| Many years ago people in power created the Indian Act, it was a paternalistic
document it assumed that Indian people were not able to think or make decisions
for themselves. Further more it created different classes of people status
and non status individuals. It separated families, brothers & sisters.
In 2001 a "draft" document has being created by the people in power in our First Nation. The Indian Act affected our whole country & the effects are still being felt today. At Fox Lake we already have these two classes of people status & non status, many of these people are members of our families. Why do we want to further discriminate by creating others classes of people? The effects of this document will cause a lot of hardship in our community & further divide the Chapleau Cree First Nation, the effects will be felt for many years to come. Do we have to continue dividing our people especially at our community level? We have people who grew up in Chapleau with many of us, in good faith they applied for and were granted membership into the Chapleau Cree First Nation. In fact many of them have used their own funds to build their homes in our community. This document would make them less than 1st class citizen. It took our first Nation over 8o years to establish a land base & this was done with consultation with the membership before steps were taken to acheve that goal. Would it not be fair to have consultation with the membership before time & energy was spent drafting a document such as this one? We realize that it would be beneficial for some to have this document in place before the June elections, but consider the long term effect it would have on all of our membership. Doreen Cachagee
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Lark.