Manitoba chief throws away Indian Act card at rival aboriginal meeting

ONION LAKE, Sask. – A Manitoba aboriginal leader says the Assembly of First Nations isn’t getting the job done when it comes to improving treaties with the federal government.

Chief Derek Neepinak (NEEP’-ih-nak) of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs says there are good people within the AFN, but he questions the national organization’s mandate.

Neepinak was speaking at a National Treaty Gathering of rival chiefs in Onion Lake, Sask.

He told the gathering that First Nations need to take a stand against the federal government and against companies trampling over their traditional lands.

He said Ottawa doesn’t understand the spiritual relationship aboriginals have to the land — a relationship he says is at the heart of the treaties that natives signed.

Neepinak then threw his Indian Act card away.

“This Indian Act card is done with me and I’m done with it. I’m putting this in the garbage,” he said on the opening day of the gathering Tuesday.

Neepinak also suggested that indigenous political organizations, whether they are regional bodies or national ones, have become agents of non-aboriginal government policy.

“What they do is give us a little bit of money,” he said. “Here’s some money to talk about citizenship. Here’s a little bit of money to change your election rules. Here’s a little bit of money to talk about education reform … and that’s how they have controlled the implementation of their policies over the last number of years.”

He acknowledged his own group is part of that system.

The Assembly of First Nations is holding its annual meeting as well this week in Whitehorse, Yukon. The conflicting schedules point to a schism between aboriginal factions that has only widened since this winter’s Idle No More protests.

(CJLR, The Canadian Press)