Declaration of the Moose Cree First Nation

TIMMINS, ON, July 24 – We the Moose Cree people are the original people of this land, the Creator has given us this land as our home;

The Creator gave us our spiritual beliefs, our languages, our culture, and this place on Earth which provided us with all our needs;Our ancestors have lived in this land since time immemorial, drawing on the animals, fish and plants for our sustenance;

We are charged by the Creator with the duty of preserving and protecting the land for our future generations;

The non-native newcomers made a Treaty with our forefathers, in which they recognized and agreed that we would continue to live on and harvest from the lands forever;

When our forefathers signed the treaty we made it clear we were not giving up our land, we understood making the treaty as sharing the land in a way that preserved our rights to the land;

Today, our homeland is being threatened by resource development, including, mining, forestry, hydro development, and wind energy;

We have long been generous with the newcomers to our land, the time has come for us to remind everyone this is our homeland;

We have a duty to balance economic growth and our cultural use to ensure our cultural survival as Cree people;

We the Moose Cree declare our homeland based on occupancy and use;

We are not opposed to all development but you must get our consent prior to any development occurring within our homeland;

We want to implement the spirit of our treaty to ensure we also benefit from the resources of our land and that we can continue as guardians of our land;

The Treaty created a nation-to-nation relationship with Canada;

The Moose Cree are a sovereign nation and we will control our own destiny.

For further information: Chief Patricia Faries-Akiwenzie, BA, LL.B., (705) 658-4619 ext. 250