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OTTAWA — A leader of a nascent First Nations alliance set to challenge the Assembly of First Nations’ authority has issued a sharp warning in advance of parallel meetings to be held by both groups next week.

Manitoba Grand Chief Derek Nepinak has told AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo that his province’s chiefs are unanimously opposed to the AFN’s dealings with the Harper government on treaties.

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“Chiefs of Manitoba have been very clear that our treaties cannot be negotiated away behind closed doors at high-level tables in Ottawa,” Nepinak wrote in a letter to Atleo on Wednesday.

Nepinak has been a leading advocate for a new National Treaty Alliance, arguing the Ottawa-based AFN has made little progress pressuring the federal government into honouring treaties signed long ago between First Nations and the Crown.

His letter to Atleo is a precursor to next week’s gathering of treaty nations at Onion Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan, which will partly focus on forming the new alliance.