APTN National News
OTTAWA–Many First Nations chiefs and delegates at the Crown-First Nations Gathering in Ottawa expressed disappointment with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s speech, even as some tried to find some hope buried in the words he delivered.
Many chiefs and delegates were looking for signals in the prime minister’s speech for a new approach by his government toward First Nations issues.
Harper also met with a small delegation of chiefs Monday evening who relayed some of the pressing issues facing their communities and the First Nations leaders were hoping the prime minister would respond in his speech.
The prime minister also stayed longer than initially believed at the meeting and was said to be meeting with delegates late into the afternoon.
For many, however, the speech felt short of expectations.
Michael Bignell, a band councillor from the Opaskwayak First Nation in northern Manitoba, said he was disappointed the prime minister made no major announcement.
“I was hoping for something of an announcement, of anything, like education,” said Bignell, who watched the speech on a video screen in the overflow room at the Chateau Laurier.
Madawaska Maliseet Chief Joanna Bernard, from New Brunswick, said the speech fell flat.
“I was not impressed. He didn’t bring anything, hope or inspiration from the future,” said Bernard, who also watched the events from the luxury hotel next to Parliament Hill.
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Derek Nepinak, however, said he saw gleams of possibility in Harper’s words.
Nepinak said Harper’s comments on slowly eroding the Indian Act, instead of abolishing it, fit with his organizations call for creating a process, like a larger meeting involving premiers, to begin slowly changing the whole system.
“We are not asking for a rewrite (of the Indian Act), we are asking for something new,” said Nepinak, who was in Victoria Hall to hear the prime minister’s chief first-hand. “First Nations are fully willing to participate and take on all responsibilities to that end. ”
Ontario’s Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Stan Beardy, however, said he came away disappointed after hearing Harper’s speech.
“We had hoped there would be an acknowledgment that these are our lands and that we have a right to benefit in jobs and training and economic benefits and job creation,” said Beardy. “Also, there is no real mention of how you are going to deal with the immediate challenges like housing.”
Canupawakpa Dakota First Nation Chief Frank Brown said he didn’t really expect much from the speech and the prime minister met his expectations.
“There was nothing different, nothing,” said Brown, whose Dakota community is in Manitoba. “He’s tried to announce to the world that, ‘I’m dealing with First Nations.'”
Brown said his community will continue to try to generate their own revenues, outside of government funds.
Brown’s community has already set up a smoke shack, which has been raided a couple of times already by Manitoba Ministry of Finance authorities. Brown said there are also plans to expand a fledgling casino to include VLTs.
“We are asserting and declaring our rights,” said Brown, who was in the main hall for the meetings. “We want to generate revenue and create revenue to sustain us without federal funds and that is exactly what we are doing.”
I suggest that our Chiefs very strongly demand that the Provincial Government remove itself from the Casino Operation on Indian Reserves, especially in BC — Its Federal Jurisdiction and its high-time the Fed’s backed up First Nations sovereignty by enabling First Nations Jurisdiction in respect of Gambling, especially on-Reserve. By all means, its an Aboriginal Right and to be able to regulate high-stakes gambling must be a natural progression of that right. The courts have made their decisions but with Federal enabling legislation, based on the United Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, we can do this. This opportunity for change is blowing the winds of self-determination so that the feds can walk away from their fiduciary obligations such as housing and education, Our Reserves, Our Rights, Our Jurisdiction. On Reserve Casino revenue belongs to the First Nations, the provincial government has no business in interfering with that.