| 8nd the
| lower

tive

Northern

By KIMBALL CARIOU
__ The northern areas of the Prairie prov-

| Mces are often described as ‘‘virtually

uninhabited’, suited only for. grab-and-
Tun mining, big game and fishing tours,

| ‘Nd Cruise missile tests. But to some

{000 Saskatchewan residents, mainly
ative people, the North is a home to be
defended.

ammers, hunters, trappers, fishermen.
~ahy are descended from the compat-
Mots of Louis Riel. One hundred years
after the second Riel Rebellion, the In-
dian and Métis people and other resi-
dents of northern Saskatchewan face a

a challenge — a struggle to win con-
Tol over their land in the face of aggres- .

‘ive corporations and an arrogant pro-
Vincial government. :

The 1982 election of the Grant Devine
80vernment sparked the newest
developments in this long struggle. The

Ories were soon dismantling the

Partment of Northern Saskatchewan
and laying plans to pass a Northern

UNicipalities Act to replace DNS.

ced with imminent changes, northern
‘ommunities responded by founding the

askatchewan Association of Northern
al Governments (SANLG). The as-

| SCiation today includes seven of the

ine Local Community Authorities
LCAs) and 23 of 24 Local Advisory
Cuncils (LACs). These entities, rep-
senting larger and smaller communities
rpectively, were first established in the
ale 1960s, as elected bodies in govern-

| Ment-defined districts. Prior to that

me, the only local government was
Conducted by provincially-appointed

Onservation officers.

Northern Poverty
Under the new legislation, currently

| before the legislature, the LCAs and

Cs will be disbanded, and become
Orthern Municipalities: villages, ham-
“ts, or settlements. Larger centres such
La Ronge are excepted, as they are

ready towns. While the Act is seen as

eed a ‘‘housekeeping’’ measure, resi-
nts of the communities fear that the
. W entities will remain under the thumb
the province, will not be funded
settately. will be left with an impos-
i Y small tax base because of high
employment, and will not be given any
in aningful control over their surround-
8 area. :

prouch control is vital if the North is to
| “Teak out of its poverty. About 85-90% of

Northern Native people are jobless.
ou quate plumbing is a rarity, especially
a Side the few towns. Infant mortality is
~Out three times the Canadian average,
life expectancy is some 20 years
Othe. Health facilities, training, and
€r services are totally inadequate.
ism plays an incredible role: Na-
: People at Pinehouse Lake recently
b €aled a typical story, concerning a
“year-old Native girl kidnapped and
aten by whites at a nearby logging
Gr P before being dumped back at the
itely No attempt by authorities to punish
Perpetrators.

Obs is the number one issue raised by

|
|

evtemers. Genuine economic develop-
: At is almost non-existent, with the
€eption of uranium mining. Anti-nu-
ane activists point out that ore for the
‘a A-bombs was mined here, and min-
= boomed in the late 1970s. Annual
$259 Jumped from $16-million in 1975 to

Million in 1981. But relatively few

€

-portherners or Native people have been

Stage’ except at the ‘“‘pick-and-shovel’’
fixed, Corporate agreements to hire a
Percentage of Native workers have

Mju Consistently violated. Cluff Lake
ining Promised to hire 50% Native

_Northerners have a long and proud’
| AUstory of struggle, as wage-laborers,

workers, but currently is at 43%, a figure
expected to drop when initial construc-
tionis complete. Provincial officials wink
at these violations of legal contracts, in
contrast to their harassment of norther-
ners unable to meet mortgage payments.

Those who land mining jobs consider
themselves lucky — they and their fami-
lies have a steady income. But inevitably
radiation will take its toll on their health;
many effects will take 20 years to sur-
face. And the week-in, week-out work
schedule is already undercutting social
and family stability.

Many northern leaders are personally
opposed to uranium mining for all these
reasons. They also point out that the vast

SASKATCHEWAN

Sask. resists Tory attack

amounts of money poured into the indus-
try could be used to create far more jobs
in less capital-intensive industries. But
they recognize that many of their people
want work desperately, despite the pos-

_sible risks.

Control of Land

SANLG chairman Mike Blackmon
says the organization is raising a number
of demands on the uranium issue — that
the companies be forced to ahdere to
affirmative action agreements, that
safety standards be raised, and that
northern communities be given a share of
revenues. He also wants to educate
northern children about the health

Skirts of the community, with abso- .

° ‘b, spe RS se PARK
oes : Recs és Se ‘
ge sor por eo b0

we

hazards, so that they become aware that
mining poses dangers as well as rewards.

But the SANLG goes further. It wants
genuine northern development based on
community control of the land, and
proper use of renewable resources, such
as timber, game and fish. The most im-
mediate need, the group says, is for the
people to have control over the land. To
date that control has been limited to a
three-mile or less radius from the centre
of communities, and the amount of con-
trol has been limited. After the Northern
Municipalities Act is passed, a series of
negotiations will begin to determine each
community’s radius of control. SANLG
leaders would prefer that to be at least
eight miles or so, depending on local
circumstances.

Further, they want sections of the
Urban Municipalities Act which provide
for larger ‘‘planning areas’? with com-
munity input, to be applied to the North.
Such planning areas are necessary be-
cause mining and forestry operations can
have a potentially devastating effect on a
wide area, in terms of pollution and ef-
fects on wildlife, and thus on the lifestyle
of northerners who depend on the land.

In recent weeks SANLG leaders have
taken their case to the southern part of
the province, speaking to meetings,
organizations and the media in Prince
Albert, Saskatoon and Regina. They are
appealing for public support in their ef-
forts to win democratic control over their
destinies. It appears such support will be
forthcoming, leading to a new battle be-
tween the people of Saskatchewan and

‘“‘Pinehouse is a Cree-speaking,

cated on the Churchill River in the
geographic centre of Saskatchewan.
Until four years ago the town re-
mained unconnected by road to the
rest of the province. The commu-
nity’s economy is based on commer-
cial and domestic fishing, trapping,
hunting, rice and, to a lesser extent,

payments, and direct wage employ-
ment. With the exception of the lat-
ter two categories, all the wealth of
the town comes from harvesting the
lands and waters surrounding us.”’
— from Pinehouse Local Commu-

the House of Commons subcom-
mittee on Indian Self-Government,
March 1983.

- The recent history of Pinehouse
proves conclusively the need for
local popular control over the north-
ern land base. This issue is being
raised by the Saskatchewan
Association of Northern Local
Governments (SANLG) and others.

Residents of Pinehousé face a
double-barrelled corporate attack,
by mining and forestry interests. In
1979 the Calgary-based Missi Island
Mines Ltd. began negotiations to
open a limestone mine on the major
fish-spawning river, the Mas-
sinahigan, flowing into Pinehouse
Lake. (Uranium operations use
limestone in processing ore). Pine-
house officials expressed concern

~ about the effects of pollution on the
fish and game, and about the social

problems inherent in having a camp
with 80 workers, mainly southern-
ers, set up close to their town.

Métis community of 700 people lo-.

on some pulp wood cutting, transfer

nity Authority (LCA) submission to ~

indicated that no development could
begin without further consultation
with the community, especially as
the company had not done proper
environmental and social impact
studies. Then in December 1982
Pinehouse Overseer George Smith
discovered a Missi Island employee
marking drill hole test sites eight
miles from town. The incident led
the LCA to investigate, with confus-
ing and conflicting answers coming
from the company solicitors and
from the Minister for Northern Sas-
katchewan, George McLeod. The
LCA fears that a limestone dis-
covery could prejudice the town’s
promised negotiations with the prov-
ince, on the increase of its current
’ 1' mile radius of control.

River Endangered

In a second development, the Pr-
ince Albert Pulp Co. (PAPCO) has
proposed a 15-20 year cutting plan
over a large area of the Massinahigan
River watershed. PAPCO’s 1983-84
plans call for an access bridge to be
built across the river this summer, in
preparation for subsequent
‘clear-cutting’. Residents point out ~
that the river is the major pickerel
spawning ground for the local
fishery, the major source of income
in the town. Clear-cutting will
change the run-off patterns and in-
crease silting in the river, which |
could seriously affect or destroy the
fishery.

Residents also fear the potential
social consequences. Logging com-
pany employees working in the area

girls to their camp, giving them drugs
and alcohol. In one case, two em-
ployees kidnapped a 12-year-old
from school and béat her severely.
No charges were laid in the inci-
dents, leading residents to ask: what
would happen if two Indians kid-
napped a girl from a school in Sas-
katoon, then beat her severely be-
fore dumping her? The obvious dou-
ble standard led George Smith to
conclude bitterly: ‘‘Such is respect
and justice in Canadian society to-
wards Native Canadians’. -

The rising tide of anger among In-
dian and Métis people and other
northerners was reflected at a May 2
meeting in Pinehouse, called to dis-
cuss the ‘‘development”’ proposal.
Two hundred adults attended,
unanimously agreeing that the LCA |
should ‘‘negotiate corporate bound-
aries with the province which would
then allow the LCA to negotiate with
Missi Island Mines for legal guaran-
tees of the following: compensation
for trappers, jobs and training, a
‘commission’ in lieu of taxes for
limestone, and environmental
protection’. On the PAPCO prop-
osal, the meeting voted unanimously
to givé the LCA the mandate to do
‘everything it can to keep bridge
construction and pulp cutting out of
the Massinahigan this summer.”’

LCA overseer Smith summed up
the feelings of the people during a
recent speaking tour in Regina: ‘“‘We
estimate that 60 per cent of our
livelihood comes from the land
around us ... we’ll lay our lives on
the line if we have to.”’

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 17, 1983—Page 7