The concept of aboriginal rights has been interpreted in various ways. Too often the general public does not understand fully what is meant by aboriginal rights. This topic has been debated in Parliament since Confederation and the general attitude of the news media has been to overlook it as unimportant. By definition, an aboriginal right is what belongs to a people from the most priminitive time known or before colonists arrived. This right applies to the inhabitants or animals or plants or all other products, including minerals, contained therein. In 1901 the Government Caucus passed an order in Council recognizing aboriginal rights of the Metis. The purpose of this is to show how the Metis are entitled to those rights as people of Native ancestry, having participated in the native culture by integration into Indian tribes of the Northwest of America. The aboriginal rights of the Metis are explained in regard to hunting, trapping, fishing, collecting wild rice, seneca root, maple sugar, lime and limestone, and salt. (Author/NQ)