Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples: Presentation by James Favel and Bill Swimmer

File contains a presentation by James Favel and Bill Swimmer, both of the Strike Them on the Back band, currently part of the Sweetgrass First Nation. Favel remarks that the Department of Indian Affairs forced the Strike Them on the Back Band to amalgamate with the Sweetgrass Band, and gave control to the Sweetgrass council which now ignores the Strike on the Back members concerns. Favel discusses the need for government recognition of the Strike him on the Back band, and discusses the problem of being ignored by the Sweetgrass Band Council, the need for a Constitutional entrenchment of Treaty rights, self-governance and Aboriginal justice issues. Following the presentation Commissioner Blakeney discusses land claims and the history of the Strike him on the Back and Sweetgrass bands with the presenters. Following this Commissioners Erasmus and Blakeney engage the two presenters in a wide ranging discussion on the difference between Treaty and Status designations, interband politics, the inherent right to self-governance, the legal definition of who is "Indian," and related matters.