Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 08/02) - Francois Paulette, the Dene activist who triggered a landmark court decision that set the stage for treaty entitlement negotiations in 1973, is still fighting for his people.

He was recently featured in a Telefilm short called Honour of the Crown, which traces his journey as chief negotiator for the Smith Landing First Nation.

News/North: What are you up to these days?

Francois Paulette: I'm helping other First Nations get their processes working. I'm also working with my band to develop cultural and language programs in Smith's Landing.

Culture and language are the foundation of culture.

N/N: When did you get involved in the aboriginal political movement?

FP: I've been involved since 1969.

N/N: And you haven't burned out?

FP: I got burned out as a chief. I was chief for 10 years and vice-chief of the Dene Nation.

N/N: And you've stayed politically active?

FP: Well there is a reality and an ideology. In my ideology I found myself travelling to Geneva on the international circuit and across Canada in the 1970s talking about hunting and aboriginal rights and nothing was happening in my backyard.

Those were the Berger and Paulette case days.

I continued to take things on the international forum but in the early 1980s I began to reclaim my identity. I had to physically make that move.

In 1983 I made a move back to my community of Fort Fitzgerald and there was nothing going on there. The community was forcibly relocated and I remember my wife and I staying in a tent for one year. Then we built our home, starting right from scratch.

That move was the turning point. It was no more ideology but reality. I had to do it. I didn't take government money, it was sweat and work.

I have a strong belief in my forefathers and my spiritual connection to the land, to a way of praying that existed before European contact.

N/N: In your political struggles did you ever just get angry and say to hell with it when facing the countless obstacles along the way?

FP: think I got angry at the Dene-Metis settlement because we had included the treaty discussions and the feds just gave it lip-service.

N/N: Akaitcho Chief Richard Edjericon has said he doesn't want to take the comprehensive land claim route because he doesn't want to extinguish title. Your community took that route and so have others.

FP: First we never broke away from Akaitcho; the protocol of 1994 clause said we were free to do that, go after our own claim; there was nothing unusual in that.

And with extinguishment, that's Canada's problem, it's their policy, the Paulette case proved we weren't extinguished. Canada in time will change.

It's Canada's policy right now and if we take them to court it's their problem.

For those reasons groups are forced to take the extinguishment. One day someone will pick it up and take it to court and Canada will exonerate itself.

N/N: Do you think the perspective of First Nations in this country has changed in the last 30 years?

FP: I think that as we make milestones like the recent Benoit decision it will get better.

Those are our rights that existed and unfortunately we have to argue our existence in court.

The sad thing about it is that if a same-sex marriage goes through the court systems then they put it into legislation, but when an Indian wins, Canada does not want to recognize it.

We are moving but not slowly. It's been only 30 years since the prime minister acknowledged treaty rights.

But Canada still does not want to negotiate. The court is supposed to be the only neutral, objective forum that is inside of Canada. We can't go to politicians because the don't want to negotiate. We have to prove our existence.

The courts are getting more educated. Judges are now referencing other cases. The list of references just get bigger.

N/N: So what was your involvement in the Benoit case?

FP: I spent two days on the stand and enjoyed every minute of it because I enjoy sharing my history with other people.

I enjoy sharing the stories of my ancestors. My grandfather, his father were all leaders. Leadership is my inheritance.

N/N: Why the difference between the direct-action, physical-force tactic used on the East Coast, southern Ontario and in British Columbia and the way First Nations approach contentious issue here?

FP: In the early 1970s I was called a militant. I was called American Indian Movement, I was called Warrior Society, I was called anything to discredit my beliefs.

In the 1970s, Indians were regarded as the number one threat in Canada.

We now have to work at painting a new picture.

Today we would be called terrorists in our own land.

People go through a tendency of anger. You deal with it. In the 1970s, I was a walking bomb, but it's been over 27 years since I sobered up. I was in a residential school, faced racism and inequality.

You have to learn to assert your rights in a positive manner. You go up to the person and say, "This is what you are doing to me." You negotiate on principle and interest. I've taken courses in negotiating before at Harvard and I've learned the technique. As you get older you get better.

N/N: What are some of the issues you see First Nations have to tackle on the horizon?

FP: Our young people don't know where we've been in the '60s, '70s and '80s.

We need to educate our young people and our vision at the same time. We have to understand each other. It will work out as long as we're working, listening, tolerant, patient and communicate.

Colonization is with us and we have to decode. It takes work.

We have to go to white schools, do it at all levels. There is a Eurocentric mentality prevalent and we have to show it's not the only way. We have to continue working these differences out.