our people, and today we are still feeling its effects as we have been subjected to a welfare state of existence."

The declaration says the park's original Native inhabitants "were threatened with imprisonment if they did not move from their traditional homeland."

Jim Collinson, the assistant deputy minister who met with about 50 demonstrators - including a half dozen elders - says the demand for a special commission to settle the dispute has been turned over to his superiors.

Because the land claim came as a surprise, he says the department has a lot of digging to do to find documents dealing with promises that were made at the time the park was formed. The parks service is part of Environment Canada.

While documentation may be lacking on both sides, Collinson says the protesters were "clearly sincere and honest" about their claims. "If there's something we didn't do, we'll look at it."

He says there are no plans to move against the protest camp of more than a half dozen tents and teepees.

Michel Audey, the assistant superintendent, says the parks service is doing an "internal inquiry" to locate documents about promises at the time the park was established.

While he thinks it's likely "some form of compensation" was given at the time, he says it is possible not all the terms of the agreements have been fulfilled.

Because "the bubble has burst" on old method of dealing with Native land claims "as dramatized by Oka," he says "there has to be a lot of soul searching by both sides" in order to come up with a better formula.

John Shannon, director of the province's Native affairs special services, says "we knew they felt they had some kind of land claims."

But he says the province won't get involved until it finds out whether Ottawa is willing to deal with the Rocky Mountain Cree land claim.