Lubicon Lake Indian Nation Little Buffalo Lake, AB 403-629-3945 FAX: 403-629-3939 Mailing address: 3536 - 106 Street Edmonton, AB T6J 1A4 403-436-5652 FAX: 403-437-0719 December 10, 1990 Enclosed for your information is an article on the current Lubicon confrontation in which RCMP staff Sgt. Lynn Julyan is quoted as saying two loggers witnessed the recent raid on the Buchanan logging camp but weren't close enough to identify anyone. Enclosed also is an article in which the President of Buchanan Lumber claimed one raider threatened a 65 year-old logger with a hunting knife and that another logger scared off the raiders with a fire extinguisher. It's not clear how one might be threatened by a knife held by someone too far away to identify, or how one might scare people with a fire extinguisher who are too far away to identify. Neither is it clear why the two loggers involved failed to mention these dramatic events in earlier media interviews. Perhaps it just took a week for them to get their thoughts organized. ***************************************************************************** Attachment #1: Alberta Report, December 10, 1990 TALKING THE TALK Amid tough language, violence flares at Little Buffalo So far, dealings among the Lubicon Lake Indian band, which is claiming a 4,000-square-mile swath of northwestern Alberta as its homeland, the federal government which has the power to grant the claim, and the forestry industry, which would like to log the land, have proceeded slowly but peacefully. But Lubicon Chief Bernard Ominayak has always talked tough. Just two weeks ago he issued a stern warning to companies that continue to cut trees on the disputed turf. "We can't allow it anymore," he says. "Those lands are ours and so are the resources." Ten days later unknown arsonists stole into a logging camp on the disputed property near Little Buffalo (360 kilometres northwest of Edmonton) and torched a trailer and four vehicles belonging to a sub-contractor or Buchanan Lumber Ltd. of High Prairie, 270 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. While he disavows any knowledge of the attack, Chief Ominayak isn't softening his hard-line stance toward the logging companies. Anything could happen now, he warns. He promises to remove companies that haven't obtained a special logging permit from the band, but he won't say when or how he'll do it. And he's hinted violence is possible. But to date nobody has approached the band for permits and Buchanan Lumber, for one, has continued to work on the land, setting the stage for violent confrontation in Little Buffalo. Chief Ominayak says that after 12 years of negotiating with the federal government for a land base, he and his people are sick of playing the political game. Companies have continued to cart millions of dollars worth of resources off of the land while more and more of his people are forced onto welfare. Now it is time to go directly to the root of the problem, says the chief. He insists the resource companies have to talk directly to the band and work out royalty agreements: "If that happens, the government is out of the way." The Lubicon leader says his people are dying "a slow death". They have nothing to lose, he insists, and will do whatever they deem necessary to protect their claim. "We've got to be prepared to face any consequences," said a stern Ominayak. "The logging companies have to expect whatever happens if they are willing to be used by big companies like Daishowa and stay on our land." Buchanan sells softwood to the Peace River pulp mill owned by Daishowa Canada Co. Ltd. The Japanese-owned pulp company promised to stay off the disputed land until the claim was settled, but Lubicon advisor Fred Lennarson accuses the giant corporation of trying to sue contractors like Buchanan to get around its promise. Buchanan officials wouldn't talk to reporters. Peace River RCMP are still investigating the attack on the sub-contractor's equipment which caused over $20,000 damage. There have been no arrests yet, but a team of officers is in Little Buffalo questioning people in the area, according to Staff Sergeant Lynn Julyan. Two loggers witnessed the attack, but they weren't close enough to identify anyone, he says. Julyan wouldn't say if Chief Ominayak or other Lubicons were considered suspects. Chief Ominayak is being careful not to make direct threats in public or to take credit for the damage. In the United States last month, a white supremacist was successfully sued for making statements that incited his fellow supremacist to commit assault even though he never actually urged anyone to commit a crime. Mr. Lennarson knows the chief is flirting with danger. "We're all worried," he says. "No sane person would get involved with this kind of thing if they had a choice. The Lubicons are just at the point where they don't think there is anything else they can do." Tim Seefeldt ***************************************************************************** Attachment #2: The Edmonton Journal, Sunday, December 02, 1990 LOGGER WITH FIRE EXTINGUISHER SCARED VANDALS -- PRESIDENT Owners plead for Lubicons, gov't. to work out problems Jac MacDonald Journal Staff Writer Edmonton Vandals who burned logging equipment last weekend were scared off by one of the loggers brandishing a fire extinguisher, says the president of Buchanan Lumber. "Lawrence (Noskey) came out of the light plant shack and pointed the fire extinguisher at them. That was the end of it, and they ran of," Gordon Buchanan told The Journal Saturday. Buchanan was in Edmonton on company business when he described the scene last weekend where vandals burned about $20,000 worth of logging equipment on lands claimed by the Lubicon Lake band, about 50 km northwest of Red Earth Creek, which is about 100 km northeast of Peace River. The equipment was owned by Buchanan subcontractors Walter Kulikov of Plamondon and Lawrence Noskey of Peavine. The group of men covered their faces in ski masks and got out of their vehicles some distance from the logging camp in order to avoid detection, he said. The men knocked on the door of the first trailer, and set it on fire when nobody answered. After setting several other fires, they knocked on the door of another trailer and ordered two men inside to get out, he said. In a written statement, Noskey said one of the men ordered out was his 65- year-old father Frank, who was threatened by a man wielding a large knife. "These individuals set fire to all of our equipment and threatened my 65- year-old father with a large hunting knife," Noskey said in his statement. The vandals fled when confronted with the fire extinguisher, and before they could set fire to the second trailer, Buchanan said. Noskey pleaded for government and Lubicon representatives to sit down and talk before someone is killed. "It is about time the three parties involved, the Lubicon band, the provincial government (and) the federal government, got their act together and stopped involving innocent parties. "Do we wait until someone is killed?" Noskey said. Logging will continue in lands claimed by the Lubicon Lake band because there are no alternative cutting areas, and because if work stopped it would throw at least 14 people out of work who are now employed with Noskey and Kulikov, Buchanan said. "We have to go in there because that is where our wood is that has been allotted by the province," he said. The company has been logging in the area, part of the 10,000-sq-km territory claimed by the band, for the past 20 years without incident. "We have been going for years into that area. We were there last year," he said. In a news release issued Saturday, Peace River RCMP confirmed that they searched a cabin in the Fish Lake area. Band advisor Fred Lennarson said the cabin belonged to Chief Bernard Ominayak, who could not be reached for comment. The stalemate in attempts to reach a land claim settlement has worsened because of poor advice being given to the band, Buchanan said. "I think the offer that has been made is more than fair. I think the natives have been given bad advice," he said. "The problem lies with the fact that there isn't money on the table to pay off the lawyers," he said. Buchanan's mill has been operating since 1957 and is the largest employer in the Town of High Prairie. It produces about 75 million feet a year of white spruce studs, and has a workforce of 178 with an annual payroll of about $4 million. Over half of Buchanan's workforce is native, but none are Lubicons because the band discourages its members from working for him, he said. ***************************************************************************** For more information contact web:car by e-mail or in writing Aboriginal Rights Support Group Committee Against Racism P.O. Box 3085, Station B Calgary, Alberta T2M 4L6