Address of the Lac Seul First Nation To

L ac Seul Band No. 20 P.O. BOX 100, HUDSON, ONTARIO POV 1X0 Telephone (807) 582-3503 ADDRESS OF THE LAC SEUL FIRST NATION TO: THE 1991 SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS WORKING GROUP ON INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS PRESENTED BY: ROGER SOUTHWIND CHIEF, LAC SEUL FIRST NATION On behalf of the three communities of Kejick Bay, Frenchman’s Head and Whitefish Bay whose members form the Lac Seul First Nation, I offer my greetings as Chief of the Lac Seul First Nation to the members of the Working Group and to all participants at the 1991 session of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations. Boojoo. I am here today together with other representatives of indigenous First Nations from Northwestern Ontario, Canada. We come a region of y the country noted for the beauty of its lands and waters. As Anishinaabe people, we often refer to the place we live on Lac Seul as Obiishikookang. This means the strait of the white pines. Let me describe to you a little about Lac Seul. This lake which is in the heart of the Lac Seul First Nation territory is some 120 kilometres long and is fed by rivers rich in fish and wildlife. |lik e many other First Nation communities in the Treaty 3 region of Northwestern Ontario, th ^ Lac Seul First Nation territory forms part of a region that is at a watershed point^Given the powerful forces that have been developed for resource exploitation, our customary territories and our communities, which are at the frontier of this exploitation, will be the communities which mus; have the greatest influence in developing models of sustainable resource use or they will be communities which suffer dislocations that First Nation communities have rarely seen before in Canada. 2. ■^We hear of plans for the massive diversion of water from Northern Ontario to the Southern United StatesT^Our Lac Seul First Nation is located in a watershed which has already felt the first impacts of a pattern of development which we know is unsustainable.^ _______________________________J In our longer presentation for consideration by the Working GroupjWe indicate ip I the severe dislocation that our First Nation has suffered as a result of hydro electric dams, water diversions, clear cut forestry and other forms of resource exploitation carried out by non-indigenous people. Without compensation, our First Nation membership has had to bear the brunt of the dislocation which has resulted f-.m this pattern of development. We were the ones who bore the brunt of the effects of flooding on Lac Seul( as it was First Nation people who were the ones to make their permanent homes on the shores of Lac Seul. We were the ones to suffer the effects of massive industrial clear cut forestry practicgsjwhcn no offer of consultation or compensation, let alone offer for partnership involvement in harmony with our customs was made to us regarding the pattern of this forest exploitation. We were the ones who have had to watch as our commercial fishery was expropriated from us to make way for the development of tourism industries controlled by non-indigenous pe ople with power to influence the decisions of non-aboriginal governments^ We are the ones who must now face the challenges from non-indigenous governments as they increase their efforts to completely control the management of resources in the Lac Seul watershed according to Euro- Canadian structures and forms of development. ^No one has ever sought out our knowledge of the land in order to determine what the effects of these types of resource exploitation would be. No one ever offered our people compensation when their livelihoods were taken away from them. We have been the last ones to be consulted on natural resource exploitation initiatives in our territories. And when this consultation is attempted^ we can not respond in our own language using our own ways to describe issues of importance to us. But we know our knowledge of our land. And we know the effects that non* aboriginal development is having on our land. And we know that inevitably our knowledge and our ways will be sought if there is ever to be a hope of preserving these lands for future generation|^Jke' United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations can speed up the process of ensuring that non-indigenous governments respect us and seek to work in partnership with us, respecting our authority, when they develop initiatives for resource extractionf^In so doing we can re-build self-sufficiency which must be the foundatfénof our First Nation economy. 4. In this regard, we of the Lac Seul First Nation urge the United Nations to ensure: 1. That provisions are established in the Draft Universal Declaration on Indigenous Rights that confirm the vital importance and legitimacy of indigenous systems of resource use, stewardship and management and the right of indigenous peoples to practice them in their territories; 2. That the Declaration confirm the value of our indigenous resource use, stewardship and management practices and systems in todays context; 3. That the Declaration confirm that indigenous resource use, stewardship and management is not primitive but is unique in its soda! and cultural aspects to indigenous society and remain important to indigenous societies with the appropriate adaptation of technology to them; 4. That the Declaration prohibit non-indigenous governments from engaging in resource extraction and management without the express consent of the indigenous peoples involved; 5. That the Declaration confirm that indigenous resource use, stewardship and management practices be given priority whenever there are proposals brought forward by non-indigenous parties for extractive activities in indigenous lands. In some case^the Working Group has already begun to grapple with the issues that we have brought forward. But, together with other First Nations in our region, we feel that the value of customary indigenous systems of resource use,' stewardship and management can be expressly stated within the Declaration, either in its preamble or in its substat&e provisions or both. We urge the Working Group to consider such strengthening of the Declaration provisions in this regard. And we extend an invitation to all of the representatives here to meet with us to discuss ways of linking together to accomplish this. Our own networks and our own work can be our best strength in this struggle. Thank you..

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