Red power on the rise

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These are heady times for Native people and politicians across Canada.

But Native people will have to keep on the ground and their heads out of the clouds and there's every indication they will.

There's many miles to go before they will be equal participants in the Canadian political system.

In Edmonton this week where chiefs from across Canada met to discuss their many common concerns, Chief Jerome Morin of Enoch Cree Nation threw down the gauntlet, serving notice Native people will not let up their fight for justice.

"There can be no peace in our hearts without justice from the government of Canada," he said. "We are here and we are more determined than ever."

Every victory has emboldened Canada's Native people in their struggle while the giants like Bernard Ominayak and Elijah Harper draw strength from the elders and Native spirituality and culture.

It sustains them through the long dark nights.

It sustained Harper, who with eagle feather in hand, helped strangle the Meech Lake accord, which would recognize Quebec as distinct without addressing the constitutional concerns of first nations.

It was ironic and true poetic justice that Native people, who were shut out of the constitutional talks, were able in the end to have their say to the dismay of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and most of the other upper middle class, white men representing Ottawa and the provinces.

And ironically at the same time as the Meech Lake accord was dying they were making their voices heard in Calgary where under the leadership of Native Senator Len Marchand they were making inroads in one of the country's major political parties.

The Liberal party voted to establish an Aboriginal People's Commission giving Natives political mussel within the Canadian political establishment.

Through their presence at the Calgary Liberal leadership convention, Native people forced the two front runners, Paul Martin and eventual winner Jean Chretian, to be very specific on aboriginal issues.

While Martin took a stronger stand on Native issues, Chretien's platform still bodes well for Native people.

A former Indian affairs minister he has promised to entrench aboriginal rights in the Constitution and to obtain appropriate input from Native peoples, to commit the necessary financial resources to put Native self-government in place, to respect existing treaties, to re-establish funding for Native education as a priority and to ensure fairness in the justice system by blending traditional and aboriginal customs.

Native people must keep the pressure on Chretien and his party to see this promises are lived up to if he should ever become prime minister.

And pressure must also be brought to bear on the Mulroney government to at leas match Christine's promises.