RCMP launches surprise rid on Peigan Nation

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Alberta Environment crews escorted by the RCMP finished repairing damage to a provincial government dike caused by a Native protest of the controversial Oldman dam and moved out of the area Sunday. RCMP Insp. Garry Fotheringham said repairs required by Alberta Environment to the five-meter-high dike, breached last summer by members of the Peigan Nation's Lonefighter's Society in an attempt to divert the flow of the river, were finished.

"It all went as planned, it's complete, so now we're withdrawing," he said.

Heavily armed RCMP officers escorted environment crews onto the site Nov. 30 to begin repairing the dike. Last summer the Lonefighters attempted to divert the flow of the river past a weir which supplies about 400 farm families serviced by the Lethbridge Northern Irrigation District.

The RCMP officers dresses in tactical fatigues and regular uniforms huddled around several fires in the river bottom to keep warm. The weir and government lease is on Peigan land. The government says the band is paid $400,000 a year for water taken from the river on the reserve.

The surprise raid and repair operation was launched before dawn Nov.30 while Lonefighters were away from their camp at the site. They had been driven away be knee-high snow and blinding 120 kmh winds.

They left not knowing police sharpshooters, dressed in white camouflage, had been crouching for days among trees just yards away.

It's estimated as many as 70 RCMP accmpanied Alberta Environment workers onto the site. However, Fotheringham wouldn't confirm numbers.

"We had sufficient (police) to take care of any problems that might have arisen," he said.

Fotheringham said special RCMP units were at the site, because they're "better trained in terms of special situations, so we bring them along to take care of anything that might happen."

He said the work proceeded without incident. He said a handful of Native people moved back into the Lonefighters encampment after Alberta Environment began repair.

"But really there's been no resistance at all," he said.

Fotheringham said the Natives walked up to the repairs gettig done but did not interfere.

However, Lonefighter spokesman Devalon Small Legs has said a new ditch will be trenched to divert water around all provincial right-of-access.

Fotheringham said any attempt to undo the repairs will result in arrest under a court injunction obtained by the province last summer.

RCMP and the Lonefighters were involved in a tense two-day standoff late last summer after police attempted to escort environment crews onto the site in an initial attempt to repair the damage.

Lonefighters' leader Milton Born With A Tooth is awaiting trial on a pair of firearms charges. He was denied bail for a fourth time Nov. 30.

The Lonefighters say the $350 million Oldman Dam will destroy their reserve's environment and spiritual grounds.

Peigan Chief Leonard Bastien was enraged when he learned of the surprise raid. "It's a total disregard and lack of respect for the Peigan people for armed forces to move in like that."

And Tony Hall, a Native American studies professor at the University of Lethbridge, slammed the province.

"The Alberta provincial government is adding gasoline to the explosive racial tensions that are reaching a danger point in southern Alberta," he said.

In October the Peigan band passed a resolution prohibiting both the Lonefighters and the provincial government from doing work on the site.

But Environmental Minister Ralph Klein rejected the proposed six-month moratorium as impossible.

"It's not a matter of negotiation. It's a matter of having access to our own property," he said.

But Hall said it was "really dubious" for Klein to refer to Peigan land as provincial property.

The Canadian Constitution places Indian reserves under federal jurisdiction.