y JACKIE GREATBATCH ister of Indian and North- Affairs, the Honorable Jud lanan hailed the recent $ Bay land claim settlement irst in reasonable compen- h for Canada’s Native peo- ie said that the settlement set a pattern for all fu- d claims across the coun- "hile details of the James Settlement remain unclear, is is that the Mistassini @s will retain 35,000 square f land, with hunting and ig rights in other areas, and receive $150-million in com- tion for the land taken ‘them, which will be doled by the government in 10- trol of the Native peoples es Bay shrinks in its ca- to serve their present way fe when: one looks at the at Cree families in the © value of $150-million in ts is totally incalculable Tegardless of the amount of y the government gives the * Bay Indians, it will do ing to preserve the culture ! Way of life of the people, | sure their rights to self- ’ Mination as a distinct Cana- "Culture, €n Bourassa’s Quebec gov- €nt began the expropriation Nds around James Bay, the fuction of the hydro-elec- Urgent importance. With- t, government reports said, would not have enough f by the 1980's. Premier assa has just completed a Robert Bourassa France, During his stay ® arrangements with that S government for the Ction of a $3.5-billion enrichment plant to be » Of all places, James Uch a project is expected ume one-half the power fd by the James Bay €ctric project. The urani- it would be produced by t is the type that is used th and American nuclear but not that which Teactors use. Also, the 80vernment has recently a to the federal energy or its first export of pow- rmont. ucchanan and his gov- t may feel that the James lement was a good one, Implications for Native » are deadly. $ Bay is just one exam- eovernment attempts to “me the whole existence ‘ Periods. The land area left ject was claimed to be of- ‘scheme is of a sovereign culture for Native peoples. It is the 20th century method of the genocide which has been practiced by Canadian governments for 400 years in at- tempts to wipe out Indian, Metis and Innuit peoples, and it can be seen all across Canada, in the Mackenzie Valley, Northern Brit- ish Columbia.and Alberta. Government policy in northern development is purely in the in- terests of the multi-national, corporations (and racist treat- ment of native peoples is stan- dard practice). The poor quality . of housing and low health stan- dards in comparison to the rest of Canadians are two of the most evident indications of govern- ments’. attitudes toward the status of Native peoples. Government tactics for steal- ing Native lands in the 1970's © are to present the people with specific proposals for develop- ment after agreements have been made with the corporations, as if there is‘no alternative to their -f schemes. As can be seen by the James Bay development project, such proposals, although govern- ments claim they are necessary for society asa whole, only ‘serve to benefit big business, and one proposal is often the first in a series of interrelated developments. Governments’ treatment of Native peoples all over the north gives them no chance for parti- cipation in northern develop- ment, with no recognition’ of their rights to self-determination. An example of such an attitude is the case of the proposed de- velopment scheme for north- west British Columbia —_ pet project of David Barrett’s New Democratic - Party ‘government... The plans encompass about 100,000 square miles, one-half a billion dollars on new roads and $325-million in new railway con- ‘struction, The centre of the de- velopment will be Prince Rupert, ‘operating as a superport for the raw materials that will pour out of B.C.’s interior. Mining, lumber and refining industries are to be developed in massive propor- tions. Roughly 10% of the popu- lation of north-west B.C. are Na- tive people. : One At the proposals: in the a sawmill at Burns Lake, an area where over half the population is non-status In- dians. In Nov. 1973 the B.C. As- sociation of Non-Status Indians . (BCANSI) submitted a bid for the proposed mill. The BCANSI already runs a small logging and | sawmill operation with a $2.5- million budget, and a housing company. Their proposal was for the construction of a sawmill costing . $7-million. ‘that would create 130 mill jobs and 90 jobs . “SOVIET RIGS IN IRAQ BAGHDAD — The Iraqi press reports the arrival of Soviet drilling rigs to drill deep arte- sian wells in north-western and southern desert parts of the country. - The first Soviet-made drills proved themselves well. Accord- ing to a report of the Iraqi ad- ministration, 10. wells have. re- cently been drilled with their help in Kudus, Nineviya prov- ince. : Iraq will get from the Soviet Union another batch of 30 such drilling rigs in 1974-75. With their help the government in- tends to develop new aric parts of the country. _. Cree Indians of James Bay in logging. Projected sales were $9-million dollars annually, leav- ig $1:3-million profit after $7.6- million in operating costs. The project would have been a Co- operative set-up, benefiting local people, especially natives. The project carried with it a thorough set of plans for social services to compliment the devel- opment, including on-the-job training, day care centres and resource centres. In April of 1974 the govern- ment announced which of the six bids made on the Burns Lake project had won. the contract. Needless. to say, it was not the BCANSI proposal, but a firm called Banine Forest Products that includes an American-owned branch plant, a Finnish corpora- tion that already has develop- ments in the province and a re- ,cent NDP purchase called Cana- dian Cellulose. BCANSI was of- fered an 8% share\in the deal. This case is perhaps one of. the less villainous examples of the governments’ land stealing schemes, in that Native peoples of the area were given a share, though it is obvious tokenism. The natives of the Mackenzie Valley will have no part what- soever in the proposed Arctic gas pipeline development. The issue of Native land claims has become more prominent in the past few years due to the increased push for development of Canada’s north by multi- national corporations coupled with growing political conscious- ness among Native peoples. But no settlements will be satisfac- ‘tory under the present tactics of provincial and federal govern- ments. : -What is needed is a northern development policy which takes into account the legitimate rights and interests of Native. peoples, with the inhabitants of each re- gion having an effective say in development policy and specific projects, as: well as the oppor- tunity to participate.in the devel- opment projects. The rightful land claims of. Native peoples must be settled before any sort » B.C. Premier David Barrett of development occurs in a way which will enable Indian, Métis and Innuit people to retain their ways and means for self-deter- mination. In the words of Wah-shee, president of the Indian Brother- hood of the. North West Terri- tories: “We are not interested in . compensation for loss of a way of life, but for the right and freedom to construct our own alternatives for development on the bedrock of our past. The destruction of our way of life in return for compensation and a menial role for native people in outside-initiated development, by and large irrelevant to our needs, cannot be assumed by the gov- ernment, Gas Artic, or any pro- posed settlements of our claims.” . Portuguese Communist Party central committee secretary Al- varo Cunhal joins with other Communists from the small in-. dustrial town of Alhandra on the Tagus near Lisbon in a meeting dedicated to the memory of the Communist author Soeiro Pereira Gomes. Mr. Cunhal, an artist by pro- fession, illustrated one’ of the novels by Mr. Gomes published. in the ’30s. Mr. Gomes — who lived for years in Alhandra — died from an illness he could not get treated as he worked in the party's underground movement under the fascist dictatorship. Above, Mr. Cunhal is joined on the platform by local Young Communists and party members. Below, part of the 4,000 strong dience—most of the Alhandra population were there.