Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 24/00) - The Metis Nation of the Northwest Territories may be dissolved, if the membership south of Great Slave Lake get their way.

Metis presidents from Hay River, Fort Smith and Fort Resolution are calling for the nation to be disbanded and its assets split, due to a rift between Metis without status and Metis who have accepted treaty under Bill C-31.

The southern locals argue that Metis who have taken treaty cannot be voting members of both the Metis Nation and a band.

Metis Nation president George Morin is faced with trying to pull the two sides together.

"The way the locals have put it, in the form of a resolution, is that they request the dissolvement of the Metis Nation," Morin said. "However, I think what has to take place is a full discussion of what has gone on here."

Morin says the nation has undergone little change since its inception and he believes change might benefit the group.

"The structure, as it is, has been the same with few changes since the 1970s and basically, we have to look at what changes have to be made in order to bring the Metis people together."

Under the Indian Act there is no definition or recognition for the Metis people and Morin blames the federal government for the division within the ranks of the nation.

"The root of the problem is the federal government and how they deal with Metis," he said, adding that the constitution fails to define rights of Metis people as separate from aboriginal Canadians.

Morin said the membership should choose their own definition and destiny without government input or influence.

"We are prepared to define ourselves -- we will not give that away, that's our inherent right to define who we are," Morin said.

The southern Metis locals say they need to define the membership, in part, to establish firm numbers so they can negotiate their own treaty, and obtain funding for social programs. Morin agrees that this is a necessary step in the negotiation process.

For now, Morin said the southern locals have called for the establishment of a dispute resolution process. This will include a board of five impartial members.

The decision to dissolve the membership can only be made at an annual general meeting or annual general assembly, but Morin said it will take his office some time to get organized for the meeting.

"I'm looking at further down the road, because in the event of the dissolvement of the nation, we have to ensure that all the assets and liabilities are accounted for," he said.

Clem Paul is president of the North Slave Metis Alliance. He says the internal squabbling caused his group to split away from the Metis Nation.

"We left the Metis Nation in 1990," Paul said. "There was a little too much infighting and a lack of leadership.

"We wanted more autonomy for ourselves and they were constantly trying to interrupt our affairs, always meddling, all kinds of things like that," he said.

Paul disagrees with the membership issue that has been raised in the south.

"If a person is a Metis and grew up a Metis, they're still a Metis, whether they have a status Indian card or not," he said. "In this region, for example, Metis people were offered to sign treaty.

"Some of them took treaty and some of them didn't, but it didn't turn them into Indians," he said. "It just gave them some rights and benefits."

The Metis need to pull together, Paul said, and work together to accomplish the greater good for the Nation as a whole.

"The Metis Nation is supposed to be a nation; with land, culture, heritage and here we are 25 years after it was formed and they are still trying to define themselves," he said. "The sadder part about it is, they are changing who is a Metis from government policy."

"Government policy should be changing as a result of their actions."