Treaty chiefs want to replace AFN

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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.

"Treaties are a signed agreement. We need a process to put us one-to-one with the Crown to take a look at how the relationship is going to work."

Many treaty chiefs say the assembly does not adequately represent them. Only about 200 of the AFN"s 600 chiefs are treaty Indians.

"Over the years, they have always had problems addressing treaty issues from a treaty perspective," Powderface said.

Treaty concerns were never adequately represented by the assembly during the constitutional negotiations in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he said. The assembly also ignored treaty concerns during the First Ministers conferences that followed repatriation in 1982.

The AFN's tactics during the Charlottetown Accord negotiations last year proved, however, to be the last straw.

"The process that the AFN agreed to totally went against our treaty process," said Powderface.

The assembly's policy to negotiate deals for self-government with the Canadian government is redundant for treaty Indians because that right is already entrenched in the treaties, he said.

"Our treaties are protected by international law, which recognizes self-determination. Our treaties include self-determination. We had an agreement with the Crown at the time. We are both sovereign nations."

Treaty chiefs met in Winnipeg following the death of the accord last October, resigned to create a new process to enforce their rights, Powderface said. The conference at the T'suu Tina reserve is the follow-up to the October meeting.

Only 23 chiefs and 50 delegates were at the reserve on April 7, the second day of the conference, although more were scheduled to arrive. Bad weather delayed the arrival of some chiefs.

"But it's not a question of numbers," Powderface said. "It's a question of representation. There will be some representation of different regions."

Some chiefs had driven in from as far away as Manitoba and the Northwest Territories to attend the meeting. They spent the first day discussing the mandate of the new council and the direction that they would like it to take.

The second day was spent discussing the council's structure and representation, Powderface said. The council's power of authority will be worked out later. The chiefs are primarily concerned with outlining the council's philosophy.

"The interest is there, to set up a separate treaty organization," he said. "I hope that we will have sufficient directions as to where this council will go."