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UN official says Crown didn't understand indigenous peoples by Arthur Milnes
HAY RIVER RESERVE (Feb 20/98) - Non-indigenous people making treaties with the Dene lacked
an understanding of the fundamental importance of the indigenous
relationship with the land.
This is the view the UN's special rapporteur on treaties, agreements and
other constructive arrangements between indigenous people and state
governments, Miguel Alfonso-Martinez, says he has taken with him after
three days of discussions with native delegates at the Hay River Reserve
last week.
"Above all, there were very different interpretations of
the intentions for these (Dene) people," he told the Drum by phone from
Havana, Cuba, Monday night. "There was a lack of understanding by
non-indigenous people of the relationship between the people and the earth."
This was made to clear to the UN special rapporteur -- who
will be filing a report to the UN General Assembly this summer -- after
presentations by leaders, elders and other delegates from around the area
last week.
He had come to the Hay River Reserve after being approached
by former Deh Cho First Nations (DCFN) grand chief Gerald Antoine in
Switzerland last year. The visit was designed so that Alfonso-Martinez
could hear evidence on Treaty 8 from 1899 and Treaty 11 from 1921 between
the Crown and Northern aboriginal peoples.
"I want to tell you something from my heart," delegate Roy
Fabian said during last week's proceedings. "This land is alive and this
earth is our mother... All knowledge and skill come from the land...We need
the land to be Dene people."
DCFN Grand Chief Michael Nadli also briefed the visitor on
the Deh Cho Proposal.
"In a nut shell, we are proposing that our Dene form of
governance, which (in) good part we still practice, be recognized by the
federal and provincial governments of Canada, as the public government for
the Deh Cho territory," he said. "This is a government based on Dene laws
and customs. We have a ways to go to develop it to meet full, current
public requirements, but we feel strongly that this is the only way our
cultural and legal obligations, including treaty obligations, will be met;
and, that our rights will be respected."
Alfonso-Martinez also said he wanted to leave those at the
conference with another important message.
"The important thing is not to understand history but to
change it," he said.
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