Canadian Police Kill Indian, Wound 2 During Park Protest : Conflict: About 40 demonstrators closed public area on Lake Huron, claiming it is a burial ground. Accounts of the clash differ.

Long-simmering tensions between Canadian police and militant Indians flared into violence when Ontario riot-squad officers fatally shot a native man who was among about 40 protesters occupying a public park on the shores of Lake Huron, authorities said Thursday.

Two other protesters were critically wounded in the Wednesday night incident at Ipperwash Provincial Park, about 155 miles southwest of Toronto. The occupiers are from a group of about 100 who on July 29 took over a nearby Canadian military base, forcing out a small contingent of military police who had been preparing to vacate.

Militant Indians across Canada during the summer occupied parks and private property, barricaded roads and organized other protests over unresolved land claims, fishing rights and other disputes. Although there have been occasional incidents of gunfire, Wednesday’s confrontation was the first to result in casualties.

Police and Indians on the site gave sharply contrasting accounts of the shooting, which took place just outside the park gates.

Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Doug Babbit said officers responded when a park visitor’s car was attacked by Indians wielding baseball bats. He said police were fired on from two vehicles that crashed through a fence and bore down on them. The officers then shot back. There were no arrests and police did not seek to remove anyone from the park. One officer struck by a vehicle was treated and released from a local hospital.

Protesters inside the park told reporters on the scene that police attacked the two vehicles as the drivers tried to escape back inside the fence. “There were absolutely no weapons used by us. We don’t have any,” protest spokesman Roderick George told the Canadian Press news agency. The dead protester was identified as a 38-year-old man.

Since Monday, the militants have barred public access to the park. Police took up positions outside the park boundaries, and the provincial government said it would seek a court order to oust the protesters, who contend the park is the site of an ancient burial ground.

On Thursday, police closed all roads in the area and evacuated several residents. Leaders of the local Chippewa Indian community, who opposed the occupation of the base and the park, denounced the police shooting. Sympathetic demonstrators set fire to tires on a nearby road. Indian leaders from around Ontario were converging on the area in an attempt to defuse the situation.

Meanwhile, shots were reported fired at a police helicopter flying over a camp of about 30 militants on privately owned ranchland at Gustafsen Lake, British Columbia. For two weeks, Royal Canadian Mounted Police have surrounded the protesters, who are armed with assault rifles and have occupied the camp since June. The Indians claim ownership of the land because it was never ceded by treaty.

Mounties have twice exchanged gunfire with the militants, and two officers were saved from serious injury by their bulletproof vests. Earlier this week, the Mounties rolled in four armored personnel carriers to take up forward positions near the camp but have not moved to make any arrests.

*

In addition to the confrontations at Ipperwash and Gustafsen Lake, militants have faced off against authorities in New Brunswick and at several other places in British Columbia. Some of the protests have prevented residents from reaching vacation homes or mountain resorts and have blocked real estate developments.

Authorities normally have shown restraint, refusing to force the issue and rarely making arrests. This has generated a backlash among some white Canadians, who argue that the police tactics only encourage more illegal behavior.

Analysts say the protests, many of which went forward without the approval of government-recognized Indian leaders, reflect growing frustration among young Indians at the pace of negotiations with federal and provincial officials over native self-government, land claims and other issues.

Those negotiations, however, continue to move slowly. In British Columbia, for example, various native bands have made overlapping land claims that total more than 100% of the province’s territory.