P-66 Quebec "nation" status raises native Indian ire

Quebec "nation" raises native Indian ire VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canada's indigenous peoples are feeling a bit snubbed by Parliament's decision to recognize Quebecers as a "nation" within a united Canada and not them too..... Native Indian leaders say the vote in the House of Commons, which has helped reignite debate over the role of French-speaking Quebec within largely English-speaking Canada, ignored the peoples who lived in North America before European settlers arrived.

"If it is good for the Quebecois, and we have no objection to that, then it is good enough for us," Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said on Tuesday, a day after lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the measure.

Native Indians are usually referred to within Canada as the First Nations. Canada's aboriginals include native Indians, Metis -- descendants of Indians and early French settlers -- and the Inuit people of the Arctic region.