Arthur Milnes
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 22/99) - The chairperson of the Sahtu Secretariat Inc. (SSI) is denying accusations that she and the region's grand chief acted alone in calling for the resignation of Premier Jim Antoine and local MLA and cabinet minister Stephen Kakfwi in a Feb. 12 statement.

"I'm following through with a motion passed by the Sahtu Secretariat board...in Norman Wells (two weeks ago)," SSI chair Ruby McDonald said Thursday. "We're not shooting from the hip...Their (the board's) direction was to do that very thing and address oil and gas."

McDonald and Sahtu Dene Council Grand Chief Raymond Taniton had called for Antoine and Kakfwi's resignation, saying recent calls for and discussions about the NWT assuming oil, gas and mineral rights from Ottawa violated aboriginal land claims and self-government talks.

The matter came to a head, the pair said, after Kakfwi and Antoine travelled to Calgary two weeks ago for talks with leaders in the oil and gas industry.

"Administration over oil, gas and minerals is fundamental to every land-claims agreement and is constitutionally entrenched," McDonald said.

She later produced a copy of a letter her group sent to the premier, dated Feb. 11, which expressed SSI's concerns about his call to have the mineral rights transferred from Ottawa, made during his recent televised premier's address. In the speech, Antoine said he intends to negotiate the issue with Ottawa in the coming months. He did, however, say this would be done in "partnership" with aboriginal governments.

McDonald's letter contains a motion, passed unanimously by SSI board members on Feb. 9, which asks the premier and Kakfwi to refrain from any action that would appear to be an attempt by the GNWT to gain control over these rights from Ottawa.

The motion makes no mention of resignations.

On Monday, Kakfwi said McDonald and Taniton had acted without the support of area chiefs.

"Most of the Sahtu chiefs I talked to said they didn't even know about it (the call for resignations)," Kakfwi said. "Why we have these two people (sending out a statement) who never consulted with their communities is a big question."

In Colville Lake, Behdzi Ahda First Nation Chief Richard Kochon backed up Kakfwi's version of events.

"We knew nothing about it," he said. "They were using our name."

K'asho Got'inc Chief Charlie Barnaby sent out a statement Friday apologizing to Antoine and Kakfwi for the resignation call. He said his community's land corporations and council were not consulted before McDonald and Taniton sent out their release.

In Norman Wells, Mayor Frank Pope said his council has written to the premier expressing its support at his efforts to increase NWT's control over resources.

Kakfwi said it has never been the government's intention to embark on such talks with Ottawa alone.

"He (Antoine) is saying ownership and management of natural resources should be shared with the aboriginal peoples and the GNWT," Kakfwi said.

Kakfwi held meetings with Sahtu leaders last week. McDonald says she met him and demanded a public meeting be called to air the issue.

Kakfwi says he did in fact host a public meeting in Deline Wednesday night.

"They (the acting chief and council) support what we're doing," he said Friday, adding McDonald did not attend the public meeting.

On Tuesday, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Minister Jane Stewart confirmed she and Antoine have had general talks about devolution of powers from Ottawa. Without referring to the Sahtu situation, Stewart said part of her job is to make sure the process works to the satisfaction of all -- aboriginal, GNWT and others -- involved.