Land claim launched

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More than 300 people packed into Maria Munro Hall at Beaver Lake First Nation near Lac La Biche, Alta. on May 15 for an information meeting on the Peeyaysees Band land claim.

The meeting was the first step in a long process that could take five to seven years to resolve, lawyer Bruce Barry told the crowd. Barry said the land claim for a band that occupied the Lac La Biche area a hundred years ago was initiated at this time because of a statute of limitations.

"We had to file a statement of claim by March 1 and we've done that," he said.

Before the turn of the century, the Peeaysees (Little Bird) Band lived in the Big Bay area on Lac La Biche Lake and east into the present day Lakeland Provincial Park and Recreation area. Barry said the band was never struck off the Indian Affairs list. It just dispersed.

"This land claim is not about making a lot of money," Barry said. "It is about assuring the fulfillment of a promise made to the chief on Sept. 9, 1876 (in the signing of Treaty 6)."

"It isn't about a handout or free stuff," he said. "This is about fundamental justice and fairness, righting a wrong."

The process of righting that wrong will be a long one, Barry emphasized, and an expensive one.

"This is a long process because the government would rather everyone be good little Indians and stay where they are."

A major barrier to the descendants of the Peeyaysees Band in their land claim will be the cost. They are on their own for funding legal and research costs to get the matter to court. And even once it's in court they cannot count on government funding being made available.

The meeting chairperson, Millie Lansing, said the committee behind the land claim has no funds.

"We're broke," she said in asking for financial contributions and volunteer time to help with the research that will determine the eventual band membership list.

Once that list is determined, an election for chief and band council will be held. The list will also influence the boundaries of the land claim.

The land claim will not include occupied land, Barry said.

"This is not about taking away land people live on."

That condition makes Lakeland Park and Recreation Area the likeliest candidate for the land claim. A map that several people claim to have seen shows at least part of this area as part of the original Peeyaysees Reserve.

This mystery map, as Lancing called it, may surface during the legal process now underway.

"As part of the process of the lawsuit, the government will have to come forward with the information they have," said lawyer Priscella Kennedy.

She expects that information to include evidence that many of the original band members were deprived of their treaty rights through fraudulent and deceitful land scrip deals. Part of the land claim is for those people taken off the band list and their descendants because of the scrip transaction.

The 10-member committee leading the land claim said they will keep in touch with all the people who registered at the meeting through a regular newsletter.

More than 260 people registered as potential members of the band, from all over northern Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

Beaver Lake First Nation Elder Philip Cardinal opened and closed the two hour meeting.

"There is only one thing we have to remember: To stand firmly together to fight for what was once ours," he said. "Let's stand firmly. Let's stand as one, fight for one thing."