"Chiefs Set Course for Self-Government"

OHSWEKEN - A four-day conference of Ontario native leaders ended Thursday with a flurry of resolutions demanding changes to government policies on taxation, resource development and child welfare.

About 100 chiefs and 200 observers attended the annual All Ontario Chiefs meeting on the Six Nations reserve, which included the signing of what is being called an historic agreement between the province and Ontario First Nations.

The statement of political relations, signed by the chiefs on Wednesday, recognizes the inherent right to native self government and indicates the province's willingness to work towards implementing that right.

A number of issues raised by the chiefs will test the will of both provincial and federal governments. Their list of demands includes:

Stop charging the goods and services tax on items purchased by native people.

Stop logging in areas surrounding the Gull Bay reserve north of Thunder bay and resolve land claim issues in that area.

Recognize the need for flexible policies on child and family welfare for First Nations.

Enact proposed amendments to the Ontario Cemeteries Act dealing with the protection and discovery of aboriginal burial sites.

Remove Ricardo Lopez from the standing committee on aboriginal affairs. He is the Chateauguay MP who, during last year's Oka crisis, said that protesting Mohawks should be sent to Labrador.

Gary Potts, chief of the Teme-Augama Anishinabai nation on the Bear Island reserve about 100 kilometres north North Bay, said it is important for the chiefs to discuss their issues and develop strategies together.

In the past, it was often necessary to focus on mere survival, he said.

The discussions also help build unity among the chiefs. Chief Potts said his community, which has taken its land claim to the Supreme Court of Canada, has been helped by that solidarity.

"We received actual physical support - they talked with their feet," by joining roadblocks set up by the band last year.

Roger Jones, an elder and former chief of the Shawanaga First Nation north of Parry Sound, also said the support of other chiefs is vital to the struggle for native rights.

He will soon be in the Supreme Court as well, fighting for his community's right to run a bingo under its own gaming law, not one developed by the federal government.

Mr. Jones estimates it will cost as much as $750,000 to argue the case. He is hoping some of the chiefs at the conference will give him a hand financially.

"There are very, very powerful benefits from us being able to forge ahead together" on such issues, said Chief Gordon Peters, just elected for a third three-year term as head of the Chiefs of Ontario.

He hopes to start dealing with the province on a new level, now that they have signed the agreement recognizing the inherent right to self-government.

"In talking to the province in the past, we would spend about 75 per cent of our time arguing that our rights existed and maybe 25 per cent of the time arguing about the process we could use" for the discussions.

"This in a sense for us is going to be really new, because what we're going to be able to talk about is how to exercise and implement the right."

That will mean negotiations on increased control over resource development, health, justice and many other issues, said Chief Peters.