CANADA

A choice between justice or genocide

Native rights in
the North

By PAUL OGRESKO

If we have any survival sense at all, we will
put an end to the Great Northern Giveaway
and bring a halt to the despoliation of the
northern lands and waters, and to the de-
gradation of the Northern peoples. If there be
any conscience in us, we will begin making

amends for the disasters we have already

wrought in that far country.
— Farley Mowat, Canada North Now
(continued from last week)
Between the years 1951-1976 the popu-
lation of Canada’s North has more than
doubled. While there has been an influx
of white settlers the greatest increase in
population has been among the Native
peoples. Similar to the situation of Na-
tives in the south, the birth-rate among
the Dene (Indian), Metis and Inuit has
been twice that of the non-Native popu-
lation.
In the Yukon the Native population
(Dene and Metis) rose from 2,200 to

- 6,000 (roughly one quarter of the total

population) while in what is to become
the two territories of Nunavut and

' Denendeh (formerly the Northwest

Territories) the Native population  in-
creased from 13,000 to 24,000 (making up
60 per cent of the total population).
The rise in population has also seen a
rise in political activism and a new sense
of cultural identity. The Department of
Indian Affairs and Northern Develop-
ment (DIAND) no longer wields total
control over the lives of Native people.
=

The Dene declaration of 1975
marked a significant change in
Northern politics. The Dene
demand for self-government
would have a reciprocal effect
among Native organizations
throughout Canada.

The Dene, Inuit and Metis have set up
their own political organizations regard-
less of what the DIAND or federal
bureaucrats have had to say about the
Situation.

Today the Tungavik Federation of

Nunavut (central and eastern Northwest
Territories) represents 17,000 Inuit. The
federation has been embroiled in negotia-
tions with the Canadian government for
the past 10 years. The unresolved Inuit
claim takes in two-thirds of the North-
west Territories, about one million
square miles. After centuries of neglect
and cultural genocide the Inuit are de-
manding the final say over how the land,
waters and wildlife of Nunavut will be
used.

The Tungavik Federation presented
its first formal comprehensive land claim
to the federal government in 1976. Like
Native claims throughout the North it
remains unresolved.

Along with the Inuit of the Tungavik
Federation the Dene nation of the west-
ern Arctic had also been in negotiations
with the federal government. The Dene
declaration of 1976 marked a significant
change in Northern politics. The Dene
recognition of nationhood and the de-
mand for self-government would have a
reciprocal effect among Native organiza-
tions throughout Canada.

“Colonialism and imperialism are now
dead or dying. Recent years have witnessed
the birth of new nations or rebirth of old
nations out of the ashes of colonialism ...

The African and Asian peoples — the peo-
ples of the Third world — have fought for and
won the right to self-determination, the right
to recognition as distinct peoples and the
recognition of themselves as nations.

But in the New World the Native peoples
have not faired so well ...”’

The struggles of the Dene for self-
determination has been a catalyst in bring-
ing unity among the Dene, ‘Metis and
non-Native population of the western
Arctic. The drive of southern corpora-
tions to develop the North, as evidenced
by the Mackenzie Valley pipeline pro-
posal of the early 70’s, has brought to-
gether not only the Native peoples but
also environmental groups and labor. This
unity would result in the formation of the
Western Constitutional Forum.

While Denendeh (western NWT) in-
cludes a sizable non-Native population,
the proposals of the Western Constitu-
tional Forum include several guarantees

Ottawa’s vision of the North: The re-
lease accompanying this 1958 govern-
ment drawing states, “Residents of
Frobisher Bay in the Eastern Arctic may
some day live in tower-like apartment
_blocks arranged around the periphery of
a huge dome covering stores, banks,
schools and other public buildings ...
Such a system of towers and domes
could be repeated endlessly to create a
.city in the bleak Arctic ...” Nowhere in
the release is there a mention of the
‘Native population of the North or of po-
tential damage to the Arctic ecosystem.

=

not faired so well...”

Dene declaration: “The African and Asian peoples — have fought for and won the
right to self-determination, the right to recognition as distinct peoples and the
recognition of themselves as nations. But in the New World the Native peoples have

to ensure the survival of the Dene nation.
Under the proposals the Denendeh would
have control over fisheries and navigable
waters — currently areas of federal juris-
diction. Strict measures would be in force
to protect the land and aquatic environ-
ment of Denendeh — not only to control
the environmental impact of any North-
ern development but also to ensure the
protection of the traditional Dene way of
life.

The Charter of Founding Principles for
Denendeh. would include the entrench-
ment of Native languages as official lan-
guages — especially in education. The
aboriginal rights of the Dene would be
enshrined in the Denendeh constitution.

Even if a sudden increase in the non-
Native population of the Denendeh were
to occur due to development the Dene
would not lose their special status. The
Dene nation would be guaranteed a mini-
mum of 30 per cent of the seats on com-
munity councils and the legislative
assembly. There would also be a Dene
Senate which would have the power to
veto any legislation adversely affecting
aboriginal rights.

The battle lines over the North are
drawn. Ottawa has so far refused to
recognize the Native demands of their
fundamental right to self-government.

- Explicit in the federal policy is Ottawa’s

intention to maintain management over
land and water resources — in effect to
grant control without giving it up. This
policy fits in with the plans of multi-
national corporations in the future devel-
opment of the North.

In 1985 the Department of Indian Af-
fairs (DIA) sponsored a $1.5-million Na-
tive business summit and trade fair in
Toronto. The summit, heralded in glossy
government brochures as ushering in a
“new era of economic development”
highlighted the solution of the Mulroney
government to the ‘‘Native problem’’.
While the Assembly of First Nations re-
fused to endorse the summit the DIA
pushed ahead with it, determined to
develop the entrepreneur spirit among the
Native people.

The setting up of Native corporations
which would bring prosperity to the Na-
tive communities became the rallying c
of the summit. :

In actuality the encouragement of a
“business sector’’ among the Native peo-
ple would not only open Native lands to
corporate development but at the same
time undermine Native land claims by
sowing disunity.

In Alaska a new expression is entering
the English language — the ‘‘after-born”’
Native. These are the young generation of
Alaskan Inuit who are growing up to face
the prospect of no aboriginal rights or
land. For Natives in Northern Canada the
ensuing fate of the ‘‘after-born’’ Inuit of
Alaska holds some valuable lessons.

In 1971 the Inuit of Alaska reached a
settlement with the government of the
United States. In exchange for extinguish-
ing all aboriginal rights the Alaskan Inuit
received a large cash settlement and a
“‘share’’ of resource development. So-
called ‘‘Native corporations’’ were set up

to bring prosperity to the Inuit.

The battle lines over the North
are drawn. Ottawa has so far
refused to recognize Native
demands for their fundamental
right to self-government.

By 1986 the Native corporations found
themselves in serious financial difficulty.
Poor investments, low rates of return, and
decreasing prices for minerals combined
to decrease the income of the corpora-
tions and put them deeply into debt. Un-
able to pay their debts to the major multi-
nationals and financial agencies the
Native corporations quickly used up all
the money given in the initial claims
settlement.

All that remains today for the Alaskan
Inuit is the land. According to the settle-
ment the land is protected Inuit territory
till 1990. At that point the creditors can
move in and claim the land as collateral.
The Alaskan Inuit will be left with noth-

ing.

The rights of Native people in the
North, as in the rest of Canada, are far
from being resolved. The Dene, Inuit and
Metis have reached agreement on Denen-
deh and Nunavut. Their far-reaching pro-

posals for the entrenchment of aboriginal _

rights have yet to be realized. The out-

_ come of that struggle will not depend on

the benevolence of the federal govern-
ment but on the determination and capa-

city of the Native people and their allies to ©

achieve them.

In the struggle between the multina-
tional corporations and the Native peo-
ples the federal government has made it
clear what side it stands on.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 11, 1987 e¢ 5 —

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