LETTERS TO THE EDITOR — Rebuking `distorted’ view of

The column by outgoing publisher emeritus M.R. Brown “Carrying aboriginals costly” (T.N.M., Dec. 28/92) was like a last gasp from a relic of a bygone era, a roar from the past from a fading dinosaur.

He continues to propagate his prejudiced and distorted views of aboriginal peoples and the settling of claims. He writes as if he believed that aboriginal peoples’ historical occupancy and use of the land and its resources mean nothing.

He seems to think that newcomers to North America have a superior form of ownership to the land and that aboriginal people should continue to accept scraps from the white man and that our inherited rights to the land and its resources should not be recognized.

Brown seems to have forgotten that Canada has supported a form of government for Northern Canada for decades to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. But it has been a form of government that has been imposed from the outside and run almost exclusively by white people. It has been a dismal failure.

This form of imposed government has not solved our problems, and in some cases, made them worse. Now that the aboriginal people are about to take control of these governments and will have the chance of solving their own problems, people like Brown suddenly decide that it is too expensive. Brown uses figures from a study that was done about a year ago. It should be pointed out that the agency that did the study used some wrong assumptions about what kind of government Nunavut would have. These assumptions have been corrected and the agency has come out with more realistic figures in a subsequent report.

I cannot understand why Brown thinks that the settlement of our claim will have a negative impact on mining in the north. Mining companies and executives who want to pursue mining in the north are excited about the agreement. It clears up the question of ownership of the land. It clarifies the rules of the game. It will make cooperative ventures with aboriginal organizations much easier and the original inhabitants of the land will finally receive their rightful benefits.

John Amagoalik

Policy Adviser

Tungavik Federation of Nunavut