Yellowknife (Aug 21/06) - For Bill Erasmus, who earlier this month became the top chief in the Northwest Territories, there's still a ways to go before aboriginal people in the territories assert their rightful place in the Canadian mosaic.

"Unilateral decisions are not the way," said Erasmus who worries the Conservative government's mandate for the North won't include aboriginal input. "(Harper's) got to treat the north differently."

With seven groups in various stages of land claim settlements and self-government negotiations, Erasmus sees the transfer of land and resources from the federal to territorial government as premature.

"I personally think the GNWT and aboriginal leaders need to sit down and develop our own approach," he said in his Yellowknife office.

Calling the territorial government an instrument of colonialism, Erasmus envisions a day when both chiefs and MLAs sit in a revamped legislative assembly.

Erasmus called the 2005 Tlicho land claim and self-government deal a benchmark and believes the federal government must fulfill its obligation to aboriginal people by moving ahead with other land claim and self-government groups. The deal gave the Tlicho almost unprecedented control over 39,000 square kilometers of land in the North Slave.

"The Tlicho, the Gwich'in, the Sahtu, they can only do so much by themselves," he said.

Erasmus points back to 1990, when he contends Tom Siddon - then Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development - scuttled a deal that would have encompassed the entire Dene Nation in one comprehensive land claim and self-government deal.

"We were months away from a final deal with all of our people," he said. The discovery of diamonds drove the Mulroney Conservative government to walk away from the deal, he said.

In the aftermath, the Gwich'in, Sahtu and Tlicho settled their claims individually over the next 15 years. Erasmus insists the government is obliged to honour the Kelowna Accord, which saw the Paul Martin Liberal government agree to $5.1 billion in funding to improve the lives of aboriginal Canadians.

"If (Conservatives) don't honour that, how can they honour any other agreements?" he said.

"It got the support of all the premiers and we want to see that obligation fulfilled."

And Erasmus believes there should be a federal election called the issue.

When talk turns to the financial state of the Dene Nation, which $350,000 in debt, according to a 2004 public audit, Erasmus said a "recovery plan" is in place.

As well, the offices of the Assembly of First Nations and Dene Nation have been combined to streamline operations.