“As long as our Indian people are hunting, fishing, trapping and gathering our treaties will never be extinguished,” Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Vice-Chief Bobby Cameron says.
This was the message he delivered to trappers gathered at the Northern Saskatchewan Trappers’ Association convention.
The convention began Tuesday morning at the Senator Allen Bird Memorial Centre in Prince Albert.
As part of the convention’s opening remarks, many First Nation leaders encouraged northern trappers to continue working to maintain the heritage of traditional lands.
Vice-Chief Cameron says trappers need to remember the sentiment ‘Our land alone.’
“That is the very basis of our inherent treaty rights,” he says.
“The very reason the treaties were signed in the 1800s is because the settlers of the day saw our Indian way of life, they saw us surviving off the land and they said we have to do something for the Indian people, we have to guarantee them they are going to have their way of life.”
Other leaders echoed Cameron’s remarks.
“The challenges that we have in our communities… part of the solution is the land,” Prince Albert Grand Council Vice-Chief Brian Hardlotte says. “It is not the total solution, but part of the solution for the challenges we face will come from the land.”
The two-day convention includes nominations and elections for several positions on the NSTA’s governing body.
It wraps up on Wednesday.