Blood Tribe farming dispute lands in Federal Court

A dispute over farming rights on the Blood Tribe reserve in southern Alberta is pitting the band chief and council against one of the area’s biggest and most successful farmers.

For nearly 50 years Keith Chiefmoon has permitted Yak Hengerer to farm his family’s land for a yearly fee.

Hengerer has similar arrangements with hundreds of other Blood Tribe members, farming about 23,000 hectares.

Chiefmoon, and many other elders, want these relationships to continue.

But the reserve’s chief and band council do not and the dispute ended up in the Federal Court in Calgary on Thursday.

“He has helped us quite a bit. He’s helped the community. I go back some 40 years with him, we became family acquaintances years ago. And there’s really no reason for him to be terminated,” said Chiefmoon.

Hengerer is asking the court to rule he has the legal right to continue farming, having signed agreements that don’t expire until March 2016.

The band council wants to bring in new farmers but Chiefmoon says no one seems to know why.

“We keep asking the chief. We keep asking the council members. They are refusing to answer that question. We don’t know,” he said.

No one from the band council agreed to speak with CBC News.

A federal court judge adjourned the matter until March.

http://lethbridgeherald.com/commentary/letters-to-the-editor/2014/02/circus-comes-to-kainai-high-school/

February 18, 2014.

Circus comes to Kainai High School

Wow what a day it must have been, we had clowns coming from the four directions. Some were dressed up in Kainai traditional attire, some came to see the buffoonery and the chicanery, while others thought maybe some candy apples, or cotton candy would be served.

What an embarrassment! The main clown (Harper) had a captive audience and nobody caught on to his act. He announces more monies would be handed over to support language and cultural retention and support. When he said that, he immediately receives not quite a standing ovation, but a big round of applause.

Wow, this is too good to be true, yep, all first nations are going to receive billions of dollars. Yep billions of dollars. Wow.

This is too good to be true, how can he be so generous, and of all places right in the heart of our academic community, right in the Kainai High School, the very same school Paul Martin was just a few weeks ago.

There is of course a catch to all this, these mega bucks don’t kick in until 2015 and the language and cultural cash comes into effect 2016 É A federal election occurs in 2015, he’s already campaigning, didn’t anyone catch this … Wow!

Atleo, Chief Charly, grand stand of course, endorsing the announcement, stating that this is a historic day, but didn’t anybody tell them that they don’t kick in until 2015, and the language and cultural support in 2016.

Harper hoodwinked the Reserve again, and to add salt to injury, he does it at an academic center, where we are supposed to have academics there, wow, what a joke. Nobody questioned it, we even had tribal members kicked out for trying to speak out.

What a sad day. Again, promises, promises, promises, white man with fork tongue catches Kainai asleep again.

Keith Chiefmoon

Standoff, Alberta