Feature Article June 3, 2004
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Blood quantum, band membership cause rifts among AlgonquinsTwo proposals about eligibility requirements for inclusion within a potential Land Claims settlement with the Ontario and Canadian governments highlight divisions between status and non-status members of the Algonquin community.
A proposal from the council of the Pikwakanagan First Nation, representing just under 2,000 on and off-reserve status Indians under the century-old Native Act, contains a blood quantum provision for inclusion within the land claim. This 1/8th Algonquin blood quantum is based on a documented genealogical connection with someone identified as an Algonquin in Canadian historical records.
This proposal diverges from the proposal of the Algonquin National Tribal Council (ANTC), a group that represents members of six communities made up of non-status Algonquins from throughout the land claims territory. The ANTC proposal would define eligibility for land claims benefits by verified Algonquin descent, and membership in an Algonquin community, with no reference to the percentage amount of Algonquin blood individuals contain. The ANTC argues that any blood quantum would lead to the eventual dissolution of the Algonquin First Nation over time as people intermarry over time and succeeding generations lose their Algonquin status.
The land claims process has been on hold for over two years. The time has been set aside in order for the Algonquins to determine their membership and mode of representation to the talks. This was done because the council of Pikwakanagan had decided to no longer participate in a joint negotiating directorate with the non-status communities.
Membership within the individual communities that make up the Algonquin National Tribal Council has also been in dispute. (see A split among the families in last weeks Frontenac News or at www.newsweb.ca) There are now groups in various places claiming to represent large numbers of Algonquins, that say that ANTC board members do not represent them.
Two hundred Algonquins came to a meeting in Sharbot Lake to discuss membership criteria, and members of the band Council from the Pikwaknagan reserve were in attendance, as was the board of the ANTC.
The meeting was chaired by Robert Potts, a lawyer from Toronto who has been engaged to provide advice and representation to the land claims process for the ANTC and Pikwaknagan.
The meeting was designed to hear from Algonquins concerning the proposals from Pikwaknagan and the ANTC over membership criteria within the claim, but the issue of who represents the Ardoch Algonquins was brought to the fore as well, as it had been at a previous meeting in Pembroke.
Further meetings are scheduled for this week. What will happen after these consultations is not clear, but this round of consultation has been funded by the provincial and federal governments with the express intention of leading to resumption of negotiations between them and unified Algonquin representation by the fall of this year.
[I attended the Sharbot Lake meeting, and was informed by Robert Potts that the meeting was not a public meeting; it was a meeting for Algonquins; but I could stay provided I agreed not to take notes or report on the proceedings. He said he would grant me an interview on the record, and that anyone else who wanted to could speak to me after the meeting as well. Mr. Potts has not been available for an interview in the two days following the meeting, and Chief Doreen Davis of the Sharbot Mishigama Algonquins, who is the lead representative of the ANTC, has been unavailable to the News as well. I will continue to seek interviews with all parties involved JG]
