Jun/97: On Indian Land-Lubicon/Daishowa update

Jun/97: On Indian Land-Lubicon/Daishowa update LUBICON LAKE CREE/DAISHOWA UPDATE On Indian Land Summer 1997 Dan Clarke Lubicon West Coast Speaking Tour The Lubicon are a proud and determined people who care deeply for their land and their community. They are committed to their struggle for self determination. Dwight Gladue, tribal council member of the Lubicon Nation, Fred Lennarson, advisor to the Lubicon Nation, and Stephen Kenda, Kevin Thomas and Ed Bianchi of Friends of the Lubicon were in the Puget Sound area on a west coast speaking tour this past May. In 1988, the Lubicon Nation requested Daishowa to make a clear, unequivocal and public commitment not to log or buy wood cut on unceded Lubicon territory until a land rights settlement is reached and a harvesting agreement respecting Lubicon wildlife and environmental concerns is negotiated. In summer 1991, Friends of the Lubicon called a boycott against Daishowa because they had been logging Lubicon territory. Nine years later Daishowa has still failed to make this commitment. Bernard Ominayak, Lubicon Lake Indian Nation Chief, said, "I hope people will understand we're trying to survive from day to day and need all the help we can get from the general public. It's a battle against time. We realize that and the other side knows that." Dwight Gladue explained how this struggle is for the children. Dwight, as many Lubicon adults, was raised living off the land, hunting and trapping. That all changed in 1979 when a new all-weather road into Lubicon territory was completed and the Lubicon and the wildlife were invaded by just about every oil and gas company who operated in Canada. Dwight went on to explain how now families are unable to provide for themselves by living the way the community lived before 1979 and instead depend on monthly checks. "We're trying to break the cycle of welfare and give the children hope." The Lubicon Defense Project The Lubicon Defense Project would like to remind On Indian Land readers to keep sending in your protest letters with every US West phone bill you pay, as they use Daishowa paper in their telephone books. This tactic generated the pressure necessary to convince Consumers Gas, Canada's largest gas utility to indicate that it will discontinue buying from the California oil and gas company, Unocal. Unocal built a sour gas processing plant just outside the proposed Lubicon reserve against the opposition of the Lubicon and their supporters (Fall 1995 On Indian Land). The Lubicon are demanding the plant be removed. A 'US West/Daishowa Partnership' brochure which has a cut-out sample letter to include with your phone bill payments is available at the Black Cat Cafe, 4110 Roosevelt Way NE< in Seattle's U District and at Left Bank Books, Pike and 1st, Pike Place Market. Please contact the Lubicon Defense Project or Support for Native Sovereignty for details and for additional locations you may know of where these brochures may be distributed. Please write the following people and voice your objection to their use of Daishowa paper: Jim Pierce Director of Printing, Distribution, Recycling US West Direct 198 Inverness Dr. W. Englewood, CO 80112 Phone: (303) 784-2585 GTE has also been cited as a Daishowa customer for directory paper. Write to GTE at: Jamie Loa GTE Directories 1115 S. Boyal Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90023 Phone: (213) 265-6809 Write Daishowa and let them know you are supporting the international boycott of Daishowa. Daishowa America 7200 Columbia Center, 701 5th Ave. Seattle, WAS 98104 Phone: (206) 623-1772 or (800) 331-6314 Fax: (206) 452-6576 Shogo Nakano President Daishowa Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Tokyo Head Office 6-1 (Asahi Tokai Building) Otemachi 2-chome Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan Tom Hamaoka Executive Vice President Daishowa-Marubeni International Suite 1700, 1095 W. Pender St. Vancouver, BC Canada V6E 2M6 Always send copies of correspondence that you send and receive to the Lubicon Lake Cree Nation: Lubicon Lake Cree Nation PO Box 6731 Peace River, Alberta T8S 1S5, Canada For more information on how you can support the Lubicon Nation and convince Daishowa to agree to not log unceded Lubicon territory, contact: The Lubicon Defense Project c/o Dan Clarke 5009 46th Ave. South Seattle, WAS 98118 Phone: (206) 723-4703 Please visit the Lubicon Supporters' Web page at: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/lubicon/main.html