Prime Minister 'still not convinced' to grant PTNA seat at FMC

Page

The Prairie Treaty Nations Alliance (PTNA) announced March 5 they have yet to convince the prime minister to allow them direct participation at the upcoming First Ministers' Conference (FMC) on Aboriginal constitutional matters.

The Indian organization representing 120,000 Treaty Indians from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. was left out of the federal talks when they broke away from the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) just prior to the last FMC talks in 1985.

The PTNA leaders suspect that the prime minister will say no to their participation at the last minute as they claim happened at the last FMC in 1985.

At a PTNA conference held on the Enoch Reserve March 3, 4, and 5, Indian chiefs decided to continue their two-year old lobby to press the government to grant them two seats, just as each of the four other national Aboriginal organizations have at the upcoming FMC scheduled for March 26 and 27.

The PTNA wants to be at this, the last of the scheduled constitutional conferences, so they can represent Treaty interests which they feel were not well represented by the AFN.

Narcisse Blood, vice-chief for Treaty 7 for the Indian Association of Alberta (IAA); Ernie Daniels, representing Treaty 1, Manitoba; Richard Behn, representing Treaty 8 bands in northeastern B.C., and Vern Bellegarde of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indians spoke at the press conference announcing the PTNA stand

If the prime minister does not allow PTNA representation, then the Treaty protocol of over a century will have been seriously breached, PTNA leaders claim.

"It is going to go down in history that Treaty people were not involved in the FMC. We represent a significant factor of the whole history of Canada," said Blood.

When the PTNA was formed by the chiefs' convention that was dissatisfied with the handling of Treaty issues by the AFN, and also recognized that there are other Treaty nations which have opted out of the FMC process, Blood added.

When the PTNA was formed, it claimed to speak for a great portion of the people represented by the AFN, with a total of 128 tribes in the western provinces, Blood said.

The PTNA is asking that the Treaties made with their members be honoured, and calls for the government, other Native groups and Treaty nations to respect PTNA intentions to protect their Treaties "in the manner we choose," said Behn.

"We still see self-government as an inherent right, but there are a number of outstanding Treaty issues which the Crown has failed to live up to," said Behn.

He gave Indian resources and membership of Indian nations as two examples of issues that have yet to be resolved.

"These were never at the table at the time of the signing of the treaties," said Behn.

The PTNA does not recognize the joint AFN Canada Task force on Treaty issues, and does not want the task force findings to be presented at the FMC because prairie Treaty nations did not participate in this process.

Although the task force and the upcoming FMC include issues of direct importance to PTNA members, the PTNA rejects these processes unless the PTNA has direct participation, Daniels says.

The PTNA wants the government to examine alternatives aimed at resolving Treaty issues with Treaty Indian nations, including FMC, and a review of federal laws for the purpose of bringing federal laws in line with Indian treaties, said Blood.