22 ~-North Shore News — Sunday, December 5. 1999

From page 40

tus native and a member of the Squamish Nation. With her rein-
statement should come rights to the properties she grew up on
and that her family liv di on, believes Lockhart-Lundberg. Or,
since others have lived on both properties in the intervening

elected

‘ABRICS

"call for your FREE
in-home consuitation

986-0678

“off suggested retail.

Offer expires Dec. 34/99 Jane Zagorsky

L REMERBER SHOPPING STGHG'S?
“WELL, HOW YOU CAH AGAIN!
SHOP aY PORE, Fa g FAX, EMAIL

&7'S THAT EASY?

rom Deep Cove to Lions Bay
Stong's Express will deliver your
groceries tight to your frent door.

HONE: 286-6191 FAX: 266-5189.

ARD WALL 25 | DELIVERED THE FOLLOWING DAY © of

‘SATURDAY DELIVERIES ARE AVAILABLE BUT

she should be thirly
ensated for them.
a concept that has a

V the “Squamish
pied a $92.5-
ttlement for 86
acres in Vancouver which
currently hold the
Planetarium, the Vancouver
Museum, 1
Motson’s
apartment complex, the
Seaforth Armouries and
more.

Ir was land originally
allocated in 1877 as a
reserve, and according to a
recent update published by
the band on the status of
the claim, it launched the
legal proceedings because
of “the illegal raking of the
entire reserve by the
provincial government in
i933."

But are the tears shed
over rights and inheritance
of land by the Squamish
Narion Council crocodile
tears?

After Nona Lockhart
was reinstated as = 2
Squamish Nation member,
she and her family members launched claims for both the prop-
erty on the Mission Reserve and the property in Squamish.

Her claim to the Mission Reserve property was flatly denied.
The council nored that she had been compensated for it when
she reccived $4,000 for the house — a house which sits on land
near the waterfront in North Vancouver.

“Do you think thae’s fair compensation?” asked Lockhart-
Lundberg. “I don’t.

As, for the the property on the Stawamus Reserve, council
passed a mation in 1995 stating “Nona Lockhart be given first
consideration of the Lot 7, Block E, when allocated a a home in
the furure.”

Bur there’s no indication when that might be. Nona Lockhart
applied for housing from the Squamish ‘Nation 10. years ago.
Today, ac 75 years old, she continues to live off-reserve in
Richmond. She's had a mild stroke, is borderline diabetic, suffers
from severe arthritis, and is tired of fighting.

But her daughter isn’t, and she continues to try to regain her
mother’s rights. But the council hasn’t answered any of her ques-
tions about when her mother might expect to get a home.

And nor it seems, do they have to answer them.

“We've tried to get information about the housing waiting list

~ from the band. I brought on a motion to force council to pub-

lish it and distribute the waiting list for housing to all members.”
‘Twice the motion was passed by the band membership, and now,
cight months later, there is still no sign of the list.

_.| In November last year, she wrote a fetter to John Watson, the |
regional director general of Indian and Northern Affairs, with a

list of 77 questions about how much money the Federal

“ Government provided to the band for housing and how it was

spent.

Hier letter was answered by Erie Filzwieser, the funding ser-.
vices officer for Indian and Northern Affairs. ~

: “Yam pot able to fF respond 10 your questicns,” he said i in the

she and other members of

; off 24 reserves between

aughter carries on fight for mother’s property

NONA Saker, circa 1950, with her parents Mona and Henry “Hawkeye” Baker. Nona’s
claims to her father’s property on Squ

1ish Nation Land have never been resalved.

letter. “The Department of Indian and Norther Affuirs docs for
the most part not keep the information at the level of detail thar.”
you are requesting.”

She finds it shacking that the government is not keeping trac
of how taxpayers” money is being spent. She said ‘that although:
the band is supposed to build 15 houses per year, there.was a
period of several years prior ta 1999 when no houses were builz
ata

However, carly this year — after che membership raised ques-
tions about the housing list — the council began to clear iand for’
housing on Lot G, the large parcel of land located on the south
side of Marine Dr. immediately after the exit from Lions Gate
Bridge into North Vancouver.

Bur Lockhart-Lundberg thinks the federal government
should take a greater interest in haw the band is spending mor

ws,” shes are neglecting their fiduciary. responsi tity: to. protect

s,” she said.

It’s for all of these reasons and more that Lockhart-Lindberg
has been speaking out against recent !cgislation, in the form’ of ;
Bill C-49, giving the Squamish Nation chiefs and council eve
morc control over the nation’s land.

“Scif government is discretionary government,” she
she, and others in a splinter group of the band’s Sebership,
called Concerned Members of th the Squamish Nation, aren’t sure
that the current council has the best incerests

munity at heart. :
Two weeks age, th held ‘acspeci

~ answers from the councillors, or to have them ejected bya

non-confidence, Neither } Pata but Lockhart-Lo; berg id
¢ group aren’ giving uw
“Pm doing. this for my. mother. That's what's teal
going.” ~ . :
The Squamish Nation has about 2 765 mbe
North Sh id: Whisth