Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Colville Lake (Feb 11/02) - A feud in one of this territory's smallest communities is now before the Federal Court of Canada.

Deposed Colville Lake Chief Dora Duncan and her daughter, ousted Councilor Jennifer Duncan, have asked a Federal Court trial division judge in Yellowknife to rule their Nov. 23 removal from office by a band council resolution was illegitimate, according to court documents filed on Dec. 14.

Names as defendants in the action are the Behdzi Ahda First Nation, the Settlement Corporation of Colville Lake, Sharon Tutcho, interim chief, and councillors J.B. Gully, Roland Codzi and Sarah Kochon.

No hearing date has been set yet.

Neither the Duncans or the band wanted to comment.

The case hinges on the legitimacy of three meetings the band council used to base a Nov. 19 resolution which ousted the Duncans -- a move supported by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

The resolution did not indicate the dates of the missed meetings.

In their affidavits, the Duncans accuse the band of pushing them out by setting up meetings on the fly without proper advance notice.

They refer to the territorie's Settlement Act and the federal Indian Act setting the procedure for calling the meetings.

"I believe the Nov. 10, 2001, motion to remove me as chief and Jennifer Duncan as councillor is a nullity," stated Dora Duncan's affidavit.

Both the federal Department of Indian and Northern Affairs and the territorial Department of Municipal and Community Affairs have washed their hands of the conflict.

George Cleary, director of Indian and Inuit services for DIAND, said the band makes its own decisions. Shaun Dean, spokesperson for MACA, said the department would not comment on an issue before the courts.

The story of former chief Dora Duncan, former councillor Jennifer Duncan and the Behdzi Ahda First Nation has

played out as a tangled political soap opera in a tight-knit community of under 100 where blood ties and politics can't help but mix.

The versions vary depending which side tells this story. It is either about a chief who tried to change things too fast or a family that, after two decades in power, didn't want to give it up to a woman.

It all began last Aug. 8, when Dora Duncan beat 16-year Chief Richard Kochon by a vote of 35-to-28.

On Aug. 13, during the new band's first public meeting, Kochon's brother and band manager, Joseph Kochon, quit or left on a spur-of-the- moment 30-day leave of absence -- depending on who tells the story.

Kochon has maintained he never quit

But the Duncans submitted into the court record what seems to be a resignation letter written by Kochon, dated Aug. 15 and titled "Reason for walking out."

The dispute between Kochon and Dora rose from her attempts to set the band's house in order. She accused the Kochons of financial corruption and took the band's books to the RCMP.

Band employees and some councillors accused her of being pugnacious and patronizing.

From here things get tangled in a dispute that involved jurisdictional ballets by DIAND and MACA, an appearance by Premier Stephen Kakfwi, the NWT Status of Women Council and the Dene Nation.

The Dene Nation tried to set up a healing workshop for the community in November but a circulated petition to oust Dora and Jennifer Duncan short-circuited the attempt, said Dene Nation National Chief Bill Erasmus.