Published:
Canadian taxpayers are being asked for millions of dollars worth of bullets and fishing line, claimed by 14 Western Indian bands under the arcane terms of a 106-year-old treaty they say were never honoured by the federal government.
Christopher Devlin, the lawyer for Driftpile First Nation in northern
"These were economic benefits that were to go on in perpetuity ... from 1899," said Mr. Devlin. "It was a guarantee of their ability to make a living; it was an obligation, right there in black-and-white in the treaty? And the government did not deliver on its obligations."
Treaty 8, negotiated with Indian bands across northern Saskatchewan, Alberta and northeast B.C., includes clauses awarding chiefs and band members farming tools, seed and livestock "and for such Bands as prefer to continue hunting and fishing, as much ammunition and twine for making nets annually as will amount in value to one dollar per head of the families so engaged in hunting and fishing."
According to Mr. Devlin and the Driftpile First Nation,
And now, Mr. Devlin said they are not going to settle for back payment in the form of bales of twine and boxes of bullets -- they are seeking financial compensation. "This is not about pulling up to the reserve with a truckload of bullets or twine and saying: 'Sorry,'" he said.
"These people lost the ability to make a living, to support themselves, for several decades. How do you put a dollar value on that?"
The band, located near High Prairie, Alta., has not named a figure in their claim, but two similar claims by other Indian bands were settled in the 1970s, for a total of nearly $280,000.
Although Ottawa's obligations under the treaty involve relatively trifling amounts -- one clause calls for amounts "to be paid to the said Indians in cash ... to each Chief twenty-five dollars" -- when inflation is taken into account, the figures could rise into hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.
"Potentially, we're talking about a pretty large sum here," Mr. Devlin said. "But it's the cost of
Margot Geduld, a spokeswoman for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, could not comment specifically on the Driftpile claim but said each of the 14 "ammunition and twine" claims were being considered "on their own merits."
"These claims deal with events that go back a long time -- historical events in some cases that happened more than 100 years ago," she said. "It requires a lot of research and analysis ... some take longer than others."
The Driftpile reserve has a population of more than 2,000 people, but in 1899 there were only about 200 members of the band.
Adjusted for inflation, $1 per head for fishing line and bullets for Driftpile would have cost the government $4,431.12 in 2006 money.
The natives claim they were not paid the benefit for 53 years, which would drive the cost of paying it retroactively to more than $200,000.
Rose Laboucan, the chief of Driftpile First Nation, said that figure is rising every year. "In the end it's going to cost them a lot more than if they had done what they promised they would in the first place," she said. "The longer they wait, the more it's going to cost."
Chief Laboucan said the claim is mired in the federal bureaucracy and she has made little headway in moving the decade-old process forward.
"I don't think we're being unreasonable," she said. "I think we've been very reasonable: we've been waiting a hell of a long time for this treaty benefit. I mean, it's there in black and white: what's their problem?"