Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 23/00) - The newly-elected president of the South Slave Metis Tribal Council, Rob Tordiff, said the lands selected by the Salt River First Nation will exclude anyone but Treaty Indians, which goes against the philosophy the people have tried to maintain.

"Reserve lands are for the exclusive use of the band members, so obviously things won't be the same," Tordiff said. "The Dene and Metis of the Northwest Territories have always been free; we've always shared land and lived together.

"I'm just curious if the elders have changed their ideology on that."

He hopes that the issue can be settled with a peace and friendship treaty, but needs to have the interests of his people protected.

"We don't want to stand in the way of their right to choose to go to the reserve creation, but we do need some guarantee that our rights are protected," he said.

Tordiff said that the South Slave Metis will also be selecting land during their negotiations and he feels that reciprocal rights are in everyone's best interest.

"For an individual like John, this is a serious concern for him in terms of his livelihood," he said.

"There may be assurances by the current chief and council, but if they are looking at logging or a tourism outfit they run into a situation where his trapping is no longer compatible with what they want to establish on their land."

Tordiff is also concerned that through this process, the Metis are not able to pass their traplines on through their family and that the number of Metis-run traplines selected by the Salt River First Nation seems disproportionate.

"They do raise an eyebrow, because the majority of lands selected outside the community, impact on Metis traplines," he said.