Suspicion greets PM's land claims promise

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It's time Natives and non-Natives decided to "co-exist" says Regena Crowchild, president of the Indian Association of Alberta.

Native issues have been ignored too long by Ottawa, she told about 130 people attending a Native land claims rally Monday in front of the legislative buildings.

It was a message Prime Minister Brian Mulroney obviously understood.

The next day he announced that his government was embarking on a new program to speed up Native land claims and improve economic conditions on reserves.

However, Native leaders across the country are suspicious saying they've heard similar promises from a succession of federal governments.

While long on promises, Mulroney's new plan was short on details and hadn't involved consultation with Natives - nor did the new deal call for consultations, say Native leaders.

Meanwhile, most of the Mohawk Warriors who have been engaged in a standoff at Oka, Quebec, for the past 11 weeks are preparing to lay down their arms and surrender to the army, says Mohawk negotiator Bob Antone.

The Mohawks say it's not a surrender, but a simple "disengagement to halt hostilities."

The army earlier announced it is gradually pulling back hundreds of soldier surrounding about 50 people and armed Warriors holed up in a treatment center on the Kanesatake reserve, and will be replaced by the Quebec provincial police which has hired and trained Mohawks to patrol the region.

Willie Littlechild, the Conservative MP for Wetaskiwin, and the only Treaty Indian in the Commons, says he understand the police do not plan to move into the area in large numbers, but will resume normal patrols as it had done before hostilities began.

Crowchild, at the rally, called for talks between Ottawa and the First Nations to spell out exactly what is meant by Native land and treaty rights - and arrive at something that's "fair and equitable to First Nation."

Crowchild, one of a number of speakers to address the crowd during a cross-country day of First Nations supported rallies to draw attention to Indian land claims on the day Parliament reconvened, said First Nations have always "lived up" to their part of the treaties.

It's time Ottawa did the same, she added.

Because the First Nations signed treaties as nations, she says Ottawa should define those rights in nation-to-nation talks.

Crowchild says the IAA will continue to support the Mohawks at Oka, Quebec, through rallies which serve to "educate the public about our rights."

Earlier this year an all chiefs conference in Edmonton, demanded Ottawa establish a commission of elected Aboriginal and elected government representatives to define the treaty rights of First Nations - and the obligations Canada has under those treaties.