Derek Neary
Northern News Services

FORT SIMPSON (Sep 24/99) - A federal negotiations team was in the Deh Cho last week to discuss precursory self-government negotiations issues with the Deh Cho First Nations' (DCFN) leadership.

The DIAND officials, including negotiator Robin Aitken, made a presentation on "interim measures" as defined by the government on Friday and Saturday morning. This included issues such as land withdrawal and management arrangements for resources.

DCFN Grand Chief Michael Nadli said the federal proposal seems "workable, but obviously there's room for improvement."

The DCFN would prefer a complete land withdrawal "to protect all of our land," he added.

The territorial government had representatives present as observers during the meeting between the federal negotiations team and the DCFN. However, the GNWT's overall role still hasn't been decided in the bigger picture, according to Nadli.

There were no delegates from Fort Liard, as observers or otherwise, during the workshop. Nadli admitted there is concern over their absence.

"At some point they have to define how they fit into the Deh Cho Process," he said.

The DCFN has planned a leadership assembly for Oct. 4 on the Hay River Reserve to further discuss all of these matters.

Aitken said there will be an effort on DIAND's part to work within the federal legislative framework, but there's also room for flexibility.

"Unless we can come to an agreement on interim measures, we're not going to be talking, so we're taking it very seriously for that reason," he explained.

Among the other issues discussed were a framework agreement, expectations of the negotiations process and funding for the negotiations. Regarding funding, the DCFN has put forth conditions to the federal government that haven't existed in other negotiations processes, Aitken acknowledged.

"It has been a struggle regarding funding," he said.

"But we hope the options presented this week will be taken seriously and we can come to some sort of agreement on them."

Nadli said he thinks the DIAND officials probably left with a much greater appreciation for the vastness of the Deh Cho region after they had to drive across much of it.

The federal negotiators arrived at the tail end of a DCFN leadership and elders workshop in Fort Simpson focusing on negotiations preparedness planning, interim land protection and resource management.

Aitken, 36, was born in Glasgow, Scotland and graduated from the University of Waterloo with a Environmental Studies degree in 1985. Soon thereafter, he was hired as a lands identification officer for the Dene-Metis Comprehensive Claim. He later became the lands selection co-ordinator, and as such he became familiar with many of the issues and the people of the NWT.

"It's an experience you can never replace," he said.

However, it wasn't a particularly congenial atmosphere that he recalls from those days, as the claim eventually failed.

"It was a very emotional time, a very negative time for everyone in the valley," he said. "You can still feel it."

Aitken went on to work for the GNWT as a policy analyst for RWED and then as manager of land claims, allowing him to get involved with the Dogrib claim for a few years. This gave him a greater appreciation of how intimately First Nations peoples know the land and just how much of it they use.

"I didn't realize how much I was going to be learning," he recalled. "As a federal negotiator, you need to know that. You need to understand the other side.

He will report to the director general of comprehensive claims in Ottawa throughout the Deh Cho negotiations process.