[Witness speaks in the Dehcho Dene language]
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for allowing me to speak here today.
As the chief of Katlodeeche First Nation, I would like to talk about several things. Eventually, I'd like to allow my technician to say a few things about some other things that I can't deal with.
My great-grandfather signed the Katlodeeche First Nation treaty in 1900. I want to talk a little bit about under what conditions he signed that treaty. I think it's important, because a lot of times we miss that point. What gave him the right to sign that treaty? I want to talk about that a little bit.
As for the people, we have been living on this land from time immemorial. We developed our integrity based on the integrity of the land. We developed our culture, our language and our capacity. Through those things, we thrived on Denendeh. Our people were thriving. When Canada came to us hat in hand and asked us to share the land with them, our forefathers did that. My great-grandfather shared the land with Canada and the crown, but he did it with the crown. Canada's people are subjects of the crown. You need to remember what the relationship is here. As subjects of the crown, you should make sure that you get direction from the Queen before you come and talk to us. That is something that is really important which I needed to say.
As a Dene people we had our own government based on our integrity, culture, language and capacity. We had a full-blown government just like yours. In fact, it was such an intricate form of government that we thrived on this land. Today, after over 114 years of treaty relationships, I don't sit here like my great-grandfather. Therefore, my people, the Katlodeeche First Nation people, told me that we are not to negotiate another treaty, that we are to stick to Treaty 8, because we cannot negotiate a better treaty than the one that our forefathers made when they were thriving on this land and had full capacity to be able to thrive on this land. Today we don't have that, so don't even think about trying to negotiate a new treaty.
What the Katlodeeche First Nation wants to talk about is treaty implementation. We're not going to sign any kind of a land claim. I don't think I can do a better job of negotiating a better treaty than my forefather did. I always need to remember that.
As previous speakers said here, we as Katlodeeche First Nation do not cede, release or surrender our land. We still have full authority over our traditional territory.
As they said before, when the Paulette case took place, Judge Morrow confirmed that the Dene version of the treaty is the correct version, and that the English version does not apply. It was a year after that, that we, the Katlodeeche First Nation, took a reserve. When they were negotiating that reserve, the elders at that time made sure that they did not cede, release, or surrender. Canada told us, told our chiefs, “If you settle this reserve, you will also have the opportunity to settle the land claims later on.” It's based on us taking a reserve. Therefore, we believe we still have full treaty and aboriginal rights on our traditional land. We did not cede, release, or surrender.
That means that there are four things that we have. First, we have the right to harvest, hunt, trap, and fish on our land. Second, we have the right to manage our resources. Third, we have title to our land. Fourth, we have self-government and we govern our land.
The unfortunate situation we are in is that we have an administration governing us. As Bill Erasmus pointed out, the Government of the Northwest Territories is an administrator of Indian Affairs, yet somehow you're going to devolve all this power to them. In order for you to do that, for us we still have control of our lands and resources. We have a right, an aboriginal and treaty right, to our lands and resources. You can't devolve it to the Government of the Northwest Territories without our consent. That means that you're going to have to accommodate me. Somehow you're going to have to make it right so that I can have a say on my land.
Right now I don't have a say on my land. For example, the Government of the Northwest Territories is passing legislation on my land that I believe is illegal. Things like the Wildlife Act, the Forest Management Act, and all these other acts that the Government of the Northwest Territories passes, are not supposed to apply to my land. The Katlodeeche traditional land is not ceded territory, so you can't do that.
We reluctantly participate in a lot of things your government applies to us. The Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act is one of them. We did not get consulted when you devised that thing, but we participated in it. As we participated in it, we began to see that it was something that worked for us to be able to protect the environment. That's the most important thing that we do as first nations, protect the land, because without the land we're nothing.
And you, as Canadians, are nothing without the land. You know that, and that's why you are fighting so hard with us to try to gain control of it. But you're not worried about the environment. You're worried about trying to exploit the resources and to kill the land. That's not where we want to go. As a first nation, we want to protect Mother Earth, so we will not support this resource management act revision. We have treaty and aboriginal rights that my technician is going to talk to, that are going to be important to us. We've given you our submission. You know what our issues are.
We can't sit by and allow this thing to take place. We don't necessarily agree with devolution, but we have no choice but to participate. At the same time if you're going to give the resources to the Government of the Northwest Territories, make sure that the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act is in place to make sure they're going to protect the land the way you did. You're the ones who devised that document and now you want to change it. Why? Because you want to exploit the resources.
There's talk that this is a sustainable process. It isn't a sustainable process. What you guys are talking about is that you're just going to blow it wide open. What's going on in Alberta is going to go on here. That's something I could never agree to. The thing about it is that the resources are limited. If we exploit it all at once in the next 50 years, what are the future generations going to have? They're going to have nothing. They're going to look back and wonder what the hell those guys did. Your children are going to be in the same place, not just mine. Your future children are going to look back and say what did those guys do? Now we have nothing to live with here. That's what we're talking about here. We're not talking about anything else. As a Dene person, I need to look forward. I need to look into the future to my grandchildren and ask what I am going to do for them, not what I am going to do for myself.
This is the question all of you need to ask yourselves: what are you willing to do for your children? You guys hear all the horror stories that are going around as a result of all this development that's taken place—global warming and all that. We're ignoring it. We can't. We mustn't if we want to create a future for our future generations.
I hope you think twice about what you're doing with that resource management act. What you're going to do is destroy the land. That's what we're talking about.
With that, I'll let my friend Peter Redvers talk to a few of those issues.
Mahsi cho.