Last stand of the Lubicon Cree

The Lubicon Cree of northern Alberta attracted international attention in 1988 with their call to boycott the Winter Olympic Games at Calgary and their six-day takeover of a giant oil field. Their simple goal has been to secure the reserve they were promised in 1940 and to build and alternative to a once-thriving bush economy destroyed in the rush for oil and gas. But despite widespread support for the Lubicon cause, first the provincial governement of Peter Lougheed and now the federal governement of Brian Mulroney have put one obstacle after another in the way of a negotiated settlement.

Last Stand of the Lubicon Cree shows what can happen in Canada when native people try to assert land rights in an area rich in natural ressources. If the story were not so well documented, it would be hard to believe. The book demonstrates that many people in Canada care deeply about the wellbeing of native peoples; but it also reveals to what extremes government authorities are prepared to go to crush aboriginal rights. With insight, drama and an eye for detail, writer John Goddard presents the Lubicon Cree story in a way that illuminates the current national crisis in native affairs and points the way to solutions.