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Willie Little Child, honorary chief of the Canadian Indian Cree tribe, came to London to see the Queen yesterday, writes Kathy Marks. But the Queen was busy, so he and other tribal elders staged a prayer ceremony in traditional costume outside the gates of Buckingham Palace.

The Indian and Inuit peoples of Canada are concerned about a possible European Union ban on the import of products made from the fur of trapped animals. While international sentiment has turned against the fur trade, they argue that their communities are dependent on it.

The delegation had hoped to ask the Queen to honour a treaty signed by Queen Victoria in which she guaranteed the fur-trapping rights of indigenous Canadian peoples.

Photograph: Nicola Kurtz