by Chris Meyers Almey
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 12/97) - South Slave Metis have set a precedent in Canada by convincing the federal cabinet to negotiate their land claim.

In a press conference in Yellowknife Thursday, South Slave Tribal Council chief negotiator George Kurszewski said the agreement is unique for Metis because "you don't see this anywhere else in Canada."

Metis and Dene land claims elsewhere in the Western Arctic have been settled jointly.

Now the South Slave Metis and Treaty 8 Dene will be making separate claims for the same land.

But Kurszewski said he didn't see how there would be any difficulty because the Metis and Dene have the same interests in sharing the land.

Neither Metis nor Dene have isolated lands from each other and they will be able to work out overlapping land claims and harvesting rights, he said.

The federal and territorial governments and South Slave Metis signed a framework agreement in August last year, committing the parties to negotiate an agreement in principle and a final claim agreement.

Subjects for consideration include eligibility of Metis people, land and water, economic benefits, programs and services and procedural matters.

Once the agreement- in-principle has been signed -- hopefully within a year -- negotiations for Metis self-government will be addressed in the second phase of the final agreement negotiations.

"We have finally reached the point where we are starting to see our objectives can be reached fairly shortly," said Kurszewski. He added he wants to "keep the momentum rolling smoothly" to reach a conclusion sometime before 2000.

It is important that selection of lands be done early because there is pressure to move forward on land claims settlement, he said.

He said they would work with Treaty 8 Dene to resolve any concerns.