Unsettled times

Page 4

They came, they saw, the conquered.

Boy, did they conquer!

And we're still trying to clean up the mess.

But until Dances With Wolves Native people were most often treated by Hollywood as hostiles standing in the way of progress of peace-loving settlers.

Two thumbs up to Kevin Costner, Graham Greene, Tantoo Cardinal, Doris Leader Charge and the Lakoda Sioux people for producing a movie that warmed the hearts of Natives and non-Natives alike.

Congratulations on your seven Oscars!

Otherwise in these parts March was a rather unsettling month for Native people.

It started with the new infamous decision by Justice Allan McEachern, who swiftly shot down the claim by the Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en to a large chunk of their aboriginal homeland in northwestern B.C.

They lost any claim to the land after non-Natives moved in and the clock can't be turned back he in effect said in his brutal ruling, which stunned Natives.

The Assembly of First Nations has correctly described it as a "gross and arrogant miscarriage of justice. This decision is so demeaning it is breathtaking."

McEachern fingered the wrong people as trespassers.

Not too long after his decision Max Yalden of the Canadian Human Rights Commission repeated his long-standing position that Canada's treatment of Native people is still No. 1 on the list of human rights violations.

"The system suffers from the fundamental weakness that government is judge and advocate all rolled into one," he said.

Milton Born With A Tooth was a victim of that system in Lethbridge Monday.

"That hard-line approach by the government will certainly backfire.

Mr. Justice Laurie MacLean, who is charged with carrying out the government's laws, displayed insensitivity in his courtroom, bashing Peigan culture.

He then threw out the tired refrain to protesters in his courtroom they should direct their energy to "abiding by the rule of law."

The issue with Born With A Tooth, like the Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en Indians, was trespassing by non-Natives. When he fired his shots, he was protecting the sovereignty of Peigan Nation, which the judge conveniently ignored.

The Indian Act need to be scrapped and the sovereignty of Indian and Metis lands entrenched in the Constitution so judges like MacLean can't hide behind legal technicalities.

As Quebec Native Affairs Minister John Ciaccia so aptly observed in a letter to Oka Mayor Jean Ouellette before the Oka crisis. "I am aware the law is on your sidebut I believe the situation goes beyond strict legality. Sometimes the law is an ass. And if that is the case, elected officials must not hide behind the law but act generously and responsible.