By Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News Last week in Maskwacis, Samson Cree Nation and the International Organization of Indigenous Resource Development co-hosted the International Seminar on Treaties and Indigenous Laws, which featured presentations on upholding Treaty rights through national and international legal frameworks. Albert Barume, an international human rights law expert from the Democratic Republic of Congo who was appointed UN special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples in December 2024, was in attendance via video-conferencing. On Jan. 24, the seminar’s final day, Kehewin Cree Nation Chief Vernon Watchmaker addressed the conference on behalf of the Chiefs Steering Committee on Technical Services, a group of chiefs from Treaties 6, 7 and 8 that has been harshly critical of the federal Liberals’ proposed Clean Water Act….
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