by John Cotter
EDMONTON (CP) - The Lubicon First Nation and former premier Don Getty are calling on the federal government to finally resolve the northern Alberta band's 67-year-old land claim.
Lubicon spokesman Alphonse Ominayak said there have been no negotiations with Ottawa since 2003 when talks stalled over the issues of self government and financial compensation.
He accused the federal government of deliberately stalling while the Lubicon struggle without safe drinking water or other basic services that most Canadians take for granted.
"We need all the help we can get," Ominayak told a small rally at the Alberta legislature Friday in support of the Lubicon Cree.
"We are very tired of being ignored and put on the backburner when this could be settled in a manner of months."
Getty, who negotiated an agreement with the band in 1988 to transfer land to the federal government for a Lubicon reserve and then tried unsuccessfully to broker a final land-claim settlement with Ottawa, called the impasse "a shame and a disgrace."
Speaking from his home in Edmonton, the former premier laid the blame on the federal government and said with a little work the claim could be resolved.
"I think they (the Lubicon) have been handled horribly by mainly the federal government and the Department of Indian Affairs," said Getty, who stepped down as premier in 1992.
"We were within pennies of an agreement that would have had them building a new community in a beautiful spot."