Lubicon chief gets gift horse

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A gift horse and a promise to call the prime minister was given to Chief Bernard Ominayak by Premier Don Getty March 9 at the Legislature building.

Majestic Probe, a thoroughbred and former race horse of Getty's, was presented to the chief after Getty held a news conference announcing that he would make a call to the Prime Minister Mulroney.

The presentation was made outside the doors of the legislative building located in the city's downtown area.

When asked about the reason for the gift Getty responded, "this is not an election stunt. The chief and I have had other things we've talked about as well and it's convenient to handle them now."

Getty said that he would be calling Mulroney to see if the three could meet and make agreements in principle on the 50-year-old land claim. He hopes that such a meeting will put some momentum back into the talks which collapsed in January.

Ominayak had a wait-and-see attitude when asked if he thought the meeting was a productive one.

"I would hope so. I guess time will tell. We've had meetings in the past that have been productive I still feel that we'll be able to work something out and I think we've got an understanding, which is to try and be fair to our people and hopefully to allow our people to try and have a decent future."

Land claim talks broke down with Ottawa because the two could not agree on the issue of compensation and federal offers which fell short of what Lubicon negotiators were willing

to settle for.