KEY POINTS:
A letter Tame Iti sent from prison asking iwi leaders to decide how they could best support Tuhoe after the Bay of Plenty police raids was a mistake, Ngati Tuwharetoa believe.
Iti, who is facing firearms charges arising from the raids, wrote to King Tuheitia and paramount Ngati
Tuwharetoa chief Tumu te Heuheu from his remand cell.
Tuwharetoa spokesman Timi te Heuheu said both his brother Tumu and the Maori King were dragged into the political mire and media - a position both tried to avoid.
Iti got carried away, Mr te Heuheu said. "From any tribal point of view that's a political ploy. In my view he should be coming and saying, 'I'm sorry."'
That apology could happen in private and be done over a cup of tea with both leaders and be left at that, Mr te Heuheu said.
Iti could not be contacted for comment yesterday.
But Maoridom's support for Tuhoe at the highest level had not changed, Mr te Heuheu said.
"The business of supporting Tuhoe - in the legal sense and the strategic sense it [the raids] has been chaotic. I don't know how [authorities] could have gotten away with it, and that's including the Prime Minister."
He said Tuwharetoa, which had closely supported the past two police commissioners and Maori liaison staff at the national level, would be re-assessing that link.
Mr te Heuheu confirmed that his brother had planned to call a meeting of iwi leaders from around the country. Tino rangatiratanga, or Maori political sovereignty, is understood to have been at the top of the agenda.
And although Tuwharetoa do co-ordinate iwi response to important pan-Maori issues, given the conservative political path the tribe has traditionally followed it was a move that would have surprised many.
The focus of that hui will now be on Maori economic development between heavyweight settlement tribes. It is a far less contentious topic and likely to get more buy-in from other iwi leaders not keen to wade into the issue.
Mr te Heuheu said the final "shape" of the meeting had not been settled on but tino rangatiratanga was not just about political sovereignty, it was also about what could be done at the "flax roots" level - and economic development was part of that.
Meanwhile, Ngati Whatua leader Naida Glavish, who sits on an Auckland Maori advisory board to police, said although she supported Tuhoe and others in the hikoi due in Wellington today, Maori should not be too quick to judge police action in the Ureweras.
Maori police officers were caught in an unenviable position, she said.
"They are hurting because there is some information that will not be released, they're hurting because of what they're hearing their own people say, knowing that there's some information that they don't know."
She said one incident did not change the fact that Maori still had to work with police and vice versa.
