New Tall Cree chief takes the reins

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Bernard Meneen is the new chief of the Tall Cree band for the next five years.

Two councilors, Eugene Kotash and Ronald Loonskin were also voted in for five year terms at the March 7 election.

Meneen was voted in with a total of 61 votes out of 119.

North and South Tall Cree has a combined population of 424 band members and is located about 800 km north of Edmonton.

Bernard Meneen could not be reached for comment.

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Feasting, traditional dress, mourning songs mark beginning of new land claim hearings

Vancouver, British Columbia

After 10 months of battling in the British Columbia courts over 22,000 sq. miles of land, the Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en bands are "preparing for war" in anticipation of the next phase of proceedings.

In the legal battle, already 54 hereditary chiefs, representing 76 houses of the Gitksan ? Wet'suwet'en have given evidence supporting Indian ownership of the land which was never ceded to the province through treaties or any other legal process.

With the next phase of evidence upon the band, the first of the Gitksan witnesses, Chief Tenimgyet of the Gitwangak Wolf Clan, hosted a feast traditionally called by a Chief to guage his support when preparing for war. During a Gil Ts'ek' (feast requesting a call to arms), the Chiefs of the other Clans signify their willingness to go into battle by eating the food laid out by the host. Draped in their traditional button blankets, Tenimgyet (Art Matthews, Jr.) and Axtii Hiikw (Henry Tait), along with their supporters performed the lim oo'y (mourning song) and called on the other chiefs to join forces with them as they battle against the provincial and federal lawyers.

In a strong show of force, each of the attending Chiefs at the Gil Ts'ek' threw their support behind Tenimgyet and Axtii Hiikw. The departing Set'suwet'en chiefs acknowledged Tenimgyet's strength and declared their continuing support.

Says a Gitksan ? Wet'suwet'en tribal council press release:

Although a legal decision will not be made for several years, the B.C. government continues to issue permits for logging and mining operations within the disputed territory. The land is in danger of being destroyed by clear-cutting and the consequent silting of fish-spawning habitats, air and water pollution from sawmills, and spraying of herbicides which poison the soil and the plants on which wild animals depend. Recently Gitksan Chiefs protested this abuse by temporarily blockading a logging road and by seizing equipment.

As well, they have reactivated traditional fishing sites without permits and built smokehouses at these sites in contravention of Department of Fish and Wildlife regulations. Obtaining a license to fish on their own land is not only redundant and unnecessary, it prejudices their argument in court. The BC government lawyers contend that to obtain a fishing license is evidence of assimilation into white society, or "proof" that the Gitksan-Wet'suwet'en no longer exist as a distinct peoples and therefore they have no special claim to the land. However, to fish without one is "breaking the law," the press release concludes, indicating the complicated circumstances of the land claim.

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