[R-G] RCMP Poised to Arrest Tahltan Elders

[Macdonald Stainsby]

Hi Nick.
Don't call me Mac. my name is Macdonald. :-)

you ask:

>>                                   To add insult to injury
>> Garry Merckel, Appointed President of the TNDC and Curtis Rattray,
>> Chair,
>> Tahltan Central Council have signed affadavits in support of the order.
>> This illustrates, the blatant disrespect of the people who live on the
>> land.
>
> Mac, I'm having trouble understanding the above.  For starters, could you
> explain what the Tahltan Central Council is, and whether Tahltan Elders
> have a role in naming its Chair.  Also, who appointed Merckel president of
> the TNDC? (I presume this happened after the former president resigned in
> the face of the demands to do so from TNDC employees.)
>
> Nick.

As far as the TNDC, it was a creation of the current Indian Act Chief Jery
Asp. Asp has made himself a millionaire through stremlining projects of
industrialism and land ravaging. The Elders are representative of the
majority of people who live with the land, on their traditional
territory-- and even though they are mostly from Telgraph Creek, the
Elders are even more representative of the community of Iskut (south
Tahltan territory), where the population is in general younger.

A bit more than half of the Tahltan population still lives on the land.
These people, in my opinion, have a much larger stake in what goes on in
their lands than hose who live off reserve and in the major cities-- and
sometimes never even visit over the "holidays" and the like. Imagine if
the elections for PM were decided by 45% of the votes from Canadians who
all lived in Africa and South America, etc... That would lead to rather
sever problems.

The TNDC is a corporation; unlike people like Chretien, Martin and
McGuinty, Campbell ad nauseum, it is not considered a conflict of interest
for the leader of an indigenous nation to use his/her nations' monies to
start a corporation, be it's chair or one of the ceo's and still remain
chief. This is the situation in Tahltan land when the TNDC was formed for
one-- it's also an issue for the sell-out governments of the Sahtu and
Gwitch'in who are trying to be part investors in the "Aboriginal Pipeline
Project" as per the Mackenzie Gas Project...

so, like any "corporation", to get to anwering your q, the population
doesn't get to have input even though any little decision has major impact
on the whole nation.

The Tahltan Central Council has actually already seen the community of
Iskut withdraw itself; Indian Act chief Asp was fired by the elders in
Telgraph right before somebody burnt down his house. He continues, despite
the fact he can't safely go into either major town, act as though he was
chief, from within the very small little reserve that exists right inside
Dease Lake (the largest settler town along the whole Tahltan corridor). It
is of no surprise that the TCC-- who no longer have any real or imagined
authoity, just "jurisdiction". Only businesses and settler governments
deal with them.

Finally, since the supreme court, in very British/Canadian fashion, made a
ruling that appears to a non indigenous person to be "fair" and empowering
by saying that "consultation" must happen between a nation and a
corporation before they can have their land despoiled ("consultation" is
whatever the BC/Can gov says it is), Tahltan resistance has chosen the
strategy of not allowing any form of meeting that could be construed as
"consultation" to happen; direct action has been used to shut down
meetings in places from Prince George to Terrace to Smithers. When you are
on the brink of extinction, deperate measures are often necessary....





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--
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada/
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope.
--Brecht.