Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not sure I understood all of your question, but if it is about what I would consider tinkering with the Indian Act to meet certain goals and criteria, I would simply go back to you and ask why the government doesn't recognize the fact that the Iroquoian people have their own way of identifying their people, through clan systems and through naming their own people and identifying them, and some kind of nation-to-nation understanding is reached between the parties, in order for Canada to say, “This is the way they deal with things in the Mohawk nation, or in the Iroquoian communities.”

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll ask Chief Picard to respond.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Would you repeat that?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll be saying the same thing I'm saying here today. It won't be any different for me.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I touched on that earlier in my opening remarks. That would, in our situation, double the numbers. Now, mind you, you can take those numbers that are registered here indirectly with the Canadian government in Ottawa, INAC, in terms of the process that's in place now. Some of those people are probably eligible under our criteria.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  For myself, it's pretty straightforward. What you call contradictions in position are not necessarily that. The way I view it, the Mohawk Nation is not the same as the Algonquin Nation, or the other nations. They have their own historical relationship with Canada and historical reasons for doing what they have to do, and so do we.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I understand. For me, then, to be very brief about it, you can't use a cookie-cutter approach. You have to find solutions for individual communities or nations according to what they believe in, or organizations such as the Femmes Autochtones du Québec or the national organization.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Ghislain. Madam Chair, you should have by now a copy of a letter that we forwarded to you. It should have come in yesterday. It outlines our situation, our position, and our very sincere dissatisfaction with the way things have progressed. In any event, we take the position...and the reason I'm here today is just to clarify and to make sure there's an understanding that regardless of what happens here or whatever happens in courts, no one will decide for us what we are going to do.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much. Chief Picard and I agreed that we would divide up some of the time. He'll lead off by giving a statement on behalf of the AFNQL. From there, I will finish the presentation. Mine will be a little more than 10 minutes, because we've agreed that he will be brief.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The Algonquin Nation may have something to say about that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If I may, the European Union is starting to show some cracks, as you know, although we're not in Europe. We've been approached, and we've talked to the minister and the deputy minister, and they've talked to us about how to extract us from the Indian Act, more or less. How do you get out of the Indian Act?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  To begin with, I would like to jump back in time a little bit to the year 1990, which is infamous. People here who were born before that year will remember what happened with the Mohawk Nation in Kanesatake, Kahnawake, and to some degree Akwesasne. Without going into a great deal of detail, what happened back then was that a situation arose that created a whole rethinking of the relationship between Canada and the native people.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  On the other hand, in the east there are unceded territories. There are very few numbered treaty territories. What we go by is ancient relationships, such as a two row wampum. Without going into a long explanation of that, two nations side by side, travelling the river of life and joined by a chain that they polish, talk to each other.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not sure I understand your question.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll start, and then I'll ask Kahsennenhawe to finish off. There is, I guess, no reconciliation, if you will. We approached this matter, meaning Kahnawake, in 1981. It was the first time we passed a resolution at our table. We sent that to Ottawa, not for their approval but for their information.