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dam-l [harmful-hydro] Split Lake Cree Chief's recent letter to Premier Doer



For the group's information

-DF
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March 23, 2000



The Honourable Gary Doer
Premier
Legislative Building
Room 204-450 Broadway
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3C 0V8

Premier,

Certain articles and statements have appeared recently in newspapers, 
on web sites and other public forums in the United States and Canada 
concerning the impacts on the Cree people of past and potential 
future northern Manitoba Hydro developments.  These materials address 
matters affecting the rights and interests of Split Lake Cree First 
Nation.  They have been made without our authority or agreement.

Attached you will find an authoritative statement of the position of 
Split Lake Cree First Nation with respect to Hydro developments in 
our Resource area.  As the position statement makes clear, we will 
continue to speak with our own voice, reflecting the consensus of our 
people.  We believe that the location of our Resource Area, in 
respect of past and future Hydro development, provides strong reasons 
why our voice should be listened to, and respected.

In our view, it could well be that the people who would suffer most 
in the long run from any reduction in trade in electrical power 
between Manitoba and the northern States would be the Cree of 
northern Manitoba.  The dams in northern Manitoba have been built, 
the Churchill River has been diverted, the Lake Winnipeg Regulation 
is in place.  The Province of Manitoba and Manitoba Hydro are not 
going to stop producing hydro power from these dams, and they are not 
going to tear down these dams.

The younger and middle aged Cree have grown up with the Hydro project 
in their midst, and many of them do now know a different world.  The 
leaders in most of the impacted First Nations in northern Manitoba 
are searching for ways to provide benefits for their people from the 
Hydo Project.  It is a crisis situation and within the idea of crisis 
is the decisive moment that contains the elements of both disaster 
and opportunity.

Conditions in all the five NFA First Nations are similar in that we 
have suffered from a period of very rapid change to our social and 
economic conditions over the last fifty years, exacerbated by the 
massive Hydro Project, that has caused adverse impacts of tragic 
proportions to our land, lives, and livelihood.   Our traditional 
lands and a way of life have been devastated and desecrated by the 
adverse impacts of the Hydro Project.

While the NFA First Nations share this common history, Split Lake 
Cree First Nation has chosen our own path into a better future for 
our children and our children€  '²s children.

The Split Lake Cree Resource Area is located in the heart of the 
giant Hydro Project and four major dams, producing more than 70% of 
Manitoba Hydro€  '²s electric power, are situated in our traditional 
homeland.

Over the past ten years the Split Lake Cree leadership, in concert 
with our Elders and our people, have accepted the fact that we cannot 
change the past.  Nevertheless, we continue to grieve for a way of 
life that has passed.  In the manner of our forefathers, the present 
generation are searching for a way to adapt our total physical, 
social, and economic environment for the benefit of all our people.  
We are keenly aware of all the social and economic challenges we are 
facing.  We are moving to deal with these challenges within the 
context of the existing environment and our traditional culture.

Split Lake Cree are aware that Manitoba Hydro has been examining the 
possibility of developing a new generating station in our Resource 
Area.  We see this as an opportunity for our First Nation and 
Manitoba Hydro to forge a new and mutually beneficial relationship.  
This is the opportunity that we see in our present €  '³crisis€  '´
situation.

Historically in Canada, where there has been a major resource 
development in Indian country the development, while benefiting 
Canada as a whole, has been disastrous for First Nations people.

Split Lake Cree are proposing a new and different arrangement to 
Manitoba Hydro that could have major ramifications for future 
relationships between Split Lake Cree and Manitoba Hydro.  This new 
arrangement, if it can be developed, could provide a positive and 
creative model for the future of resource development in our 
traditional lands.

Our story can best be understood within the context of how one First 
Nation is trying to deal with the challenges and problems caused by a 
major hydro development in the midst of our traditional homeland.  
Governments and Hydro have seen the moral and practical errors in 
past approaches to hydro development, and are now trying to co-
operate with our First Nation to move through  the difficult 
transition caused by rapid change.  We think that our approach can 
create mutual benefits for First Nations people and the dominant 
society flowing from a major development, from its inception and 
continuing on into the future.

We are negotiating now with Manitoba Hydro trying to practically 
€  '³begin to address  the devastating impacts of its activities on
our 
environment and our lives.€  '´  We are confident in the good faith
of 
Hydro and in our ability to represent our rights and interests, and 
to secure the sustainable and self-reliant future that our people are 
determined to re-create.

We appreciate the time you may take to understand our position.  I 
will be having one of my senior representatives contact your office 
to determine whether a mutually convenient time can be arranged to 
discuss these matters with you more fully.

Yours sincerely,

Chief Norman Flett



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