Local Natives denounce armed confrontation

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The dispute initiated by a group of armed Natives holed up on a lakeside in Cariboo country near 100 Mile House, B.C. has been denounced by local bands.

Cariboo Tribal Council administrator Bruce Mack said the rebels are not welcome and should move on.

Local Natives continue to distance themselves from the group, saying there is nothing legitimate about the group's protest and apart from a few exceptions, local Natives are not involved in the confrontation.

The group refuses to leave the private ranchland, insisting the ranch is on sacred ground. Mack claims, however, there is no special religious or historical significance to the land. The Gustafson Lake site will not be the key in negotiations on land rights with government officials, he said.

"To the best of our Elders' knowledge, it is not a sacred or significant place. We have told them that," said Mack, in an interview with the Globe and Mail.

The site of the confrontation is used, with the owner's permission, each June for the Sundance ceremony. The Sundance is a Plains Indian ceremony which involves dancing, fasting, trances and body piercing. Some of those who attended this year's ceremony remained at the site and began claiming the land as sacred ground.

Weeks of private negotiations with members of the camp have left the Canoe Lake band and the Cariboo Tribal Council frustrated. Local Natives support the police in their attempts to restore the land to the rancher.

The Gustafson Lake group claims they will never leave, unless they are taken out in body bags.

"Under constitutional law the people on unceded and unsurrendered territory have the right to bear arms and to use force in resisting an invasion," the group, under the name of the Shuswap Traditionalists, said in a press release.

RCMP have surrounded the encampment where the masked and camouflaged renegades parade with assault rifles and automatic pistols. The group fired at a Mountie and threatened fisheries enforcement officers. Other shots have been fired at forestry workers, visitors, ranch hands said police.

The differences between this and other incidents, where there were credible claims being made are remarkable, said RCMP spokesman Pete Montegue.

"This is a terrorist activity, people using violence to further their own aims."

RCMP sized an AK-47 rifle with ammunition and a Glock automatic hand gun from two youths from the area, who had been seen inside the encampment.

The Mounties report they will do everything to avoid bloodshed if there is a showdown with the group, but Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin said there are no guarantees that violence can be avoided when police remove the squatters.