"LAST STAND OF THE LUBICONS"
The long-awaited John Goddard book on the Lubicons is finally
finished and will be available in Canadian book stores about the
middle of November for an advertised price of $26.95. People can
also obtain a copy of the Goddard book from the Edmonton Lubicon
office for an estimated $20.00 Canadian including postage.
John Goddard first encountered the Lubicons while working on an
article for Equinox Magazine in 1984 and saw in the situation a
sort of condensed, distilled, capsulized version of the
colonization of North America. Since then he's pursued the story
of the Lubicon struggle with the ever-questioning persistence and
patience of a never quite satisfied history scholar, the
relentless and uncompromising tenacity of a tough almost to the
point of being rash let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may
investigative reporter, and the near-poetic literary skills of a
first class, award winning writer. As many a politician,
government bureaucrat and PR flunky have learned to their dismay,
John Goddard is not somebody you want to try to baffle,
bamboozle, flimflam or keep secrets from.
In addition to spending years pouring over, cross-referencing and
double-checking thousands of pages of historical and legal
documentation, John Goddard has been all kinds of places and
talked to all kinds of people -- some of them well known to
anybody who reads the newspaper, others not many know about but
who've played key roles in the Lubicon struggle. He spent time
with Bernard Ominayak on the Chief's trapline when trapping was
still a viable way of life for the Lubicons and few people had
ever heard of Chief Ominayak. He attended small meetings in
Edmonton church basements where Chief Ominayak was speaking and
followed the Chief across Europe. He was at Sturgeon Lake when
Federal Indian Affairs Minister David Crombie agreed to appoint
E. Davie Fulton "to make a deal" with the Lubicons. He was in
Ottawa when Mr. Crombie's successor charged that Mr. Fulton had
become "biased" in favour of the Lubicons. He was in Little
Buffalo Lake when the Lubicons blockaded roads and asserted
jurisdiction over 4,000 square miles of northern Alberta. He was
at Grimshaw when Alberta Premier Don Getty agreed that the
Alberta Provincial Government would stop blocking a settlement of
Lubicon land rights. And he was there when officials of the
Canadian Federal Government paid the members of the Government-
created Woodland Cree Band $50 each for their votes and promised
$1,000 more per family member if the "Woodies" voted to accept a
Government-designed settlement offer clearly intended to once and
for all tear Lubicon society asunder and scuttle Lubicon land
rights.
Chief Ominayak often counsels people seeking his advice to "just
tell the truth". No one who knows John Goddard's work doubts for
a moment that John Goddard's book will, to the best of John
Goddard's considerable knowledge and ability, tell the truth
about the Lubicon struggle.
For those wanting to order copies of the book through the Lubicon
office, please send a check or money order for $20.00 to:
Lubicon Lake Indian Nation, 3536 - 106 Street, Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada, T6J 1A4.