Senators Meet With Leaders Of Unrecognized Bands

Friday, May 29, 2009 at 15:28

 

 

Chiefs of excluded bands hope today’s meeting with Liberal senators will bring them one step closer to the federal government recognizing them.

 

Chiefs from the John Cochrane First Nation, Chakastaypaysin First Nation, and Peter Chapman First Nations, as well as Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations senators, are meeting with members of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs in Saskatoon.

 

Peter Chapman Chief Robert Head hopes the meeting will open up communication between the bands and Ottawa, eventually leading to becoming recognized — something he thinks the general public supports.

 

Senator Lillian Dyck is one of the senators participating in today’s meeting.

 

She says the bands’ stories of fraud being committed against them more than 100 years ago are unbelievable in the sense that the government has let them languish this long.

 

She isn’t sure what she as a senator can do, except share what she is learning.

 

Dyck says as senators, they do not take a position on issues — but rather, study them and present reports.