Dehcho standing down on fight for complete land control

CBC News, Friday, June 29, 2007 -- Delegates attending the Dehcho First Nations' annual assembly in Fort Simpson, N.W.T., this week appeared to be backing off the idea of fighting with Ottawa for complete control of their entire region.

Most delegates voted Thursday to direct their negotiating team to continue exploring land selection — that is, choosing pieces of land to control — in land-claims talks with the federal government. Only two members, including Wrigley elder Gabe Hardisty, voted against that motion.

"We don't need land selection. We're the ones [who] own the land," Hardisty said Thursday.

He said he doesn't want to give future generations "something that in the future they turn around and [say], 'Why did you agree to this?'"

Even most of the delegates who voted in favour of continuing land selection talks weren't eager about the idea.

"Right straight to the point: it's a waste of our time, waste of our money, waste [of] time of Canada and the taxpayers' money," said Jerry Antoine, a former Dehcho chief.

The Dehcho First Nations, representing 10 communities in the southwest region of the Northwest Territories, is the only aboriginal organization without a land-claim agreement along the route of the proposed 1,200-kilometre Mackenzie Valley pipeline.

The group has struggled with the federal government in land-claims talks over several issues, the biggest one being the Dehcho's land-use plan which members approved at its assembly last year. The proposed plan calls for 60 per cent of their land to be protected from industrial development. However, Ottawa refused to accept the plan as is, arguing it protects too much land.

Dehcho negotiator Chris Reid warned delegates that the federal government has clearly stated that the Dehcho must either negotiate within the framework of land selection, or not negotiate at all.

If the Dehcho wanted to move land-claim talks onto their terms, they would have to consider drastic action, Reid said.

"You're going to have to do stuff that would really get in the federal government's face, and get in the face of big business, and stand up to them and say, 'No Dehcho land will be used for industrial development.'"

Delegates will meet again in the winter to review an agreement in principle, if negotiators have one ready by then.

For more information visit http://www.dehchofirstnations.com/press.htm