Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 04/98) - Stimulating individual initiative, education, financial accountability and healing popped up repeatedly as issues at a recent Gwich'in Tribal Council all candidates meeting.

Gwich'in beneficiaries worldwide can vote in the GTC election Sept. 25.

"I would demand accountability," said presidential candidate James Ross. "I would put salaries to positions and publish the names in a list," he told the 20 or so Gwich'in beneficiaries in the audience while he held up a copy of News/North, a paper which published many GNWT government officials' salaries earlier this year.

Ross said the Gwich'in land claim is "a tool to work with, not (a blueprint for) a 20th century Gwich'in welfare system. Start the businesses."

For education, the former Gwich'in chief said the land claim binds government for more funding than it is currently supplying but, "no one has gone to the federal government."

On social problems, Ross lamented too many "successful suicides" and record unemployment in Gwich'in communities.

The second candidate, current president Richard Nerysoo, did not attend the Inuvik forum.

For vice-president, candidates Richard Wilson, Louise Lennie, Johnny Kaye and Barry Greenland gave presentations and answered questions while M. Winnie Blake and Ernest Firth did not show up.

Wilson, who stressed he would not make promises, said he knows tough times.

"I know what it feels like to be down there -- people staggering around. I was there drunk in the bush. I respect them. They're just as equal as me. Everybody's equal."

One solution he offered was how, "it takes individual initiative. I won't do it for you. I'll help you but you've got to do it yourself."

Wilson, who has 20 years of Fort McPherson hamlet political experience, stressed communication is important for Gwich'in in Aklavik, Fort McPherson, Tsiigehtchic and Inuvik so people can work together.

"I'm easy to get along with. I'll hash it out. That's the way I work," he said.

Lennie is a single mother still raising some of her seven children in Tsiigehtchic.

Her interest in politics and the tribal council stems from wanting to ensure her children are looked after when she's gone.

"I don't believe business and politics go hand in hand. I don't believe it's right for people on the Gwich'in Tribal Council to sit on boards of businesses," she said.

"The (Gwich'in Tribal Council's) development corporation has to be looked at."

She suggested phone calls from Gwich'in leadership to encourage students attending university in the south.

Lennie also said she "hates" the word healing, preferring instead to call it a growing experience.

Kaye achieved his education on the land.

"I can go to Old Crow by myself and there are six different ways I know I can get there," he said.

"Today, people could look at me and say I'm uneducated but don't let that fool you. I do a lot of reading, listening to the radio and talking with elders and youth. God didn't give me two ears for decoration," he told the meeting.

"I learned that in a treatment centre."

Kaye said the GTC needs to focus on education and possibly send meat packages to students in the south.

The GTC should also encourage businesses to hire Gwich'in over other candidates they would have hired on merit alone.

Greenland, 27, has spent the past four years as the youngest sub-chief at the Inuvik Native Band.

He said he is frustrated with how, for many, Gwich'in training seems endless.

"How much training do you have to take to get to that pedestal?" Greenland asked.

Healing, for Greenland, is "just a word and a lot of people are scared of that word."

"They need to make that first step to go ahead and apply in to a program. The second step is to work with your family. Family dynamics are very important."

Many who listened to the candidates said one big bonus is how the strength of the candidates will make their voting decision difficult.