Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 2, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free july t focus indians press land claims four nations confederacy promises governments a hot summer the Keesee Korenin band of indians believes that it lost an ancient cemetery and fishing station on the North Shore of Clear Lake through bureaucratic fuelled with detailed research and a strategy to mobilize the Indian vote in key swing the four nations confederacy will turn up the heat on both Federal and provincial governments this summer to Settle out standing land the confederacy has a two pronged program of on the Federal the Keesee Korenin band near Elphin Stone plans workshop on the August Long weekend at Clear Lake to under line its claim to a fishing station and burial ground on the Lakeshore from which it was evicted when the Federal government created Riding Mountain National on the provincial the confederacy has hired two University students to identify the Indian vote in the province and to use the information to pressure Manitoba political parties to come up with a position on treaty land entitlements outstanding since Manitoba assumed jurisdiction Over its lands and resources in White canadians who must Deal with government bureaucracies once or twice in their or who experience the helpless feeling of falling Between Federal and provincial stools in attempting to get a problem will have some Small appreciation of the frustration Canadas Indian people endure As a constant fact of most White canadians Are aware of the injustices done aboriginal Peoples in the selection of the poor Indian has become a historical Bro the phrase comfortably masks wholesale ignorance about the Magni tude of the treachery and sometimes outright fraud marking the Early Deal Ings Between government officials and native until very Indian people were both politically and be to do anything about the injustices done they did not receive the right to vote until the late 1890s and they were As were All canadians until the Early from suing Frances Russell the Crown for the current Indian leadership blames much of the social disintegration and poverty afflicting most native canadians on the loss or Inadequacy of their claims settlement is Only one but a significant towards the concept of band says four nations research director Jim it is an outstanding debt society the indians signed those treaties in Good sir Clifford Wilfrid Laurier minister of the encouraged the rapid settlement of the As was often the local tribes occupied some of the most attractive land in the new they were summarily pushed off somewhere usually to inferior land and often onto other re serves already overpopulated for their resource recent research has uncovered wholesale fraud in these with instances of govern ment officials making private financial killings out of the resulting land specs unsavoury deals the federation of Saskatchewan indians has spent on research to uncover some of the most unsavoury deals involving three officials in the Laurier administration Frank Deputy superintendent of Indian affairs from 1902 to James his predecessor and William an immigration these three were involved sometimes lined their pockets from the surrender of More than acres of Indian land on the Prairies Between 1896 and during that Indian bands were in veiled into giving up on fifth of All Reserve land in the three Prairie prov the worst instance in Manitoba involved the pegu is band on Peters the conservative administration of sir Rodmond Roblin appointed a Threeman commission of inquiry into the 1907 surrender of the Peters the inquiry did not result in a unanimous but the two commissioners who found for the indians re ported that the Reserve surrender had occurred under highly questionable Cir according to their find the meeting to decide the bands surrender of its land was advertised Only a Day before and no attempt was made to ensure All those entitled to vote were present the place where the meeting was held was too Small to accommodate More than a few of the people the terms of the surrender were read in English while Many of the people understood Only Cree and final just at the moment of the vote the Semmons called out at the top of his voice in the Cree language which of you want go Over indicating the affirmative Side with his the commissioners found Semmons though not intention to have been the reason the surren Der carried by a slim the band was moved to inferior land in the Interlake where it still nothing was done about the commission re the Keesee Korenin bands loss of its ancient fishing station and burial ground on the shores of Clear Lake was less a Case of fraud and rather More of bureaucratic Accord ing to research done by the four a in the Early the band had requested the fishing station be officially Given it to protect its Liveli for the band had obtained its Winter food from a few weeks of fishing on the by order Council in the Small plot of land where the Baptist Bible Camp is now located was taken out of the Crown lands act and Given to the the area was made a Forest Reserve and in a National at that the Deputy minister of Indian affairs was asked by the Park superintendent to get the indians he knew the indians would so he instead referred the matter to the Federal Justice depart the department in a Legal that the creation of a Forest Reserve had ended the Indian land status of the fishing the indians were expropriated without compensation after they refused to sur Render the the four nations has a Legal opinion that the expropriation was Ille Gal since Forest reserves can Only be created out of Crown lands separate from lands administered under the in Dian the documents obtained by the four nations contain a letter from chief Bone written to Ottawa in the letter reads in part As follows Why then would the government wish to treat us like cattle putting us out whether we wish to or Are the government going to grab our Little our with All the millions of lands yet unoccupied which the Indian handed Over Unbe grudging the Small reservation of Keesee Korenin sent four of its Young men to fight Side by Side with our White Brothers in the great what for peace and Freedom our coun our Homes and our Public pressure the Keesee Kokenen band Hopes its August workshop at Clear Lake and informational brochures to visitors to the Park will add Public pressure to its claim with action on the Peters Reserve Case is being investigated by the four the disagreement with the province on the quite separate Issue of treaty land entitlement will be pursued by direct political there Are about treaty indians in Manitoba and almost As Many again non status in the Indian vote is significant in a number of Ridings and could be decisive in close races in most swing the four nations plans a poll poll assessment of the last election to identify Indian voting then it intends to ask each party and candidate for their positions on resolving outstanding land entitle the final step will be to turn out the Indian vote behind the candidate or party with the most satisfactory an Swers come the next provincial elec Indian leaders say this is the first Effort at direct political action by natives in a Manitoba the Row centres on a disagreement Between the four nations and the government Over the population to be used in calculating the amount of land the province still owes Indian Manitoba indians Are entitled either to 32 or 128 acres per depending upon which treaty their band when the province assumed jurisdiction Over its lands in the resources Transfer act of it agreed As part of the statute to turn Over unoccupied Crown land to allow Canada to Ful fill its treaty obligations with the in the provincial government wants the land still owing calculated on band population at the time of the first Survey or the first the four adopting a formula already accepted by wants the population based upon the 1976 or latest the difference Between the two amounts to Over there Are about acres in Reserve lands but the four nations Points out that their formula represents Only about per cent of provincial Crown Federal Indian affairs department officials indicate that Ottawa is Likely to Back the four nations because the Saskatchewan formula follows Otta was own precedent in Indian land Manitoba officials say they will not be willing to turn Over such a sizeable chunk of provincial land with out the Federal government formally binding itself to allow the province to expropriate Indian land where Neces according to the Ottawa has often been unwilling to allow provincial expropriation of Indian in the provincial government issued a nine Point policy covering the treaty land entitlement the policy angers the four As Well As the population it was drafted without it refuses to Grant water or land near water to it wont pay for Access roads to new reserves and it wont Transfer land if such Transfer will work to the detriment of other residents of the change possible in a letter to four nations grand chief Lyle Long claws on june finance minister Brian who chairs the Cabinet committee on treaty land said the province will change its guidelines if it is shown it is in the Public interest to do the he will work to wards a contemporary settlement that in a fair and equitable the interest of All the people of Manito says natural resources minister Harry Enns we cannot treat with the Indian Only the Federal govern ment if the results Arent satisfactory to the Indian they can advise Ottawa not to we cannot sign any treaties with the four a says Robert grand Council Lor for Indian government and treaty research for the four nations its going to be a Indian sum Core program shows Ottawa sleight of hand later this the inner Core development program for Winnipeg will move one step closer to but not until the Money actually flows will the beneficiaries learn whether the promises have been the Federal government must wait until the next general elec Tion before learning whether its work was Worth the the entire program started As a diversionary tactic in certainly it was More than coincidence that Federal promises of substantial funding for downtown development were Given exactly the same Day set As the deadline for Federal commitment to rail Yard since that was something positive was needed to get out of an embarrassing Situa after Lloyd one Hall of the total Liberal representation in the had made promises to his people and it was time to fulfil a few of this was difficult for a government which had decided to embark on a restraint the results of which were already becoming evident in other such As police Protection and North lands Given it was amazing they had found funds for the inner or did they actually find new Money or merely use of what they had from other areas under the dome Arlene Billinkoff it should be recalled that the rail relocation project had been estimated at million and Axworthy original Promise was Only Between million and that would already mean a minimum saving of More than that original figure contained million from the department of Region Al economic which had Al ready g Fig he Law drop in funding for Manitoba by and million in an Urban transportation assistance program which had been committed two years while the source of the remaining funds was yet to be regardless of that and the fact that the area Desi muted for redevelopment had been expanded beyond the normally accepted boundaries of the inner City in order to include portions of those Tew Ridings held by the City and province Wen willing to enter into an with All appeared to be going Well until november when it was announced the Community services contribution pro Gram would be wound up by Winnipeg had been granted million from that program for projects such As improved sewer and water facilities and municipal and mayor Bill Norrie estimated the City would lose up to 140 million during the next five years because of that while Federal spokesmen insisted the action merely represented a shift in rather than a Cut in it was apparent that with Only million Ottawa would be Able to save another v understandably that decision caused con As former finance minister Don Craik it might he Only the tip of the he wondered How Many of the new programs involved Money re cycled from discontinued Federal trans while storting Lyon it was merely an Effort by Ottawa to move into a new farm of Landing in to be used in six Core areas for an Industrial improved Park recreation and in creased Job immediately some critics were amazed by the relatively Small amount allotted for a Mere in million was an indication of confused Howard Pawley he urged the province to delay signing the final agreement until improvements were made for programs directly aimed at the people who live in the Core instead of attempting to Aid Pri vate that was not explained Federal officials As they talked about the Strong Public for one of the complementary programs was a special needs employment strategy which would provide up to in the government was considering the possibility of locating new or expanded Federal facilities in the Core area and would help attract new the promises sounded Good and the optimists hoped they would result in a major redevelopment of the inner the sceptics remained dubious and would wait to see How Many of the promises both written and verbal would be while the cynics insisted the plan was another example of the Federal governments ability to give with one hand and take with the any of those views May be but the Federal government seemed to be working on the premise that Ance was equally or even More important than performance and that the addition of this program would make people forget what had been deleted who had the patience to work through the complexity of figures actually it sounded like a rather Slick but the Ottawa group would not learn whether it was effective until the votes Are doonesbury of Federal pol Iliria More despite those the prov Ace and ciry did not withdraw from the project Aid by Early june the plan for was finally each party Suid contribute Mil h and just hum it with think can hat that Fok cant ;