A Manitoba native group has cancelled plans for a railway blockade at the end of the month after Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice took action on the band's land claim.
Prentice added 75 acres of new land to the reserve near Winnipeg, defusing the threat of blockades in an anticipated trouble spot.
The Roseau River First Nation had pledged to block CN rail crossings on the Roseau River on June 29 on the planned aboriginal "national day of action."
"We're saying to Jim Prentice: You've done the right thing, we commend you for doing that, and we will not block the rail line," Chief Terry Nelson told The Globe and Mail.
The new land is situated about 20 minutes from downtown Winnipeg, northwest of the urban centre.
The band intends to develop at least 10 acres of the property with several commercial businesses by fall, Nelson said.
In the long term, the band hopes to build office space, a conference centre and car dealership on the land.
Nelson told The Canadian Press he wants the national day of action to get the attention of American businesses that buy Canadian resources. He said he hopes they will realize aboriginals have been denied access to revenues from natural resources and hydro development on their traditional lands, and then pressure the federal government to take action.
He said educating non-native Canadians is further down on his priority list.
"It was never really my goal. I know that (Assembly of First Nations national chief) Phil Fontaine wants this educational kind of stuff happening. For me, it's pretty clear that the only real powers that be are the Americans under the NAFTA agreement."
Nelson said June 29 will only succeed if the U.S. takes notice.
"If the indigenous people actually can pull off a significant warning on June 29, it (will be) a wakeup call. And if that happens, the Americans are going to be saying, 'Look, get this thing settled.'"
However, many native leaders say they want to educate Canadians about their plight in order to gain their support -- using blockades and confrontational protests only as a last resort.
In B.C., Grand Chief Stewart Philip said the vast majority of aboriginals are committed to uniting with other Canadians to get their message across in solidarity, not through blockades that hinder travellers and have crippling economic repercussions -- effects that "erode" Canadians' goodwill towards aboriginals, Prentice has said.
Lawrence Joseph, chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, says aboriginals need non-natives on their side.
"Rather than turn off people by blockades, blocking off highways, railroads and that type of thing, we want to give people a chance to work with us," he told CP.
Prentice has quietly been working away on his file. Earlier this month the feds pledged $250 million per year to solve some of the 800-plus land claims currently on the books.
The government also offered up $125 million to help put an end to the simmering standoff at a former housing development in Caledonia, Ont.
And Prentice has been meeting with native leaders to discuss his proposal for an independent land claims commission to speed up the processing system.
With files from The Canadian Press
