Protesters winterize blockade

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Members of the three-month-old logging blockade in northern Saskatchewan are building cabins and a school so they can continue their protests into the winter.

"They'll probably start up a village," said Bernice Iron, a supporter of the blockade that went up in May to protest clear-cutting around the Meadow Lake Tribal Council's nine-member communities.

Protesters are reportedly building cabins from logs already cut by Mistik Management, the company harvesting in the area which is part-owned by the Meadow Lake Tribal Council. The school will go up first and will combine education and traditional life with the standard curriculum, Iron said.

As many as 60 demonstrators are manning the blockade 65 kilometres north

of Meadow Lake on Highway 903. Protesters believe clear-cutting limits local job opportunities and hurts the environment.

Negotiations with the tribal council to end the blockade have been at a standstill since July when council officials announced they would not negotiate with an active protest.

But protesters have formed a new committee with representatives from Saskatchewan's Northwest Mayor's Association, the provincial Metis society, the tribal council and the provincial government to negotiate.

"We're going to be sitting down with the government and forest industry so everybody knows how we want to manage our resources," said blockade spokesman

Ruth Iron.

The Metis Society of Saskatchewan has thrown its weight behind the protest

and has joined the negotiation committee to argue in favor of Metis land rights, said Spokesman Bernice Hammersmith.

"The land in question is Crown land which we as Metis people would control under self-government," she said.

Buckley Blanger, head of the mayor's association, said his group joined the negotiations as a non-partisan group interested in seeing an end to the dispute. He declined further comment, saying the negotiations are at a sensitive stage.

Meanwhile, blockade supporters in other parts of the province are raising funds

to keep the protest going and raise public awareness.

In Saskatoon, more than 200 people gathered for a four-hour benefit concert in Friendship Park.

"There is a real need to bring the reality of that community to the people of Saskatoon," said Don Kossick, one of the rally organizers.