Metis bid for separate team vetoed

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The Metis Nation of Alberta has been turned down a second time in a bid to enter its own team of athletes at this year's Indigenous Games in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

Games organizers there say only one cultural group from each province or state is permitted to participate in the week-long event this spring.

"From what I understand (according to the games' mandate), there will be no distinction between linguistic and cultural groups," says games spokesman Robert

Strohm. "It will be restricted only to boundaries of province and state."

At two previous co-ordinating sessions held in Saskatchewan later last year, representatives from the Metis Nation of Alberta were voted down in their bid to form

a team made up exclusively of Metis athletes from Alberta.

Strohm said a similar request by aboriginal sports organizers in Califiornia was also rejected by the games organizing committee. "Because they were so large, they wanted to bring three teams," he said. "We cannot accommodate that."

The second North American Indigenous Games will see teams from eight Canadian provinces and more than five states when the sporting event kicks off this spring, Strohm said in a telephone interview from his office in Prince Albert.

"We're set to go."

There are more than 6,000 athletes, performers and supporters expected at the games, attracting twice the number of people that attended the first event held in Edmonton in 1990.

Strohm said "the big and the small" of Native sports organizations will participate. "The response we're getting is tremendous," he added.

Metis Nation sports co-ordinator Gail cardinal said the organization is rethinking its position whether to participate in the games or not.

"We want the support of Metis Albertans," she said, but their participation "is still to be determined."

Harold Burden, president of the First Nations Sports Council in Edmonton, said

48 recreation directors from Native bands across Alberta gathered for an organizational meeting in January in Calgary. There was no representation from the Metis community, he said.

The Metis Nation "could get left out" if it continues to refuse alliance with Indian organizations looking to form Team Alberta, Burden said.

"This is not just meant for Treaty - it's for all Natives. But with or without them, we're going."

Burden, who has attended several indigenous games workshops in preparation

for the sports extravaganza, said the majority of Alberta Native sports organizations are on-stream, putting the province in line as a leading gold medal contender.

Playoff schedules are currently being established to determine what provincial champions will go to Prince Albert.

"We're already sending 550 youths, making it the largest team representing any province."

The First Nations Sports Council has named a board of directors with Hobbema's Cara Currie as its chairperson, Burden added.