"Natives Have 'Clear Vision' of New Country"

GUELPH - George Erasmus, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, outlined a model of self-government Thursday night that would give native governments powers similar to those of provinces.

There was standing room only in the hall at the University of Guelph as one of Canada's most important native leaders described some possibilities for new political arrangements between native, provincial and federal governments.

Mr. Erasmus told the crowd of more than 550 that native sovereignty can be seen as internal sovereignty, with powers that would allow native governments to make decisions for their own people, rather than external sovereignty, which would involve relations with other countries.

"We do have a very clear and concrete vision of the type of country we'd like to replace the one we have now," said Mr. Erasmus, a Dene from the Northwest Territories who represents Canada's 350,000 status Indians as leader of the assembly.

The first step is to negotiate larger land bases for many native bands.

"We have been left, by and large, with very, very little of our land. It is not possible to contain the rage of our people if we continue to have (reserves the size of) postage stamps."

Mr. Erasmus said larger land bases could be accomplished, in part, through the federal government's specific claims policy, which compensates native bands for land they lost unfairly after signing treaties with the government.

Once the land issues have been resolved, or the government has shown it is willing to resolve them, Mr. Erasmus said native leaders would be "most interested in sitting down" to discuss various forms of self-government.

"Provincial-type powers are similar to what we would need to govern our people in Canada," he said, adding that native governments would also like to have jurisdiction over some areas now in the hands of the federal government, such as fishing.

He emphasized that it would be "unreasonable and impossible" for each reserve to gain provincial powers. They would be granted instead to a central government for an entire nation of native people, such as the Mic Macs or the Mohawks. He estimates there would be between 20 to 25 such governments across the country.

Mr. Erasmus allowed himself to imagine what he called "the trimmings, the frosting on the cake" for native people.

He suggested changes to the appointment of Supreme Court judges to ensure that at least one is familiar with native and treaty law.

He also spoke of the influence native people could have in Senate reform.

There were references to arrangements in the Parliament of New Zealand where native Maori people have a guaranteed representation, and a suggestion that some similar plan could be worked out in Ottawa.

While Mr. Erasmus did not sound optimistic about the chances of making such deals with the current federal government, he said Ontario's new NDP government could set important precedents for the rest of the country.

Premier Bob Rae said last week that he endorses native people's inherent right to self government.

Mr. Erasmus said: "To have a surviving model that we could look at, something to show the rest of the country, I have my fingers crossed that we will be able to do that here."