--- On Fri, 3/23/12, RDIABO <rdi...@rogers.com> wrote:
From: RDIABO <rdi...@rogers.com> Subject: McKnight leaves post with First Nations' respect To: undisclosed-recipi...@yahoo.com Received: Friday, March 23, 2012, 9:41 AM McKnight leaves post with First Nations' respect By Doug Cuthand, Special to The StarPheonixMarch 23, 2012 I have met many interesting and dedicated people over the years who have worked with us for the betterment of the First Nations. I was a Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations vice chief in 1981 and held the portfolio for treaty land entitlement. We were then stuck with the old 1976 formula, which allowed using only Crown land to fulfil the outstanding debt owed under the treaties. The largest blocs of Crown land available were PFRA and community pastures - marginal land being used by farmers and ranchers to supplement their rangeland. Various First Nations had chosen pasture land and were in the process of trying to have it turned over to reserve status. It was a half-hearted exercise, since we were going after the least productive land in Saskatchewan. Meanwhile, we were lobbying behind the scenes for a land purchase policy. Also, by having to select pasture land First Nations were coming into direct conflict with the local pasture users. This was awkward for us, because we didn't have any quarrel with these patrons. It was the federal and provincial governments that put this land on the table to be selected, and it appeared to be a case of governments pitting two groups against each other. In any event, I received an invitation to attend a meeting with some concerned pasture patrons at Eatonia, in west-central Saskatchewan. The Nikaneet First Nation had selected part of the local Newcomb pasture, and to say that the pasture users had concerns was an understatement. I walked into a hall filled with farmers, ranchers and their supporters. They were livid at the thought of losing a part of their livelihood, and things looked bleak. On the stage they had a panel of us, consisting of local MLA Bob Andrews, MP Bill McKnight, myself, and Rob Millen, a lawyer from the province. Andrews was up for re-election, so he was in high dudgeon and performed for the locals. Millen was a city lawyer who couldn't communicate with country folk. That left me and McKnight to try to salvage something. I played a defensive game on behalf of the Nikaneet First Nation, but this was where McKnight shone. He told the angry crowd that they had to come up with something constructive. He was a farmer, so he spoke to them on their level and didn't jump into the emotional fray. In the end McKnight got a motion passed where the assembly recognized the debt owed under the treaties and the need to come up with a land purchasing policy that avoids this kind of impact on third parties such as farmers and ranchers. He took a negative situation and turned it around so that both sides could feel some sense of satisfaction. The meeting went unheralded. It never made the news, but it was a very important stepping stone in the evolution of treaty land entitlement. The rest is history. The Conservatives under Brian Mulroney went on to form government, and McKnight held several cabinet posts including minister of Indian Affairs. The issue of treaty land entitlement continued to sit in a holding pattern. Without a land purchase policy Crown land continued to be the source of First Nations land deals. Small packages of other land, such as the Prince Albert student residence and the Muskeg Lake land in Sutherland, were transferred, but little else. The FSIN and the two governments began serious negotiations in 1990 to arrive at a land entitlement agreement. Tom Siddon was the Minister of Indian Affairs, but McKnight was not far away. Together they met with premier Grant Devine and convinced him that a TLE agreement would be a good thing for the province. In 1992, near the end of the mandate of the federal and provincial governments, they signed the historic Treaty Land Entitlement Agreement with the chiefs of Saskatchewan. By now the Conservatives were out of power provincially and the NDP government supported the agreement. McKnight would leave politics later, and be appointed the treaty commissioner for Saskatchewan. He follows in the footsteps of former Saskatoon mayor Cliff Wright, and Judge David Arnot. The Office of the Treaty Commissioner was established in 1989 to fulfil a promise made when the treaties were signed. At the time the treaty negotiators stated that they would appoint a commissioner to oversee the progress of the treaties. The first order of business was Treaty land entitlement, and Wright set to work bringing all the parties together and get serious negotiations underway. In the end the TLE framework agreement was signed and implemented. The Nikaneet First Nation purchased land of better value closer to home and the Newcomb pasture remains for the use of local ranchers and farmers. It was a long journey from the community hall in Eatonia to the signing of the framework agreement, and McKnight was an important factor in its success. This month he completes his five-year term as treaty commissioner and leaves with the respect and admiration of First Nations people.
