The Lands Manager and the Lands Office delivers section 53/60 of the Indian Act. The Lands Department receives direction and reports directly to the Executive Director and the Chief and Council of the Whitefish River First Nation.  In 1994, the Whitefish River First Nation Chief and Council received delegated authorities from the Privy Council of Canada to manage their own land base without the intervention of INAC. The Whitefish River First Nation and the Lands Office carry out the duties of managing the WRFN land base through planning, acquisition and negotiating for future land use.  The Lands Office continues to uphold the policies, procedures and protocols of the Whitefish River First Nation.  This office is responsible for ensuring environmental and ecological standards are maintained within Whitefish River First Nation land base.

May 2007 Lands Manager Report

Hydro One Land Appraisals:  A meeting to discuss the land descriptions and the land values of the Hydro Appraisals that took place on April 16^th was productive. I will meet with Hydro One again in June after follow-up from the April 16^th meeting is concluded. 1836 • 1850 • 1862 Treaties: The Council has scheduled a meeting for early June to discuss the Treaties Historical Report and its accompanying Legal Opinion with the experts who provided the reports. Islands Research Project: The Council has commissioned a legal review of the Islands Historical Research Report. A meeting has been scheduled to discuss the draft Historical Report and the evaluation by Legal for early June as well. Railway Right-of-Way Reversion: The Council will be proceeding to a meeting with Canada and the Railway companies in late May. The purpose of the meeting will be for the sides to listen to one another and set out their respective objectives concerning the rail reversion. It has taken some time to organize the meeting since the railway companies only responded to our inquiries late this winter. The First Nation’s title search project has now been completed by Halliday Surveying Inc. and this information will be provided to Canada, who has already shared their title search information with us. Matrimonial Real Property: The Community Information Session held on April 19^th yielded a very small turnout of community members. Kate Kempton, expert legal advisor in the area of inherent and sovereign indigenous rights, with the law firm, Olthius, Kleer & Townshend was on hand to present. The message was clear. The recent actions taken by the federal government to pass legislation concerning the division of matrimonial property on-Reserves will have a definitive impact on the Reserve Land Base. Matrimonial real property includes land & house.  When there is a division of matrimonial property, land can be sold off, along with the house, if that’s what the departing couple wants. There is a very real potential and threat that our Reserve land base could become partitioned off and divided up, much like what happened with the US Tribes. If our land base becomes divided up through the imposition of an outside law, our people will become divided up. The Anishnabek people have always stated they are one with the land. They draw their identity from the land, and their collective history and occupation stems from the land.  I f this relationship with the land is broken apart and we are dispersed as a people, there is no more Nation. It has always been government’s ultimate goal to dissolve our Nation, blend us into the rest of society, and erase us as a people in the lands of our inheritance. It is extremely important at this time in our history to defend this inheritance given to us by the Creator for the sake of our children and our future generations. Please participate in asserting your rights to collectively make your own law on the division of matrimonial real property. Come to our office to obtain study material on these important developments. Join the Committee being formed to steer developments in this area. Act before it is too late.

IMPORTANT: We have been asked to share the following information

Bioprospecting On First Nations’ Traditional Lands and Reserves,

by the Northern Ontario Medical School.

Make this visible, Publish it and Stop it. This has occurred in other Indigenous Nations and anyone who doubts this should contact James Lamouche at the National Aboriginal Health Organization. He has worked with elders and medicine people across the world to stop this kind of theft. His email is jlamouche@naho.ca.

The seminars are tied into the bio-prospecting project that the Northern School of Medicine (primarily Laurentian University) is involved with for Ontario’s Boreal Forest. Basically the project is looking at collecting plants from the boreal forest, breaking the plants down into chemical compounds, investigating the medicinal use of these compounds, commercializing these compounds/medicines (patenting and bringing in the pharmaceutical companies). I, and other First Nation representatives, have lots of concerns with this project and at the last video conference (Jan 22) First Nations lambasted the researchers. One of the major issues is that First Nations have yet to be consulted. But there are numerous other issues (e.g. rights, patents, impact on First Nations/ecosystem, revenue sharing, job creation, etc.). A comment by a Sudbury economist made on Jan 22nd was that if First Nations do not get on board with this, then they will be left behind. This in itself generated a major uproar. I have been told that the researcher’s position was that they were taken back by the fact that First Nations made this project “political” at the past video-conference. They do not want it to be “political” in the future. Obviously this “anti-political” position has also created some concerns.

Back in January, Orpah McKenzie (she is not involved with the project but has connections to the Northern School of Medicine) ended up with the task of trying to pass on project information to First Nations. However, she has been replaced by Tom Kerry. Tom Kerry has the same concerns that I have and has relayed them to the researchers. I do not have any outlines etc. for this project (despite my request for same, the researchers are not providing this information). However, if any of you want more information then contact me and I can give you further details to the extent that I know them.

The potential for this, probably multi-million dollar project, is something like:

a) Lab/researchers/planes/boats/ATV’s etc. will be bought and established (this is the initial phase of the project that the Northern School of Medicine is currently involved with).

b) Extensive “wild plant” collecting will be done from Quebec to Manitoba and up to James Bay/Hudson Bay and south to the limits of the Boreal Forest (all of NAN’s territory is thus potentially included).

c) Extensive research/testing in breaking down these plants into their chemical compounds, and trials for their medicinal value, will occur.

d) Pharmaceutical companies will be enticed to manufacture compounds that have a proven, medicinal value.  Patents on these compounds/medicines will be applied for. As our aging population are creating an increased need for medicines, health care etc. there are potential millions/billions of dollars to be made via these new medicines. This alone should prove extremely enticing to the pharmaceutical companies.

e) Those plants that have a proven chemical compound will be commercially harvested from the wilds until, and if, synthetic compounds are developed.  As a side note, while at a Non Timber Forest Conference many years back I was told (by a plant buyer) that the demand for Echinacea (a medicine used to treat colds) virtually decimated wild populations of this plant in some of the prairie areas (it wasn’t commercially grown or the compound synthesized). Before Western Science “learned” of Echinacea’s value for treating colds it was used as a remedy for sore throats, colds etc. by First Nations. First Nations, I would assume, still use it (when they can find it).

f) The time to raise issues with this project IS NOW before it gets too big, patents are applied for, pharmaceutical companies and their multi-millions get involved and the cries that the aging population needs more and new medicines gets too over-bearing. This concludes the monthly lands report.