Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 14/99) - Akaitcho Treaty 8 chiefs announced last Monday that they are stepping away from negotiations with the federal government.

They are also actively enforcing a moratorium announced two months ago that prohibits any new development on their lands.

"If anyone wants to come into Deninu Kue territory, they will have to come through us. I will protect my territory in any way I can," stated Deninu Kue Chief Don Balsillie.

Faced with what the Dene chiefs call "federal government stall tactics," a framework agreement that was years in the making and more than 90 per cent complete is on hold until the federal government drops its demands to include the government of the Northwest Territories as a full partner.

"The only thing we don't agree with is having the GNWT at the table, because they are the administrative arm of the federal government," Yellowknives Ndilo Chief Fred Sangris said.

"In areas of treaties, we need only Crown officials and First Nations in order to work out what was supposed to be worked out 100 years ago. Today, the federal government is imposing the GNWT on us and we view them as working in bad faith because of that."

The Akaitcho Treaty 8 Territory is 480,000 square kilometres and home to more than 2,500 Dene residents. There are three operating mines in the area: BHP, Giant and Con.

Treaty 8 chief negotiator Sharon Venne is still talking with Department Indian Affairs and Northern Developments, but hit loggerheads at a meeting last week because the federal government can't settle on a negotiator.

The Treaty 8 Tribal Council say the federal government has changed negotiators five times in five years while DIAND disagrees, saying they've changed negotiators only twice.

Either way, the disagreement appears to be a sign that both parties have a long road ahead of them.

"The chiefs have said they want to be involved in all aspects of land development," Venne said.

"They're concerned about the land and concerned about the fact the Dene are being dragged around in this process. As time passes (on the treaty issue), land is being destroyed, which is why they enacted the moratorium."

DIAND's acting Akaitcho Territory senior negotiator Pierre Laporte said the framework agreement, once completed, is a road map for the final treaty process.

"There's a lot of issues involved here. There's communication issues and we're looking at different approaches to the process. These are very difficult things to bridge," Laporte said.

"We are talking with them and we are exploring their concerns about lands and resources. They are very adamant that the GNWT not sign (the framework agreement). Maybe if they provide language that is acceptable to us, language that allows us to address this issue, there will be a breakthrough."

DIAND regional director general Bob Overvold said the moratorium is something they're taking very seriously, but that doesn't mean they're going to stop issuing land use permits.

"The message we're giving is that we believe the best way to resolve our differences when it comes to land and resource management is at the table -- that's why we're negotiating land claims," Overvold said.

"I've told them before, we can't break the law. The law requires us to manage land and resources. Because of existing law we don't have any options, we have to regulate. We have to issue (land use permits)."

On the issue of including the GNWT in the framework process, Laporte called it a "practical step" in governance matters.

"The whole focus of the negotiations is to deal with practical ways to implement the treaty," Laporte said.

"To do that, you can't ignore one of the major players in the NWT. We have offices in six communities, the GNWT has offices in all the communities. To try to say they can't be a player in governance matters is not that practical."