Page 2

The preservation of Aboriginal languages will be the acid test for Canadian human rights during the United Nations' Year of Indigenous Peoples, the grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations said.

"Successive Canadian governments tried to destroy our languages and cultures through systems such as the residential schools," said Ovide Mercredi.

"All over the country, our people are waking up to the fact that their languages have been taken away from them. Now we want the federal and provincial governments to help get them back."

Page 2

The preservation of Aboriginal languages will be the acid test for Canadian human rights during the United Nations' Year of Indigenous Peoples, the grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations said.

"Successive Canadian governments tried to destroy our languages and cultures through systems such as the residential schools," said Ovide Mercredi.

"All over the country, our people are waking up to the fact that their languages have been taken away from them. Now we want the federal and provincial governments to help get them back."

Page 2

The preservation of Aboriginal languages will be the acid test for Canadian human rights during the United Nations' Year of Indigenous Peoples, the grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations said.

"Successive Canadian governments tried to destroy our languages and cultures through systems such as the residential schools," said Ovide Mercredi.

"All over the country, our people are waking up to the fact that their languages have been taken away from them. Now we want the federal and provincial governments to help get them back."

Page 2

More Canadians than ever claim to be Native, a report by Statistics Canada showed.

Figures released late last month for the 1991 Census and Aboriginal Peoples Survey show the number of people across Canada who reported Aboriginal origins soared 41 per cent since the 1986 survey.

Some 1,002,675 people reported having Aboriginal origins in 1991, up from 711,720 five years earlier.

Demographic factors, such as fertility and mortality, cannot, however, explain the increase in only five years, the department reported.

Page 2

More Canadians than ever claim to be Native, a report by Statistics Canada showed.

Figures released late last month for the 1991 Census and Aboriginal Peoples Survey show the number of people across Canada who reported Aboriginal origins soared 41 per cent since the 1986 survey.

Some 1,002,675 people reported having Aboriginal origins in 1991, up from 711,720 five years earlier.

Demographic factors, such as fertility and mortality, cannot, however, explain the increase in only five years, the department reported.

Page 2

More Canadians than ever claim to be Native, a report by Statistics Canada showed.

Figures released late last month for the 1991 Census and Aboriginal Peoples Survey show the number of people across Canada who reported Aboriginal origins soared 41 per cent since the 1986 survey.

Some 1,002,675 people reported having Aboriginal origins in 1991, up from 711,720 five years earlier.

Demographic factors, such as fertility and mortality, cannot, however, explain the increase in only five years, the department reported.

Page 2

More Canadians than ever claim to be Native, a report by Statistics Canada showed.

Figures released late last month for the 1991 Census and Aboriginal Peoples Survey show the number of people across Canada who reported Aboriginal origins soared 41 per cent since the 1986 survey.

Some 1,002,675 people reported having Aboriginal origins in 1991, up from 711,720 five years earlier.

Demographic factors, such as fertility and mortality, cannot, however, explain the increase in only five years, the department reported.

Page 1

Treaty Indians dissatisfied with Assembly of First Nations representation are meeting to form their own national organization.

Treaty chiefs from across Canada met on the T'suu Tina Nation's reserve southwest of Calgary last week to ratify the plan for the new national political organization that would represent only treaty Indians.

The United Treaty First Nations council will be the instrument for bi-lateral treaty relations with the Crown, conference organizer Sykes Powderface said.

Page 1

"It was just like a desert, just gravel. How could they have sent us there when there was nothing."

Seventy-seven-year-old Minnie Allakanallak was questioning the federal government's decision to move Inuit from northern Quebec to the High Arctic in the early 1950s.

Allakanallak and 34 others were in Ottawa last week to testify before the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The commission is holding a special series of hearings into the government's relocation program.

Page 1

"It was just like a desert, just gravel. How could they have sent us there when there was nothing."

Seventy-seven-year-old Minnie Allakanallak was questioning the federal government's decision to move Inuit from northern Quebec to the High Arctic in the early 1950s.

Allakanallak and 34 others were in Ottawa last week to testify before the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The commission is holding a special series of hearings into the government's relocation program.