With permission from Chief Hugh Akagi, I am pleased to present this letter on this website. This letter has been forwarded to the NGO COMMITTEE OF THE UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL DECADE OF WORLD'S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES. I hope that this site continues to educate the world wide web users about the Canadian Passamaquoddy's plight and determination to have lands returned to them and to be recognized as a sovereign nation who never gave up its sacred-ancestral lands.  If you would like to help with this cause, please visit Sacred Site - Respecting Passamaquoddy Ancestral Land for more information.

My name is Hugh M. Akagi, elected chief of Passamaquoddy People in Canada. My people have existed in our traditional territory the drainage of the Schoodic River (now known as the St.Croix) which includes territory from the Penobscot River drainage (home to our brother the Penobscot), to the Wulustuk River drainage ( now known as the St. John River, home of our other brother the Wulustukyi- now known as the Maliseet) which includes the Lapreau River drainage. My people have been evidenced within this territory for the last 10,000 years!

I would like to report a conspiracy of the highest order the purpose of which is to eliminate my people from their traditional territory forever and a day. Those involved in this conspiracy are found in every level of the Canadian government (municipal, provincial, and federal), an organisation well respected throughout North America, and various corporate entities the names of which will all be named upon request.

The conspiracy, to deny traditional people access to their resources, to systematically remove them from their lands ( by claiming “ownership”, including reserves, from beneath the very feet of these people, denying any right to control or own territory even when it has always been inhabited and never ceded), to drive them onto an island where they would die of disease and starvation (recorded in Indian Affairs), to use “legal theft” (grant system, quieting of titles, as recent as 1990), to develop the last vestiges of the traditional territory (including burial grounds) just to make sure we never rise from the ashes, to prevent compensation for resources within our territory, to protect industry (NB power, pipeline, crown lands- Irving and Nakawick Pulp and Paper), to prevent the inevitable land claim, to avoid complications with border rights, to destroy a traditional fishery using Indian against Indian strategy (DFO, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, bringing in corrupt and willing individuals from bordering Native communities supplying them with millions of dollars, housing and boats to fish under a licence rather than their treaty right and certainly not traditionally)!

This is about a country, Canada, breaking its own laws despite a Supreme court ruling the Passamaquoddy and our treaty rights exist; a government desperately searching for reasons to deny these same people their rights. First they would say we had to be “reserve Indians” to have status and rights (though their own Indian Affairs have divested us of our reserves, illegally, I might add). The Corbiere decision has made this a moot point as now off-reserve Indians must have the same representation on-reserve Indians enjoy. They would then use the argument that the Passamaquoddy are an American tribe although members of my band, myself included, have never lived in the United States). There are other tribes who span the borders such as the Mohawks and Maliseet. So why use the Indian Act ( as discriminatory piece of legislation as ever existed as Canada has no other legislation for any other nation to determine who can be Irish, Scottish, British, etc., or how and where they have to live to be recognised for their nationality) to deny us our rights? Other forms of government continue to deny us our inherent rights by toting this government “hard line”. Provincial governments continue to ignore our treaties and have blatantly stated so. Lies are fabricated involving DFO, RCMP, Indian Affairs, etc. to suppress Native tradition at every opportunity. The treaty rights we have, to live as we always have on both sides of the border include the Jay treaty (which again, Canada chooses to ignore) and the Treaty of Utrecht. Here is a treaty which is the title for Britain’s recognised right to Canada, yet a certain portion of this treaty, the part in reference to Natives, is conveniently ignored by this government. If governments prefer not to honour such a treaty, does that not mean that France never ceded this territory to the British? How is it possible to “select” that part of the treaty which is valid, while you conveniently ignore others? Is this not discrimination? .

Government departments such as DFO have even redefined the word conservation as a means of denying us access to our rights. A DFO spokesperson stated to the press that we would not be allowed to harvest our most traditional meal the harbour porpoise ( a few to keep the tradition alive), because of “conservation” for they are an endangered species (this too was a lie as the correct term was “threatened species”) whereas it was ok for the industry to slaughter thousands a year because the same DFO has given them an allowable by-catch! Why does conservation apply to us who wish to harvest only a few to keep our tradition alive, but can be ignored for the industry? Hence “conservation” is now a tool to deny Natives access to the fishery and no longer a means to protect the species! What happened to yet another supreme court decision, “Sparrow”, in which Natives were to be allowed first access to the resource? Why has the government and its department chosen to ignore yet another law of the land?

While the government continues with its trash and burn policy for my people, others continue to profit from our proposed demise. Using the war cry “they don’t exist” (the Federal government/Indian Affairs position), we have been denied the retribution we so deserve which is so necessary to fight these injustices. The monies owed us for compensation for loss of resources, those held in trust for the loss of our reserves, and the lands stolen as a consequence would supply us with enough resources to secure the preservation of our people in their homeland forever and a day.

As they maintain their right to legislate us out of existence, as they continue to steal our land, as they continue efforts to bring about  our extinction through their “lack of recognition”, all of this is occurring despite recognition by other governments (including the USA), the Supreme Court of Canada (the highest law in the land), and the Assembly of First Nations (the union of every First Nation in Canada). At the root of this is “who has the right to determine who is an Indian in Canada”, certainly not government whose agenda is so heavily influenced by commercial/industrial interests, doing what they think is necessary to protect the dominant society at the expense of minority/Native rights? Protecting those who have so generously contributed to their election campaigns while ignoring those who could not afford to.

We are dealing with a mentality, which is nothing short of Nazi as the final solution is the demise of my people. The “G” word, “genocide”, is so conveniently silenced throughout the process, using nicely worded phrases such as “denying recognition”, rather than the “extermination of a people”.

Is there any way of charging these conspirators with crimes against humanity? Is it not misprision to abuse such power?

As Native people we will continue to practice our traditions and culture and we will defend to the end our right to exist and we will resist any attempt to separate us from our homeland, our ancestors, and our heritage.