News & Events
Our right to resources
September 22, 2008
JUNE COLUMN FOR PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE PAPER
It is impossible to understand why First Nations are threatening to block pipeline development in southern Manitoba without knowing about history of events between 1871 and 1930.
Last month's symbolic protest by Treaty 1 First Nations at the pipeline site near the U.S. border drew a lot of negative reaction on news blogs and in letters to the editor around the province.
Some of what was written was hateful garbage, plain and simple. Most of this was on the blogs where even supposedly prestigious news outlets like the CBC allow people to post ugly comments on their websites, letting authors of nasty comments hide behind the anonymity of a pseudonym. Basically it is literary graffiti.
Maybe I will address the issue of blogs some day in a formidable way, so I will leave that for now other than to say that people who are flat-out anti-Indian have minds that are beyond reach anyway. Explaining things to them wouldn't make any difference anyway. The people I want to reach are fair-minded non-Indians who have difficulty understanding our position.
It is easy to understand why some people are perplexed by the move Treaty 1 First Nations on May 29, which was the National Day of Action for First Nations across Canada. The position of the seven Treaty 1 First Nations - which includes Sandy Bay and Long Plain from your newspaper's readership area - can only be understood by taking a look at the 1871 treaty and the 1930 Natural Resources Transfer Act.
The Crown signed the treaties so that land could be used to distribute to settlers who would be coming from eastern Canada and around the world. The treaties only covered land to a "plough's depth" and the primary obligation of Indians was to not harass the new farmers.
The Indians kept their part of the bargain and Crown failed to meet its ob ligations so many times that calculation is impossible.
One of the biggest breach was the Resources Transfer Act . By that time the federal government was acting as if its right to land took in everything, not just land for farming. Then, with the Act, the government went one step further, trading control of resources to the province, except for Indian lands, both existing and not yet surveyed. The province was soon acting as if it controlled virtually all of the resources in the province.
To summarize, Indian resources were stolen, then traded away without them being consulted in any manner. The Indian people, who by then were impoverished and treated as less than full citizens, were in no position to fight the move.
The new pipeline will pass through Treaty 1's traditional territory. Treaty 1 First Nations have filed a court motion to stop the pipeline and some chiefs have said there are willing to set up a real blockade - not one that lasts only a few hours - if their concerns are not addressed.
About the time of the symbolic blockade, I was approached by an elder who told me she wanted First Nations to stop the pipeline, not just negotiate a deal that will bring money to the First Nations. Mother Earth is being robbed of her resources and was suffering.
What that woman said really made me think. Lack of respect for Mother Earth is pushing us toward disaster in so many ways . Mother Earth provides us with everything we need so long as greed and recklessness does not cause us to use more than we should.
For example underground aquifers can provide water to an area forever as long people don't take out more than is replenished through rain and snow. All over North America there are depleted and contaminated aquifers. Overuse has led to similar problems with forests and rivers and so on. No doubt, there will be negatives sides to exploitation of the Oil Sands.
This leaves us in a difficult position. We try to stop the pipeline, but eventually the pipeline companies would spend billions if necessary to reroute through the U.S. rather than see the project die, or we can negotiate a deal that will see the Indian people get money so they can pursue the self-sustaining life that we have always been entitled to.
A tough question. One thing is certain though. We only gave up the top soil.
Morris J. Swan Shannacappo is grand Chief of the Southern Chiefs Organization which represents 36 First Nations in Southern Manitoba.