Ottawa Report

Page 2

Indignant northern Ontario bands hand back money to Bill McKnight

It's not every day that Indian people hand money back to the Government. But that's what six chiefs from Northern Ontario did recently. They collected the treaty money their people recieved this year and returned it to Indian Affairs Minister Bill McKnight. They gave the money back because they say the Government has broken their treaties. It wasn't a lot of money ? only $5,000 or so ? but it's just about the only money they get.

The six bands are from Treaty 9 and Treaty 4 of the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation. They're little different from dozens of other Indian communities scattered across the bush country of northern Ontario. The problem is that Government officials lumped them in as members of other nearby bands when they established the reserves. The Government usually did this, by the way, without the knowledge or consent of the people involved.

For years, however, the six bands have been trying to be recognized in their own right. Two years ago David Crombie gave them that recognition. The six are now Indian bands under the Indian Act. The Department gives them money to hold band meetings but it refuses to give them anything more.

The Keewaywin band is on e of the six. It's on the east shore of Sandy Lake, 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay. The only way to get there is by plane. Years ago, the Keewaywin people were lumped in as members of the Sandy Lake Band. They've lived on the Sandy Lake Reserve for most of their recent history. Two years ago, however, the Keewaywin people decided to return to their ancestral home on the other side of the lake. They live there now in tents and log cabins. There is no running water, no electricity, no telephones. There is no store, no cafe, no band office, not even a church. There isn't a school either so the kids haven't gone to school in two years. The Keewaywin people don't have a reserve. Legally, they're squatters on provincial Crown land.

When David Crombie placed the six bands under the Indian Act, it was with the clear understanding that they would also get their own reserves and the money to rebuild their communities. That was two years ago. Bill McKnight now says the Government can't afford it. What's more, he won't give the bands any hope that they will ever get the money they need.

McKnight won't give them the money because he's worried about the precedent it would set for more than 100 other bands in roughly the same situation. It would cost $700 million to provide housing, roads, water and electricity for the 100 bands, the Government says. (By comparison, it would cost the same amount for just one of the ten nuclear submarines the Government wants to build.)

The people in those 100 "new" bands have some pretty good reasons for wanting their own band or a new community. Some bands are bitterly divided to the point of violence and want to separate because they are composed of two families, two clans, or even two tribes. Some are located on islands and have run out of land. And some have ended their "nomadic" ways and want to settle down in one place.

The Department says all of the "new" bands are now subject to a new Government policy. From now on, the Government will make them bands under the Indian Act and given them money on only two conditions. One is a natural disaster that forces a band to relocate ? last year's flood at Winisk, Ontario is one such example. The only other reason is if the Government has "a legal obligation". That means, I'm sure, that many of the 100 bands will be forced to go to court.

Although the Government brags that its Indian policy is based on consultations with Indian people, it didn't happen this time. This high-handed decree was made a month ago but it hasn't been announced yet.

The new policy will be a huge disappointment for the 100 bands. It will also kill the hopes of many "new" status Indians who had hoped that Bill C-31 would lead to the creation of any new Indian bands. The people most directly and unfairly affected by the new policy, obviously, are the six bands of northern Ontario. The six chiefs held a news conference in Ottawa before they returned their treaty money. They said they felt betrayed. They said the Government has broken the treaties their grandfathers signed.

In those treaties, the Nishnawbe-Aski agreed to share the land and resources of northern Ontario with the people of Canada. Their treaty rights, they say, should give them the recognition they've always been entitled to and a decent standard of living. All they get in return, they say, is $5 per person per year.

For many years now, the leaders of the Nishnawbe-Aski have campaigned for justice with an air of quiet dignity. But the days of silent suffering and polite bargaining may be over. As one chief at the news conference put it, "from now on there's going to be no more Mister Nice Guy."