An emergency meating of the
‘Terrace local of the British
Columbia Association of Non-
fstalus Indians was held last
Thursday in the wake of a
recent fire which destroyed
their offices. That® fire saw
‘considerable loss of office
furniture and files pelating: to
both BCANI and the Operation
Outr€ach Program.” |

2 From left

; to right, John Webster,
iBen Prest, Williard Seymour and

| BE READY
| 5 with d ecorati ve,
and plain,

- oil. burning.

The meeting dealt with some
business before hearing from
three special guests - provincial
BCANI president Fred House,
Ben Prest in charge of Northern
Employment Development and
John Webster of the BCANI
head office who is running the

_ group's housing policies.

Part of the business .was a -

vate of thanks “to Alex

Boulton, chief band manager”

.for the Kitsumkallum reserve.
-Mr Boulton was more than
willing to back up the’ local
groups following .the fire,
providing both moral support
and a place from which the lwo
groups could operate.

Vi Gellenback reported that

rene Rly ERD oe ee en
CRD REEO NE a ee

get ty nema eine

the

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cones onset

Operation Outreach has been
re-located in an office on
Lakelse, above Millers Mens
Wear as of Yesterday.
reported the biggest need for
the office was for furniture and
any one having office furniture
they could: donate is asked to

___eontact Vi through Canada
Manpower. -

A report on the fire showed a
considerable amount of damage
to office equipment. Some of

‘the equipment can be repaired

but the firm involved will not
guarantee that it will ever work
propertly.” As. well a. $1,400
printing machine was damaged
by the fire. :

The membership of the group

provincial BCANSI president Fred
House (See story).

A

etetatnte!
tatatatatata a rutatgts ta tala!

‘We are not

a

who wants to join, not only-
-non-stalus Indians. Mem-
bership fees are $2.50 a year.

She Meetings are held on the first

Tuesday of each month, usually
in the basement of (he Salvation
Army Ciladel on Greig Avenue. °
Captain Bill Young of the
Citadel reported that progress
-on a new citadel is going ahead
but that i hinged on the BCANI
group buying the old structure.
They have acquired grants for
wages and annual operational
costs for the building from the
Department. of Human
Resources and are currently
applying Lo the First Citizens
Fund and the Secretary of State
for a grant to purchase the
building. Little trouble is ex-
pected in obtaining a grant. ~

inally, Rena Boulton, a

- home-school co-ordinator is at

work in the area, serving on an

_advisory board comprised of

slatus and non-status Indians
and area school counsellors,

‘The meeting then heard from

- it's special guests. Fred House,

ina rousing speech, spoke of the
progress BCANI has made in
various fields of endeavor since
i's beginnings four years ago.
I'm sorry to hear of the fire,”
he began, “It’s one of those
unfortunate incidents ‘that
happen and there’s nol much we
can do but start from, seatch.
“Throughout B.C.,"*

locals such as this one, there are
many that are weak and there
are many that are strong. The
slrong ones are made up of
people like yourselves, who,
make the local strong by their
involvement.

“A lot of people ask me what
BCANI {s doing for me, what
I'm getting out of it. - The
question should whal can I do

| for BCANI?

“Qver the past four years
we've made considerable
progress. We are well
recognized by government.
We've met with many.
provincia! cabinet ministers
and we've stressed the fact that
we are not special people bul

ald

er

azy

continued, ‘there are76 BCANI ©

_ peaple with special problems. -

Mate ahaha at esatate

We're ready {o roll up our
sleeves and go to work ta get
invalved in all areas of concern.

“When we met with Barret he’
spake of a separate ministry far
natives. We said no, we'd
rather deal with the different
ministries like all other
Canadian citizens. We don't
want to be shulfled off into ane
little corner as we have been in
Oltawa, We want all avenues
open to us. . ue

“'We speak for all people, try
to help all people who are in
need. We think-in terms of
people and don't believe in the
term -non-slatus.. None of us
here were involved with the

Ottawa bureaucracy groups. |

“T used to wonder what my

- mother, Ann House, was doing,

banging her head aginst the
wall trying to get people to help
themselves. When I realized
what it was all about I got down
off the heavy equipment and gol
involved. A big part of our job is
informing. people of the op-
portunities.

“We now have a. national
organization, the . Native
Council. of Canada. We

represent all provinces and both
lerritories... There are 500,000
non-status Indians,
status Indians and 17,000 Inwts
thal are represented. We have
a vehicle lo u5-o help people
develop themselves.

"In Vancouver BCANI has 4
large slaff of resource people
help organize peaple, establish
needs and to help assist in

finding avenues to fill those .

needs. : :

“The strength lies at the
community level.though, We
have to be involved with
municpal agencies and
municipal government. We
have to be fully, politically
involved at all levels of
government. We have to learn
to make our MPs and MLAs
work for us, help these people to
hel us, We have to support the
people we've help elected so

they can. help people help

themselves and provide good
opportunities.

245,000 .

“We've had @ good.response

welfare

from the NDF party in Vietoria
bul we're not prepared ta pat
them onthe back yet. There are
slill many proposals which we
have made to which there has
been no response in terms of
action. For one thing we want
to know ho we work through in
the fields of enonomic

development, education and -

housing. So far we have to work
through Norman Levy and

- Human Resources. We do not

choose to be recognized as
welfare recipients. Jobs are
fine, but we have lo become cur
own employees become par-
ticipants . in development,
cepecially in North Western

“We are concerned about
narthern residents. Too many
limes they've been pushed bark
into the bushes by industry. We
want. the opportunity. to par-
licvipate in the planning and
development of the north, We
want to see the people of the
North get what they deserve.

Speaking on Indian land
claims and aboriginal rights,
Mr. House described the use of

violence and armed con-
frontation. :

“Nothing is achieved through
violence,” he stated, ‘We have
to be organized, politically
organized to meet politicians
across the table on an. equal
basis, We have to be effective
both outside an inside the
parliament buildings.

“We have to work tayard the
establishment of palicies and
flexible programs to meet
community ‘needs, We've
already worked toward housing

‘Mortgages

country. Also agreements for sale and mortgages
purebased. For more complete information please phane

GREENBRIER MORTGAGE
INVESTMENTSLTD- ‘

‘Commencing Seplember 16 our address wilt be: +
Suite F, 4450°Lakelse Avenue, Terrace
(635-4767 (above Miller‘s Mens Wear.

needs, In Fort Nelson we have a
program which will see 3,500
new units, 750 renovations and
1,750 purchases over the next
seven years, We have type 40
housing wilh the federal and
provincial government sharing
mortgage costs to meet the
needs of low income people,

See Bums
Page 3

(CTF).

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