Rexton, New Brunswick – As negotiations between New Brunswick Premier David Alward and Elsipogtog First Nation Chief Arren Sock continue, the Mi'kmaq Warrior Society – not invited to said talks – have issued their own list of demands from inside the anti-shale gas blockade that continues along highway 134.

The demands, which follow, bring into doubt Alward's actual right to lead – and speak on behalf of – a territory that has never actually been ceded. Despite the efforts of Alward and Sock – an Indian Act chief who's jurisdiction ostensibly begins and ends within Elsipogtog reservation boundaries – it may well be that the two figureheads are in effect negotiating over access to lands over which they have no actual right to speak of.

The Mi'kmaq Warrior Society's demands are:

1. Produce all Bills of Sales, Sold, Ceded, Granted and Extinguished Lands for New Brunswick.

2. Produce documents proving Cabot's Doctrine of Discovery.

3. Produce the Treaty of Peace and Friendship 1686.

4. Produce Treaty of Fort Howe 1768.

5. Produce consents for Loyalists to land in Nova Scotia/New Brunswick.

6. Produce records of Townships created and consents by Chiefs to allow this.

7. Produce agreements or consents by all New Brunswick Chiefs who agreed to Confereration of 1867.

8. Produce evidence of consents to The Indian Act by all Native Tribes.

9. Produce records of Trust Funds.

10. Produce agreements for 4% of all mineral shares of finished products in Canada, except coal.

11. Produce all correspondence letters pertaining to Numbered Treaties (Promises).

12. Produce all documents creating border divisions, that divide the Wabanaki confederacy.

13. Produce the Orders from the Lords of Trade to the Governor of the Colonies.

“Despite the intentions of Chief Sock to remove SWN Resources from the territory, it is evident after negotiations that fundamentally his rights as a chief lie within the borders of the reserve,” says Treaty Scholar Suzanne Patles. “If we, the Mi'kmaq Warrior Society, were able to implement the wishes of the people to assert treaty, title and Aboriginal rights in order to remove SWN Resources from their territory, we would be seeing more success as of today.

“The list of demands delegitimizes the authority of the government, so I doubt they would be able to provide a response, or even if they would acknowledge receipt of the demands.”