In a message on Tue May 18 00:38:31 199  Gerald Alfred
(Vax2.Concordia.CA!GERALD) writes:
 
>The writer of the letter to the Editor of the Eastern Door, and the analysis 
>of Dan Goodleaf's speech, is quite confusing and plays fast and loose with 
>the facts. 

This is hard to answer unless you give me some idea of why the postings are
confusing and what you mean by playing fast and loose with the facts.
 
>It is not clear from your posting the writer knows Goodleaf is himself an 
>Indian. 

Let me assure you that Chief Ominayak knows very well that Dan Goodleaf is a
native person. And if you did read the postings you so vehemently condemn as
being confusing you may have stumbled over the first paragraph of the letter
which I'm reproducing here:

Excerpt from Lubicon Chief Ominayak's letter to Eastern Door:

} The Lubicon people followed Dan Goodleaf's recent European junket with
} interest, especially his carefully calculated and programmed comments
} about the Lubicon situation.  While he expressed concern several places
} that his performance as Deputy Minister of Indian Affairs might be judged
} differently because he is an aboriginal person, he needn't worry.  Skin
} colour aside, his performance on the record was indistinguishable from
} that of his equally disingenuous non-aboriginal predecessors.

I believe that anyone who actually read this letter would have a hard time
concluding that "It is not clear from your posting the writer knows Goodleaf
is himself an Indian."

>It is not at all obvious (or true) that Goodleaf's European tour 
>was on behalf of the forest industry. I would like some proof of this, or 

Based on information from people in Germany, Austria, Belgium, and other
European countries Dan Goodleaf had numerous meetings with representatives of
European paper companies, had meetings with officials of the German Ministry
of Forestry and Agriculture in Bonn, devoted much of his speeches to the issue
of forestry. 

>facts are from the case. Goodleaf's visit, as far as I am aware, was simply 
>to create some good PR for the Canadian government, and to show himself off 
>and the first Indian Deputy Minister. Reading all kinds of plots and 

Dan Goodleaf's attempt to create some good PR for the Canadian government
consisted of using dubious means to counter a growing concern among the
European governments, European industry and European citizens about the
treatment of aboriginal peoples in Canada, including the devastating effects
of large-scale clearcut logging on native lands. 

Among other things, Dan Goodleaf claimed that logging is good for aboriginal
peoples, and as an example he used the logging in Meadow Lake of how native
peoples could benefit from it. Anyone who is part of NativeNet may recall the
numerous postings regarding the logging in Meadow Lake, and how the native
peoples of Meadow Lake resisted the encroachment of large-scale clearcutting,
how they set up road blocks, and the RCMP raids on those blockades.

Mr. Goodleaf, in speeches to the European Parliament and the Dutch Foreign
Office, repeated the long since exposed Canadian government lie that the
United Nations Human Rights Committee found the 1989 take-it-or-leave-it 
offer made by Canada was reasonable and would meet any obligation Canada has
under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This is
completely untrue. The fact is that Canada is in continuing violation of the
Covenant until the matter is resolved. 

>insinuating things just misleads people and does no good for the Lubicon 
>cause. Buddy, you're preaching to the faithful here; go easy on the paranoid 
>ravings. 

What does no good for the Lubicon people is Canadian Deputy Ministers of
Native Affairs travelling around, resorting to lies and distorting and
twisting the facts to serve the Canadian governments agenda. And it does not
matter to the Lubicons whether the bearer and propagator of those lies is
white, green, pink, or red. It matters to the Canadian government, however,
because so far the credibility of native peoples is second to none. To now
have an indian doing this dirty work for them can only bring advantage.

From some of your previous postings I know that you are Mohawk, and Dan
Goodleaf is a Mohawk. Eastern Door is a Mohawk newspaper and the editor Ken
Deer is a Mohawk.

For me the realization that some natives do the Governments dirty bidding is
distasteful and painful. 

For you as a Mohawk it must even be harder.

Roland