Yes, Woody, this is important. Heads of native organizations are meeting with the Prime Minister as head of the reigning government and with the Governor General as representative of the head of state (i.e., the Queen, in Canada) tomorrow to start up a "new relationship" after the Idle No More movement generated some momentum through demonstrations and hunger strikes, etc. Meeting with the GG is symbolically important because as representative of the head of state he embodies the nation of Canada while the government in Canada is merely the policy instrument (For Americans this must be gobbledy gook).

Meeting formally with the GG symbolizes a "nation to nation" meeting, which is an assertion of independence by the natives. Sort of like the UN declaring the Palestinian state. The chiefs are also more unified in their support for the hunger strikers and the Idle No More people now, though their directions and strategies are not at all the same. The Idle No More movement wants more federal dollars, more government dollar input into education, health and other government services, more protection for the environment, and less economic development, while so far the mainstream native organizations have wanted streamlined access to economic development and capital resources through lower environmental controls and other means as we have discussed.

The native reserves already receive a lot of federal money which on many reserves is not accounted for, and the natives have taken the federal government to court to preserve their lack of accountability and have won in the past, so where the federal money goes is not clear and is not likely to become clear unless some agreement is reached. So the broader population is losing sympathy for the natives to an extent, who they believe are misusing tax money, while the natives are becoming more militant even in their divided state. Where it will end is not at all clear at this time, but there will be strong resistance to pouring more money into reserves while they have no accountability for how it is used, and also while the alternative of promoting on-reserve resource development is available. Ike