Charges dropped against Grassy Narrows trapper

Roberta Keesick no longer has the threat of charges hanging over her.

November 12, 2009: Volume 36 #23, Page A17

All the charges against the self-described activist trapper from Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows First Nation) were withdrawn by the crown.

Keesick was scheduled to appear in a Red Lake courtroom in mid-October on trial for building two log cabins on her family trapline without provincial permits under the Public Lands Act.

Similar charges against Keesick’s common law partner Don Billard, who was assisting Keesick with the construction, were also dropped.

“I believe that any Anishinabe can build a log cabin in the forest unhindered by the government,” said Keesick. “I hope that more Anishnabek will go back into the forest and utilize the land as our ancestors have, and teach our children and grandchildren how to survive in there.”

Prior to her trial, Keesick filed a Notice of Constitutional Question whick argued the “Government of Ontario has no right to regulate or interfere with the… right to hunt or fish in territory governed by Treaty #3 or to use the territory traditionally cared for and used by the Anishnabe people of the Grassy Narrows First Nation for hunting and fishing, among other uses.”

She argued the building of cabins is necessary to facilitate the exercise of those Aboriginal and Treaty rights.

In a release, Keesick said the building of cabins is part of a process of reclamation and revival where Indigenous people are using the land on their territory as their ancestors have for generations.

“If you bring the beaver in to a court room and ask him to stop cutting trees to build his house, he would not know what you’re talking about because he is not doing anything wrong – just doing what a beaver has always done,” Keesick said.

“This accurately describes what I feel as a true sovereign. My people have always used this land, but now we are criminalized and treated like a nuisance when we’re trying to be out on the land.”