"Indian Act Still Law - Chretien"

Indian Affairs Minister Jean Chretien took refuge in the Indian Act Saturday when challenged by a Six Nations Confederacy supporter that he was dealing with the wrong people in talking to elected band councils.

The incident occurred after the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians presented its position paper to the minister at Mohawk Institute. The association is sponsored by five southern Ontario elected band councils and claims to represent 20,000 southern Ontario Indians.

Mrs. Clara Powless, wife of Confederacy chief Coleman Powless, said the AIAI in "now way represents the Indian people."

"Why didn't you hear the Confederacy chiefs?" she asked.

Mr. Chretien said that under the Indian Act his department had no alternative but to deal with the elected band councils.

Mrs. Powless claimed the elected councils did not represent all Indians since Confederacy followers did not take part in band elections. "Puppet chiefs" had been imposed on native people by the government, she claimed.

Earler, Mr. Chretien said Indian people would build their own position in Canadian society.

"This society was built to retain cultural differences," he said. Canada had not adopted the American philosophy of a melting pot society, and "the Canadian experience has been a good _nce."

On band membership, the minister said he was placed in a difficult position with the terms of the Indian Act on one hand and the Canadian Bill of Rights on the other.

"We are faced with conflicting legislation at the moment," he said. It would eventually be up to the Supreme Court of Canada to decide which course to follow, he added.

A Federal Court of Appeal recently ruled that an Indian woman who married a non-Indian could retain her Indian status. Depriving her of her status was sexual discrimination and contrary to the Canadian Bill of Rights, the court ruled.

Under the act, an Indian man who marries a non-Indian not only retains his status but has it extended to his wife and children.