Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) is working to take control of Lubicon affairs. In order for Friends of the Lubicon Alberta (FOLA) to stand up against INAC we were forced to take a position on the Lubicon leadership issue. These are the questions we asked and considered before taking a position.
Q1: Who is Steve Noskey?
Noskey was first elected to Lubicon Council in 1989 and he was re-elected to Council in 1994, 1999 and 2004 before being elected Chief in 2009.
134 Lubicons attended the June 5, 2009 election -- 101 of whom were certified eligible to vote under traditional Lubicon voter eligibility criteria. These numbers are wholly consistent with the number of people who attended previous Lubicon elections and were certified eligible to vote.
The top three vote getters in the 2004 Lubicon election were Steve Noskey with 89 votes, Larry Ominayak with 96 votes and Dwight Gladue with 97 votes. All three had served on Lubicon Council for many years. Dwight Gladue and Larry Ominayak were re-elected in the June 5, 2009 election along with Steve Noskey.
The June 5th Lubicon election was conducted by an independent outside Chief Electoral Officer recommended by two previous Lubicon Chief Electoral Officers who certified that all of the people voting in the Lubicon election met long standing Lubicon voter eligibility criteria including being a Lubicon member at least 18 years of age and normally resident in Lubicon Territory. The election was open and covered by the media. The people who voted in the June 5th Lubicon election are documented.
There is an argument that these numbers don't work out because a different 80 people supposedly participated in the June 25th election cannot be sustained. The June 25th election was closed. There is no way to determine how many people attended and whether or not they met Lubicon membership and voter eligibility criteria. The only independent estimates of the number of people who participated in the June 25th election are provided by two official RCMP observers who publicly estimated the total number at "less than 50", some of whom, including the only people who spoke to the media about the June 25th election, are known not to meet Lubicon membership criteria. Others are known not to meet the residency requirement. Still others are known to have also attended the June 5th election.
Question 2: Who can be a Lubicon Band member?
It is alleged that Steve Noskey is not a Lubicon because he is not a status Indian and because he is supposedly (according to who?) a member of the Loon River Cree Nation,for which he has previously ran for Council twice. It is also alleged that he was a member of the Lubicon Council at the same time as which he was running for Loon River Council. Noskey allegedly kept his candidacy for Loon River Council a secret or he would have lost his Lubicon membership and disqualified himself from Lubicon Council because Lubicon membership criteria clearly states that a person cannot be a Lubicon member and choose to become a member of another Indian Nation or a band under the Indian Act.
Steve Noskey never applied for status under the Indian Act. In 1984, a genealogy study was conducted jointly by the Lubicons and the Government of Canada. It showed that he qualified for Indian status under the Indian Act. The Lubicon people decided to determine their own membership under their own traditional criteria, and not use Indian status under the Indian Act as a determinant band membership. The joint genealogy study and its conclusions are documented and known to both Bernard Ominayak and the Government of Canada.
The main Lubicon membership criteria states that a person must be an Aboriginal person related to other Lubicons by blood and to Lubicon territory by history. The 1984 study concluded that Steve Noskey's genealogy fully meets this criteria. Noskey's grandfather, Absolom Noskey, is Bernard Ominayak's great uncle. Steve Noskey's family, including some of his family members who have chosen to join the Loon River Cree Nation, all come from Lubicon Territory.
Another Lubicon membership criteria states that persons who otherwise meet Lubicon membership criteria but "choose" to become a member of another Indian Nation or "band" under the Indian Act no longer qualify for Lubicon membership. The members of Steve Noskey's family that have chosen to become members of the Loon River Cree Band no longer qualify for Lubicon membership. Steve Noskey, however, has never joined the Loon River Cree Band, or any other Indian Nation or "Band" under the Indian Act. He has instead repeatedly run and served as an elected Councilor of the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation.
It is alleged that Steve Noskey "ran twice for the Loon River Cree Council." This is simply not true.
In addition, it is alleged that Steve Noskey "kept his [alleged] membership [in the Loon River Cree Nation] a secret from the Lubicon administration and continued to serve as a [Lubicon] Councilor despite the fact that he had made himself ineligible by willingly choosing to become a member of another Indian Nation". This is not only untrue it's inconceivable that Steve Noskey, while serving as an elected Lubicon Councilor could, contrary to Lubicon membership and candidate eligibility criteria, run twice for elective office in a neighboring First Nation -- where many Lubicons have relatives with whom they talk daily -- without "the Lubicon Lake Administration" knowing about it.
In conclusion, a person must be a Lubicon member in order to qualify as a candidate for Lubicon elective office. A person who does not meet Lubicon membership criteria does not qualify to run for Lubicon elective office. Since the Lubicon society is a small society. Lubicon members know each other and who their relatives and members are. They would not have repeatedly elected Steve Noskey to Lubicon Council if he were not a Lubicon member.
Question 3: Isn't this just a trick by INAC and the oil companies to divide the community?
From a question posted on our facebook group:
"Bernard has been Chief of the Lubicon for over 30 years. He faces the same challenges from these same people almost every election and still tries his best to support the community. I don’t think it is for us to turn our back on him and the people now after all these years. I honestly believe this is just another ploy by the same cast of agitators and now they are playing right into INAC’s hands."
Reply from FOLA:
It is not fair for us (non-Lubicon people) to insist on our support for Bernard Ominayak merely because he is OUR hero. Yes, he did amazing work to further the Lubicon land claim; yes, he gave decades to this cause; yes, he stood up to government and industry, inspiring all of us when we saw how one man could truly make a difference.
But that was a different time.
He has now lost the confidence of the majority of the Lubicon people - that is the majority of the people of the Lubicon Lake Nation, not outsiders, not agitators, but his own people.
The June 5th election is the real deal (reports available for comparison at www.lubicon.org - please read and decide for yourself). Newly elected Chief Noskey is the same man who has been a Lubicon councillor for decades, who has fought for Lubicon land and for the Lubicon people alongside Bernard. Many of the councillors elected June 5th remain the same as well, including Bernard's brother.
The Lubicon people have stated again and again that Bernard Ominayak's actions have shown he is no longer acting on their behalf
(please see the Lubicon community's facebook group from this past summer:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wal ... 3289441340 ).
This change in leadership choice does not mean that the Lubicon people's values are any different, or that their respect for their land has changed. It just means they have chosen a new leader to lead their fight. We must respect that.
And MOST OF ALL we have to tell INAC to stop exploiting the situation in Little Buffalo as they are doing now.
