Treaty Leaves Rank and File Out

By Ben Meisner

It doesn’t make good sense to hold a party before you have played the game and that is what took place with the signing of the Lheidli T’enneh treaty. On hand for the not so official signing was the Premier of the province, the Federal Minister of Indian Affairs, along with various Chiefs from across the province. It truly was a case of too many Chiefs and not enough Indians, those people who ultimately would call the shot as to whether the treaty passed or not.

We seem to have forgotten the near miss that took place in the Nisgaa treaty where it looked like it was heading for the tube, when at the last moment it was saved by handing out some new found money to the rank and file of the reserve.

Until we are prepared to deal with the individual and certainly much more than asking them to vote on something that has already been decided on, we will have problems.

I have long held to the belief that we must finally come to grips with how we are going to make amends to the native population of BC.

What is so wrong with striking a deal with each and every person who has a land claim, why are we now settling land claims in which, when finished essentially place the rank and file members in the same position that existed before their approval?  The money must go to the individual band member; they also must have the right to own their own home, and to make their own decisions on the fate of their families, free of outside interference. We constantly suggest that the native population is somehow beneath our statute without ever looking at the real problem.

The argument that somehow if you give a family money it will all be spent and they will be back to where they started from cannot be proven and until we have tried to give these people equal opportunity, don’t be surprised when they turn down yet another treaty.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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