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1939/1940 The Lubicons are visited by Indian Affairs' officials who recognise them as a separate, distinct indigenous society and who promise them a reserve on the shores of Lubicon Lake. A membership list is drawn up and left open to permit the addition of members out hunting and trapping.

1979 The all-weather road is completed. Resource exploitation activity explodes. This scares away the animals and causes the traditional hunting and trapping economy to collapse. By 1983 there are 400 oil wells within a 15 mile radius of the Lubicon community. Moose killed for food drops 90% from 219 in 1979 to 19 in 1983. Annual trapping income per family drops 90% from \$5000 in 1979 to \$400 in 1983. The welfare rate shoots up from under 10% in 1979 to over 90% in 1983.

1985/86 Out of 21 Lubicon pregnancies, 19 result in stillbirths or miscarriages.

1987 Tuberculosis is present in a third of the community & active in one in ten - the worst outbreak in Canada since the depression. Ottawa reacts by appointing a new negotiator.

1988 Daishowa announces plans to construct a pulp mill just west of the Lubicon territory capable of producing one thousand metric tons of pulp a day. This requires the cutting of about 11,000 trees a day. That's 70 football fields daily. The provincial government unilaterally grants Daishowa "timber rights" to an area including the entire Lubicon traditional territory. Oil and gas revenues from Lubicon land continue to amass at an estimated rate of about \$500 million a year. Not a penny to the Lubicons.

1988 After fourteen years the Lubicons withdraw from all court action and assert sovereignty over their territory. A peaceful blockade of their traditional area stops all oil activity for six days but then the barricades are forcibly removed by armed RCMP officers. Alberta premier Don Getty meets with Chief Ominayak and the result is an agreement on the 243 square kilometre reserve area called the "Grimshaw Accord"

1990 After six years of deliberation, the United Nations charges Canada with a human rights violation under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stating that "recent developments threaten the way of life and culture of the Lubicon Lake Cree and constitute a violation of Article 27 so long as they continue". The charge stands to this day.

1993 Lubicon Settlement Commission of Review publishes its final report. It finds Lubicon settlement proposals are reasonable while the federal government has not been negotiating in good faith.

1994 Lubicons protest Unocal's plan to build a sour gas processing plant within 4 kilometres of their proposed reserve. Alberta's Energy Resources Conservation Board fails to convene a regulatory hearing until after the plant is built.

HOW I GOT INVOLVED

I am a member of Survival International. This is a world-wide organisation supporting Indigenous Peoples. Every so often members get Urgent Action Bulletins; these are pamphlets giving a quick resume of the struggle, provide information and addresses to write polite letters of concern/protest.

In August 1994,got a bulletin regarding the Lubicon Cree. Letters had to be sent to the Canadian gover tnment. A few months later got a reply. Wanted to get more involved so got in contact with the Lubicons. From time toime they sent me updates on the latest situation. Normally consisting of some twenty pages of information. My letters were directed to the government and to Unocal. My name was put on the Lubicon mailing list and as a supporter got updates on a regular basis. In September 1996, I lost touch as the Lubicons could no longer keep supporters updated on the struggle.

Around 1998 news of the struggle came from Friends of the Lubicon(FOL), long time allies of the Lubicons. From time to time they sent me newsletters and I took action. Letters were directed to the government and to Daishowa. Now I have Internet connection and visit the FOL web-site and get regular updates sent to my e-mail address. The struggle goes on, Daishowa has finally agreed not to take any timber from the unceded territory until land negotiations are settled. But sadly other timber companies are planning to move in, the oil and gas companies still exploit the territory, Provincial and Federal Government continue to stall in resolving matters. This is genocide. This is Injustice. This cannot go on. The most urgent matter now for the Lubicons is to settle land negotiations.

WANT TO GET INVOLVED?

 

Want to know more about Survival International, please visit www.survival-international.org Want to know more about the Lubicon struggle, please visit www.tao.ca/~fol You can contact me at wilsonjay62@cs.com

 

jayjay

THE LUBICON CREE: The Lubicon Lake Indian Nation is a small aboriginal society living in northern Alberta, Canada. They have been struggling for over sixty years to gain recognition of their aboriginal land rights to their traditional territory. In the late 1800's, the Lubicons were overlooked by crown agents who were signing Native nations to Treaty 8. They were just too far in the bush, away from major rivers, and so the Lubicons were left alone to pursue their traditional hunting and trapping lifestyle. As a result they never signed away or lost their lands in war, and retain aboriginal rights to those lands to this day.

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