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Dear Editor:

I am of the First Nation Dogrib Rae Band of which you have referred to in your article ('Certainty' model causes concern, October 2002). I read with great interest with what you had to say about the agreement. You say:

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Assuming the basic tracks have been laid and you are at the CD manufacturing stage, there are a number of considerations to take. When budgeting for the final output it is wise to get a few estimates on production costs for illustrations, photography, typesetting, camera work and other related costs.

Your artwork or graphics, mastering and CD pressing will determine the professional standard that is expected by radio programmers and the industry.

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Dear Tuma:

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Occasionally I get asked by some poor fool who actually thinks I might know something, if I can boil down, or synthesize as briefly as possible, the essential differences between Native people and white people. Many wise and learned men have spent their careers researching and debating that very topic. Well, surprisingly, I believe I have found one such example, and it was lurking in my morning cup of coffee all this time.

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When I first proposed a "media column" to this news publication, I saw something that would be part-media literacy and part-media watchdog. I hoped to concentrate on the literacy aspect but knew the watchdog function would be an occasional but necessary evil. This is one of those times.

It brings me to complaints about three newspaper columnists. Two have gone to press councils in British Columbia and Alberta. The other, I suppose, wasn't worth the bother.

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It appears that President George Bush II is going to attack Iraq no matter what happens in the United Nations or with public opinion in the United States. Personally, I think that a war at this time is a subversive act, one calculated to plunge the U.S. into deeper debt, deteriorating quality of life, and more hatred overseas.

But if Bush chooses to proceed, I propose some ground rules for Congress to impose.

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Editorial

The events of the Assembly of First Nations' two-day special confederacy have convinced us to jump off the editorial fence and make our position known on the federal government's First Nations governance initiative.

Shelve it.

First Nations' people should get that much consideration and here's why.

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Several speakers at the Feb. 20 and 21 Assembly of First Nations' special confederacy spoke about using civil disobedience to bring attention to their complaints about the governance package being proposed by the federal government.

After National Chief Matthew Coon Come and Dan Gaspe, the AFN's Parliamentary liaison, updated the delegates about what had been happening since the last chiefs' gathering in December, several chiefs arrived at the conclusion that playing within the rules of the legislative system might not be the answer.

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It started when Chief Morris Shannaccappo, a member of the chiefs committee on fiscal relations, got up to speak on Feb. 20, the first day of the Assembly of First Nations' special assembly called to deal with the federal government's First Nations legislative package on governance.

"We're getting beat up. Not only by the white government, but also by our own people," he said.

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When the newly-elected council of Caldwell First Nation convened its first meeting on Feb. 3, at the top of the agenda was the preparation of a resolution for a ratification vote of its land claim settlement.

An agreement-in-principle was signed in 1998 that would put to rest a claim that under the Treaty of 1790, the Caldwells did not receive a land base. The agreement will provide Caldwell $23.4 million over 25 years to purchase land to establish a reserve.