Gwitch'in want to eliminate Canada-U.S. border

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The Gwitch Nation will pursue recognition of their traditional territory for the purpose of doing away with the Canada-U.S. border and the red tape it creates.

For thousands of years, the Gwitch'in travelled freely through their traditional territory, stretching from eastern Alaska to the western Northwest Territories.

But now, if Jonathon Solomon wants to come into Canada to shoot a caribou, he has to get "all kinds of permits and what-not.

"It is the same caribou," Solomon said. "These people would be able to go across the mountain and get what caribou they need, and those people should be able to do the same."

Solomon recalled that last year, at his brothers's memorial potlatch, he gave away 16 rifles and some 400 to 500 blankets.

But when he wanted to bring rifles to Old Crow for a potlatch to recognize his grandmother, Sarah Abel, who lives here, the RCMP at first were not going to let him bring any.

"I said, 'Hey, I just have to bring one because if there is no rifle here, there is nothing to it'," he said.

Included in the move to establish what is being referred to as the "caribou commons" is the desire to twin the North Yukon National Park with Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

These resolutions, along with one calling for a plan to "protect all government lands within our region for the purposes of environmental conservation, cultural protection and community development," were adopted at a recent Gwitch'in gathering in Old Crow, Yukon.

The resolutions - six of nine were generated by the youth - were passed after five days of meetings:

- The Gwitch'in Nation is supporting a lawsuit filed against the Department of Indians Affairs and Northern development by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. The society launched the suit in May, charging the government is wrong in its interpretation that mining exploration was exempt from environmental reviews. The ruling was made on an application for exploration in the Bonnet Plume River area, traditional Gwitch'in territory.

- The youth are calling upon their parents and Elders to develop programs ensuring traditional knowledge is not lost, but taught and handed down to the youth.

- The youth want programs that "openly and honestly address the drug and alcohol problem" in the northern Gwitch'in communities. These substances, said the resolution, are easily obtainable in the communities through drug dealers and bootleggers. Drugs and alcohol, it says, "are killing the Gwitch'in people and their way of life."

- To combat what many youth described as boredom, and to have a place where they can meet and discuss things like safe sex and AIDS, the youth are calling upon their communities to establish youth centres and a variety of recreational and social programs.

- The Gwitch'in youth are also calling for the creation of programs designed to close what they feel is a communication gap between themselves, their parents and their Elders.

- Youth also called for a place at the table when dealing with land claims, and the local governance process, since it will be the youth of today leading their communities tomorrow.

- Finally, the youth have called for the development of a better learning environment in their communities with Gwitch'in teachers and culturally-appropriate curricula.