May 23, 1996 For Immediate Release

Delegates from Canada, the US, and the Russian Federation will be participating in the second international working seminar on The Problems of Northern Peoples. The seminar, requested by the Russian Federation's State Committee on the North, will be held at UNBC.

With a theme of Culturally Sensitive Economic Initiatives and Legally Effective Land Tenure Regimes for Native Northerners, the seminar will include presentations on such issues as parks and indigenous peoples, northern economic development, the Nisga'a and Carrier Sekani treaty negotiations, the protection and enhancement of aboriginal cultures, and traditional land uses.

About 25 delegates are expected to attend the conference, and about half will be from Russia. There will also be participants from Georgetown University, the University of New Mexico, the US Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Canadian Institute of Resources Law.

Last year's first annual workshop was held in Moscow.

All workshop sessions will be in the UNBC Conference Centre and will be open to the media. Detailed agendas can be obtained from the UNBC Office of Communications.

The conference is being supported by contributions from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, the MacArthur Foundation, and UNBC's Office of International Programs.