Roberta Judas
From: leonlafferty [[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 6:52 PM To: [email protected]; 'Mark Cliffe-Phillips'; 'Boyd Warner'; 'Charlene Coe'; 'Charlie Football'; 'Charlie J. Nitsiza'; 'Claire Singer'; [email protected]; 'Duane Fleming'; 'eddie erasmus'; 'Glen MacKay'; [email protected]; 'Kris Johnson'; 'Mark Davy'; 'Nathan Richea'; [email protected]; 'Moggy, Derrick'; 'Rhonda Batchelor'; 'Rob Marshall'; [email protected]; [email protected]; 'Vern Christensen' Cc: 'Zabey Nevitt'; 'Kathleen Racher'; 'Roberta Judas'; 'Henry Gon'; 'Bill Enge'; 'Marc G. Whitford'; 'Juanita Robinson'; 'DCAB'; 'David Livingstone'; 'James Lawrance' Subject: RE: Water Licence Aplication for Review- Community of Gameti
Sorry, I was not able to get back to you earlier. That was a great answer and I having no doubt the NMSA will get what they want. You people have a good team there, and the difference with your organization now, compared to others, is that you are making and effort to work with others. I have to say that I am proud of my Metis ancestors; they had a big hand in all that you see around us. My ancestors took treaty and now I am treaty, and a Tlicho citizen. I respect what you are doing for the NSMA. I was just bugging you , because someone had said something about the NSMA, that I could not answer, and I knew if I asked the question, you could answer it, and it was better coming from your community. You did a good job in answering it. They also have the answer now, they are on the cc above, Masi
From: Sheryl Grieve [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: September 12, 2008 2:17 PM To: 'leonlafferty'; 'Mark Cliffe-Phillips'; 'Boyd Warner'; 'Charlene Coe'; 'Charlie Football'; 'Charlie J. Nitsiza'; 'Claire Singer'; [email protected]; 'Duane Fleming'; 'eddie erasmus'; 'Glen MacKay'; [email protected]; 'Kris Johnson'; 'Mark Davy'; 'Nathan Richea'; [email protected]; 'Moggy, Derrick'; 'Rhonda Batchelor'; 'Rob Marshall'; sealel@inac- ainc.gc.ca; [email protected]; 'Vern Christensen' Cc: 'Zabey Nevitt'; 'Kathleen Racher'; 'Roberta Judas'; 'Henry Gon'; 'Bill Enge'; 'Marc G. Whitford'; Juanita Robinson; 'DCAB'; 'David Livingstone'; 'James Lawrance' Subject: RE: Water Licence Aplication for Review- Community of Gameti
Hi Leon,
The North Slave Métis Community (defined culturally) traditionally occupies the territory between Great Slave lake and Great Bear Lake, from the Mackenzie River to Contwoyto Lake, as a core, but with wide usage of areas to from Invuik to Montreal, and Vancouver along traditional trade routes. We are those “half‐breeds” who have white relatives, but are not white, and have Dene relatives, but are not Dene. We like to think we are the best of both parent cultures, and strong like two People.
Our Métis ancestors established the first permanent structures and settlements at Mountain Island, Old Fort Island, Fort Resolution, Beaulieu Fort, Old Fort Providence, Fort Enterprise, Lac La Martre, and many others. Since then, colonial governments have invented the “Indian Act” to define, and control Indians, and to dispossess Métis. Using this racist and misguided piece of legislation, Government allocated most of the lands in and around our settlements (geographic communities) to Indian Bands, changed the names, and established municipal style governments. All this has been done without consultation with us.
Our community members continue to reside in all of our traditional settlements, now called Gameti, Wekwetii, Wati, Bechoko, Lutselke, Yellowknife, and in various other places. We reside in these communities to take advantage of medical, educational, and economic opportunities, but we reject any attempt by others to confine us to a small geographic area. The Metis are a highly mobile People who keep multiple residences, or move from one place to the other periodically, and make long journeys for traditional social, economic and cultural purposes. Unlike the Tlicho who practiced an annual migratory pattern, the Métis pattern sometimes extended over decades. We do not base our identity on a single location within our territory, but rather the entire territory where we continue to possess occupancy rights, and especially, our transportation rights over our traditional trade routes. We reject the attempts by Canada and 1 others to survey and define us out of existence. We are sorry that to hear that the Tlicho People had to agree to give up most of their traditional territory to obtain recognition of their rights in the remainder of their territory, but the North Slave Métis have not done that.
The assertion, and defense of our rights is meant in no way to detract from the rights of others.
Even though the current residents of the geographic community of Gameti have some obvious rights to be involved in deciding how to allocate the use of waters and disposal of wastes in close proximity to their current residences, which we do not dispute, our point is that the North Slave Métis, whether currently residing in Gameti or not, have existing aboriginal rights and titles to those same waters, and lands, that are protected by the constitution of Canada and can not be ignored. Now that the Tlicho People have obtained recognition of self‐government rights, and are operating institutions of Public Government, they are now responsible for consulting and accommodating the other Aboriginal People whose territory overlaps theirs. (see page 24 of the Tlicho Agreement).
The North Slave Métis also have Treaty rights in the vicinity of Gameti. In 1921, when Treaty 11 was negotiated at Fort Rae, there were about seventy five Métis families who participated. The other fifteen “old, respected, and even historic”. Metis families occupying the area were expected to receive Métis scrip. (H. A. Conroy, memorandum, 18 December 1920, PAC, RG 10, vol. 4042, file 336,877) I don’t know that they ever did, though….
At least three of the seven “chiefs” or “councilors” who did actually take treaty, along with Tlicho Chief Monfwi (Morphy) at Fort Rae on the 22 of August 1921, were Métis, including Josue Beaulieu of Lac la Martre, Old Man Germain of the Detchilaotte, Barren Land or Snare Lake Band, and Suzie the Old Prophet, from Yellowknife. (Fumealeau, 1944. As Long as This Land Shall Last.)
I know that the Government of Canada and the Northwest Territories tend to think of communities as places, but we represent a community of People. Places do not have needs, desires, dreams, or rights, and do not vote. Places do not use water. People do. We expect other Aboriginal Peoples, at least, to understand this very well. I know the Tlicho land claim was not negotiated based on residency in any small town, but rather based on traditional territory.
The following definition of community is available at http://www.merriam‐webster.com/dictionary/community
Main Entry: com·mu·ni·ty Pronunciation: \kə-ˈmyü-nə-tē\ Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural com·mu·ni·ties Usage: often attributive Etymology: Middle English comunete, from Anglo-French communité, from Latin communitat-, communitas, from communis Date: 14th century 1: a unified body of individuals: as a: STATE, COMMONWEALTH b: the people with common interests living in a particular area; broadly : the area itself
2 We have compiled a genealogical chart for four or five of our ancestors which indicates that there are well over a thousand current descendants. If the other seventy Métis families from this region were similarly productive, as we have some reason to believe they were, there would be another seventeen thousand North Slave Metis, somewhere….. We do not know where all of the descendants of the North Slave Métis are currently living. Many were taken away to residential schools, some have not been heard from since they went to war, and others have moved away for various reasons and lost touch. We do still keep in close touch with concentrations of North Slave Métis who have settled in northern BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, as well as in the Deh Cho and South Slave regions. Many North Slave Metis have taken advantage of Canada’s eligibility rules at various times to claim Indian Act benefits, which in part explains the discrepancies in the census statistics collected by Canada and the GNWT. In fact, there are probably very few “Indians” on any band list in the North that are not Métis, depending on your definition of Métis. However, one must keep in mind that being on a band list does not make you an Indian. You are still Dene, Metis, or Inuit despite Canada’s application of the “Indian” label according to their own ridiculous and variable definitions.
Our membership list is somewhat outdated, and suffers from lack of maintenance. Of the estimated 18,000 eligible members, only about 800 have applied for membership. Most of those eligible for membership probably don’t even know it. Many others, including some well known community leaders have told us they will wait and see whether it looks like we will get anywhere or not, because they don’t want to be subjected to racism and discrimination unnecessarily. As you may know, there has been a lot of discrimination towards Métis, and a lot of pressure to give up their identity to be either White or Dene. Many Métis pretend to be White when in the company of Whites, and Dene when in the company of Dene. It is a survival tactic to avoid discrimination. Also, Indian Act benefits are significant, but only available to Dene and Inuit – not Metis. Our People are truly oppressed by institutionalized discrimination. Métis who reside in Gameti would no doubt suffer if we revealed their identity.
Roughly 600 members have been officially accepted at one point or another, but relatively few have provided all the paperwork they should have, or if they did provide it, it has been misplaced. These ~600 are on what we call our “long list” of members, and we provide them services, and include them in consultation, environmental monitoring, community events, and so on. We are not completely up to date with deaths or resignations, but I know some have chosen to get on your (Tlicho) list instead. I don’t know whether they plan to reverse their decision when the Métis claim becomes a reality, or whether they could.
About 300 of those members have signed the declaration that they are not involved in any other land claim process. About another 180 have provided the paperwork, that proves their genealogy and historic occupation of territory. As you no doubt know, provision of this documentation is very difficult and time consuming to produce (especially since Canada and its churches hold the records, and has lost many of them). Unfortunately, only a few dozen members so far have provided both the signed declaration, and the documentation of genealogical and geographic eligibility. It is on behalf of these few dozen members that we know, and can prove, as well as the many others that we fully expect will eventually provide the documentation, that we have the right to assert aboriginal and treaty rights when intervening in regulatory authorizations. We are handicapped in the use of these names in public, though, because to do so would certainly subject our most important members to unwanted attention and possible pressure, and we can not take that risk.
We are currently waiting to see how many names are required to be on this “short list” before submitting the list to government and getting our land claim off the ground. Then we will know how much work we need to do (without any funding) on our list before getting land claim negotiation funding to complete the rest. As I am sure you know, there is a substantial budget allocated to eligibility and enrollment activities once a land claims process is put in place. Once the appropriate level of effort is expended to locate, communicate with, and research eligibility for membership, and complete an enrollment process, it would be reasonable to estimate 1‐5,000 North Slave Métis continue to reside in the North Slave region. If the North Slave, South Slave, and Deh Cho Métis could get over their internal differences, I guess that this larger Métis consortium might be twice as large.
So, I hope this answers your question about who the North Slave Métis are, and where they are from. Please let me know if you’d like to know more, or wish to discuss anything.
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Sheryl Grieve B.Sc. Environment and Resource Manager North Slave Metis Alliance 32 Melville Drive. Box 2301, Yellowknife. X1A 2P7 Phone: (867) 873-6762 Fax: (867) 669-7442 Email: [email protected]
From: leonlafferty [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2008 10:35 AM To: [email protected]; 'Mark Cliffe-Phillips'; 'Boyd Warner'; 'Charlene Coe'; 'Charlie Football'; 'Charlie J. Nitsiza'; 'Claire Singer'; [email protected]; 'Duane Fleming'; 'eddie erasmus'; 'Glen MacKay'; [email protected]; 'Kris Johnson'; 'Mark Davy'; 'Nathan Richea'; [email protected]; 'Moggy, Derrick'; 'Rhonda Batchelor'; 'Rob Marshall'; [email protected]; [email protected]; 'Vern Christensen' Cc: 'Zabey Nevitt'; 'Kathleen Racher'; 'Roberta Judas'; 'Henry Gon'; 'Bill Enge'; 'Marc G. Whitford' Subject: RE: Water Licence Aplication for Review- Community of Gameti
I have read the letter and I have not been able to locate your community on the territorial map, Can you send me some info on your community? Another thing, can you give me the info, on the population and the size of your municipality. Masi
From: Sheryl Grieve [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: August 29, 2008 2:34 PM To: 'Mark Cliffe-Phillips'; 'Boyd Warner'; 'Charlene Coe'; 'Charlie Football'; 'Charlie J. Nitsiza'; 'Claire Singer'; [email protected]; 'Duane Fleming'; 'eddie erasmus'; 'Glen MacKay'; [email protected]; 'Kris Johnson'; 'Leon Lafferty'; 'Mark Davy'; 'Nathan Richea'; [email protected]; 'Moggy, Derrick'; 'Rhonda Batchelor'; 'Rob Marshall'; [email protected]; [email protected]; 'Vern Christensen' Cc: 'Zabey Nevitt'; 'Kathleen Racher'; 'Roberta Judas'; 'Henry Gon'; 'Bill Enge'; 'Marc G. Whitford' Subject: RE: Water Licence Aplication for Review- Community of Gameti
Please accept NSMA’s intervention, attached.
Sheryl Grieve B.Sc. Environment and Resource Manager North Slave Metis Alliance 32 Melville Drive. Box 2301, Yellowknife. X1A 2P7 Phone: (867) 873-6762 Fax: (867) 669-7442 Email: [email protected]
From: Mark Cliffe-Phillips [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, August 09, 2008 2:28 PM To: Boyd Warner; Charlene Coe; Charlie Football; Charlie J. Nitsiza; Claire Singer; [email protected]; Duane Fleming; eddie erasmus; Glen MacKay; [email protected]; Kris Johnson; Leon Lafferty; Mark Davy; Nathan Richea; [email protected]; 'Moggy, Derrick'; Rhonda Batchelor; Rob Marshall; [email protected]; Sheryl Grieve; [email protected]; Vern Christensen Cc: Zabey Nevitt; 'Kathleen Racher'; 'Roberta Judas'; Henry Gon Subject: Water Licence Aplication for Review- Community of Gameti Importance: High
Hello,
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Please find attached via the link below a letter requesting review comments on Community of Gamètì’s Water Licence application W2008L3-0003 for a Municipal water use and the deposit of waste, along with the application and associated documents. Please note that review comments are requested by August 29, 2008. If additional time is required to submit comments, please provide a written request for our consideration prior to the requested deadline.
The document itself can be downloaded from the “Items for Review” page on our new online registry, which can be accessed by clicking the hyperlink below. Once at the website, right click on "PDF" in the Community of Gamètì W2008L3-0003 section and choose “save target as” to access the documents. We are hoping this method of notification and document transfer will make the review process more efficient. If there are any problems accessing the document or if you would prefer to receive the document through a different delivery method, please get back to Roberta Judas by phone at 713-2500 or by email at [email protected]. http://www.mvlwb.ca/WLWB/Lists/Items%20Out%20For%20Review/Current.aspx
Regards,
Mark Cliffe‐Phillips Regulatory Specialist Wek'eezhii Land and Water Board P.O. Box 32 Wekweeti, NT X0E 1W0 (p) 867‐713‐2500 (f) 867‐713‐2502 www.wlwb.ca
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