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After 12 years of meetings, Manitoba Chiefs voted this week to abandon existing self-government process as a waste of time with very little being achieved during that time. The chiefs determined that working with the bureaucratics is not going to achieve the government-to-government relationship required for real self-governance to work. See story below ...

From http://www.portagedailygraphic.com/Top%20Stories/283541.html

Chiefs end talks with Ottawa
By Leighton Klassen - The Daily Graphic - Friday January 26, 2007

First Nations in this province have decided to end negotiations to dismantle the Manitoba division of Department of Indian Affairs.

Talks on the subject have been going on for 12 years, but a year-long review by Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs concluded nothing of substance has been achieved.

“Over the years, negotiations became more at the bureaucratic level and not at the First Nations level, so we felt the thing to do was to discontinue,” AMC Grand Chief Ron Evans said yesterday.

The decision was made on Wednesday during the second day of the three-day AMC meeting held at Long Plain First Nation.

The 65 chiefs who were present voted unanimously in favour of the move.

The move was also endorsed by the grand chiefs that represent the northern and southern aboriginal groups of Manitoba.

There has been no progress since an agreement was signed in December of 1994 by the assembly and then-premier Jean Chretien’s government to negotiate the dismantling of Indian Affairs in Manitoba, Evans said.

The idea was its responsibilities would be turned over to aboriginal governments in the province, effectively repealing Indian Act as it applied to Manitoba bands.

These bands would then have the authority and responsibility to administer and deliver programs handled by Indian Affairs and other federal departments such as housing, education, capital projects, band administration and justice.

Evans said the 1994 agreement was a key component to overcoming many of the issues aboriginals face.

“The whole purpose was to turn things around,” he said. “We’re the poorest of the poor, have the highest suicide rates, poorest education .... We need to do this by ourselves and there should be an agreement to take us there.”

Long Plain Chief Dennis Meeches said Ottawa still doesn’t understand First Nations can survive under their own governance. In the future, he wants his people to function in a society where they’re considered a nation, free from the control of Indian Affairs.

“There’s nothing wrong with being a nation within a nation,” Meeches said. “I love this country and I represent it, but I have to stay true to my culture.”

Evans said talks will not resume until the federal government takes the negotiations out of the hands of bureaucrats and initiates a government-to-government process with aboriginal chiefs.

The assembly plans to send a letter to Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice explaining its action, he said, adding he hopes Prentice will be willing to restart negotiations in a meaningful way.

Prentice wasn’t available for comment, but his office offered a brief comment on the announcement.

“It’s disappointing anytime negotiations are called off, however, we still believe negotiations are the only way we can achieve anything,” spokeswoman Deidra McCracken said yesterday. “We’re looking to reopen discussions.”