Enoch suing Ottawa for $450 million

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The Enoch Cree Nation has launched a $450 million lawsuit against Indian Affairs.

The reserve is asking for $400 million for lost revenue and another $50 million as compensation for land turned over to the federal government.

The band accuses Indian Affairs of breach of trust, negligence, mismanagement of oil and gas revenues and wrongfully taking reserve land, Chief Jerome Morin said at a May 18 news conference in Edmonton.

He said Indian Affairs holds royalties in trust and puts them in general government revenues at long-term government bond rates, which averaged under 10 per cent from 1870-1988. The band maintains the royalties could have earned 16 to 17 per cent if a business trustee had been hired.

An additional $50 million is being sought as compensation for oil-rich land taken by the federal government in 1908. The reserve surrendered 6,400 acres of land extending from Enoch reserve to Highway 16 after Ottawa threatened to withhold food and services if it did not give up the area.

The Indian Act says Indian Affairs must manage oil and gas resources and hold royalties in trust. But the reserve e wants the department removed as trustee; the band wants to manage the royalties itself.

"We can certainly do a hell of a lot more than the federal government has," Morin declared.

Expressing support for Enoch was Hobbema's Samson Band Chief Victor Buffalo and Lubicon lake Chief Bernard Ominayak.

The Samson Band is also suing the federal government for $575 million for mismanagement of oil and gas resources. It filed suit last October after years to get control of the royalties.

Ominayak said Indian Affairs must be fought with any tool suitable to the bands.

"One thing that is very clear is we have a common enemy -- the federal government," he added.

Indian Affairs hold $806 million on behalf of Indian bands across Canada and $157 million for children.

Provincial Museum to exhibit exquisite Blackfoot artifacts

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John Holman, Windspeaker Correspondent, Edmonton

A little known United States collection of 1,500 Blackfoot artifacts returned to Canada last October will soon be exhibited by Edmonton's Provincial Museum of Alberta.

The Scriver Blackfoot artifacts, named after owner Robert Scriver, a well-known sculptor in Browning, Montana, are to be exhibited June 8 to Sept. 4.

The collection is exquisitely preserved," said museum director Philip Stepney. "Artistically, they blow you away."

The $1.1 million acquisition, which has a multi-million dollar value on the auction market where Indian artifacts are in high demand, contains a dizzying array of artifacts relating to almost all aspects of the last days of the Blackfoot Nation's buffalo/horse period.

The Scriver artifacts focus on the Blackfoot Confederacy. It includes Sun Dance necklaces, medicine pipe and ceremonial bundles, bonnets, moccasins, leggings, gauntlets, dresses, war shirts, vests, beaded capes, jacket, awl pouches, jewelry, capotes (long cloaks with hoods), toys, dolls, games, dance costumes, weapons, various tools, and even a horse travois.

"It is a beautiful collection. In terms of culture we've probably got the last piece of the pie," Stepney said, explaining many of the items are unique in Canada.

"There's a Bear Knife Bundle in this collection. It's the only one in Canada," he said.

Canadian museum are light years behind the United States in aboriginal artifact collections because they weren't as active in early 1900s, he said. As a result many artifacts went across the border.

In January elders from the Peigan Nation in Brocket - Joe and Josephine Crowshoe, Reg and Rose Crowshoe - and Chief Leonard Bastien spent three days at the museum traditionally purifying the medicine bundles and pipes. They also advised the museum on the text the religious material should be displayed in as well how to wrap and store the items.

"With the revival of Native spirituality we want (advice) on how to treat them (artifacts) respectfully," expained Stepney. He noted that next month a Thunder Medicine Pipe will be ceremonially opened at Brocket and in July its power will be transferred to another through a Sun Dance ceremony.