Nesika: The Voice of B.C. Indians -- January/February 1976

Transcription (Hover to view)


SPECIAL OOF EcTions



\ published by

t

eel

BC Association of Non Status Indians
January/February 1976







@

ection Strategy



page it



No Speedy Solution Seen _

to Yukon Land Claim

Negotiations —









o~ |

my At an expensive reception and
™ highly publicized. ceremony last
, November, the representatives of
. Soe the Cree and Inuit people signed
2 eo an agreement in principle settling
fat Se their claim to all the land and

2 ef, resources in northern Quebec.
A05e At a series of meetings in
WOO VS Lo Vancouver and Duncan over the
ee Se first weeekend in February,
Se ee Arnold Goodleaf, a representative
af asta of the Indians of Quebec
es : : Association, spelled out the
iz details of that agreement. Many
88 Bo people fear that the James Bay
2- Se agreement will become a pattern
eS oT. for land settlements throughout
aon 2 Canada (in fact, DIA Minister
Zor es Judd Buchanan has already
5 < E 2 referred to it as a precedent), and
~—EheS if it is so, the details as explained

by Goodleaf are cause for alarm.
He came here for support for the
1.Q.A.’s bid to put a halt to the
finalization of the agreement, and
also to inform the people here
about the details. He gave his
listeners a sobering insight into
the government’s negotiating
goals and practises.

LAND

Goodleaf explained that the Cree
‘people originally sought -to
negotiate an agreement for the
land to be affected by the James
Bay Hydroelectric project. How-
ever, the government later
dragged the Inuit into the affair
and the negotiations came to





: James Bay

“the settlement

"Union of B.C. Indian. Chiefs

Plans Assembly for

cover almost all the land in
northern Quebec - an area of
410,000 square miles, which is
roughly 2/3 of the province. The
agreement states that the land in
area is to be
divided into three categories:

Category I - These lands total

5,250 square miles and the Cree

and Inuit people are to receive
1,274 square miles (out of the
original 410,000), with the legal
status to be the same as an Indian



reserve. The figure is based on

' the treaties signed with the Indian

people on the prairies where one
square mile of land would be
allotted for each family of five
persons. The remaining lands in
Category I will be under some
other form of community owner-
ship. The 1,274 square miles will
be the maximum amount of land
the Indians will get, since under
the agreement, they have no

sewers,








Agreement Details

option to purchase any additional
land.

The small amount of land the
native people receive is not as
potentially dangerous a situation
as a provision in the agreement
which calls for 884 square miles of
land to be set aside in Category I
lands for future non-Indian
settlement. These lands are to be
located directly across the river
from three major Indian villages!
There are virtually no white
people in the area now, but the
future will no doubt see towns
springing up on those lands with
all the facilities which do not exist
in the native communities: roads,
water systems, new
housing, schools, shops, etc. The
future contrast between the haves
and the have-nots, plus the
likelihood that the traditional
Cree people will slowly be drawn
into a wage-earning way of life in
those centres, marks the begin-
ning of the end for the Cree
people and their culture. It is a
pattern which is all-too-familiar,
and it’s probably not just
coincidence then that the agree-
ment in principle includes the
statement that ‘‘when there are
no longer any Crees, Category |
lands will revert to the province.”’
Category Il - These lands total
25,130 square miles (out of the
410,000) which will be held by the
province, but on which the native
people would hold ‘‘exclusive’’



cont. on page 9

NESIKA CORNER

We should begin this issue
by correcting some of the
mistakes we made in the
last one. It was brought to
our attention that we had
gotten some of our facts
mixed up in our story about
Fred House’s resignation.
We had stated that in his
new job with Secretary of
State he was to try and
improve inter-racial rela-
tions in Fort St. James,
Hazelton, and Burns Lake.
Well, Hazelton and Burns
Lake are not in his terms of
reference, but Dawson Cr-
eek and Quesnel are, and
we apologize if we’ve
caused any embarrassment
toFred or the fair citizens of
Hazelton and Burns Lake.

As we are all-too-often
reminded, we at NESIKA
occasionally make mista-
kes. We would, therefore,
like to propose a solution
that would make us less
prone to mistakes and at
the same time give us a
wider base to make edito-
rial policy. Those of us
involved in the NESIKA
would like to form a society
to operate the paper. It is
anticipated that members
of the society will have an
equal voice in what stories
the paper covers and how
they are reported. The goal
is to have a paper devoted
to the land claims move-
“ment which is independe-
ntly operated from the
political organizations. Pr-
esent thinking is that
membership would be open
to anyone with those same
goals and who would be
willing to put up, say, 1
percent of their take home
pay as the membership fee.

If any readers are
interested in that concept,

we ask them to write us and
give any ideas on how it
could. be operated. We
would hope to hold some
type of organizational or
founding meeting of the
society in the near future
depending on the response.
In the meantime, there are
a number of ways you can
help support NESIKA. The
most important thing to
improve is the distribution
of the paper. If you
currently receive more than
one copy, make sure the
extras are distributed to
others. When you’re thro-
ugh with your copy, pass it
on, it increases the reader-
ship without increasing our
cost.

If you are not on the
mailing list, send us your
name and address to
receive your own copy.

Send us the names and’
addresses of others who

would be interested in
receiving this paper.

Put us on the mailing list
for your local band or local
newsletter. Send us news
clippings, photos with cap-
tions, art work, story ideas,
etc.

Many people have
responded to our appeal for
donations and it is helping,
but we ask those who have
not yet done so to make a
donation,

If you are interested, you
can volunteer to help put
out the next issue. This
issue was typeset and
produced with volunteer
labour by people who are
involved with, and concer-
ned about, the land claims
movement,
invited to help them:
Shirley, Pauline, Chris,
Brian and Ardyth.

and you are



Land Claims
Booklets
For Sale

NESIKA is offering for
sale a land claims informa-
tion booklet which was put
together by the local church
support. group. It is an
excellent source of back-
ground information about
the land claims issue, and
sells for $2.00, which
includes postage. It is 120
pages long and although
some of the mimeographed
pages are a little faint, the
material is well worth the
eye-strain for those who
want to know more about
land claims.

Some of the material
covered in the booklet:

A Speech by Chief Seattle

Joseph Trutch and the
Indian Land Policy

The Nishga Petition of 1913

Our Homes are Bleeding -
excerpts from this book on
the cut-off lands.

The White and Bob Case -
the Supreme Court decision

N.I.B. Statement on Abor-
iginal Title “*

The Supreme Court Nishga
Decision by Doug Saunders

Federal Policy Statement
on Aboriginal Claims, 1973

East Fraser Land Claims

Action Proposal

DIA Budget Estimates for
1974-75, with an analysis.



\. must have it now.

~EDITORIAL |

It has become all-to-obvious in preparing this issue,

that the federal government’s actions in negotiating
land settlements in the Yukon and Quebec are setting a
pattern for their actions in other parts of the country.
Certainly the Nishga people are talking about a much
different kind of settlement than was made in James
Bay, and hopefully, that is true for the rest of the
province.

But we have seen that the people in the Yukon, the
NWT, and soon, the Nishgas, will have a very difficult
struggle if they are to achieve the settlement they
desire. The rest of us will no doubt face that struggle
too, since it is becoming clearer every day, that the
federal government intends to negotiate, or force, a
James Bay settlement on all of us. oo
It should be clear by now that if ever there was a time
for the Indian people in this province to unify into one
group and fight for one goal, that time is now.

But should we unify? Do we really owe anything to
other Indian people on the coast? in the interior? up
north? down south? on the island?

What we do owe, is something to ourselves - for the
years we spent taking advantage of our ‘‘Indianess’’
and our “‘unity’’. We also owe something to our
children and our children’s children - and that is to
start building this unity we have spent so many years
talking about. We can’t forget the many speeches that
we have made in the past about co-operation and
working together when we face the difficulties, the
doubts, and frustrations that we must face and we must
conquer, tf we are all to achieve an equitable
settlement.

Achieving that unity won’t be easy, and it won't
happen overnight. But we must have it - as individuals,
and as independent and united Indian nations. And we

_/









LAND CLAIMS

POSTERS

Copies of the two posters shown here and copies of the
Nishga Land Committee poster on pages 6 and 7 can be
purchased for 75 cents each, or 3 for $2.00, by writing
to BCANSI. The posters are on heavy paper and are
18” x 24”’. Please include 30 cents to cover costs of
postage and a mailing tube. :



Please enter my subscription to NESIKA

Return to: BCANSI,
1099 W. &th,
Vancouver, B.C.

I enclose a donation of





Name:



Address:

















IE ert nad ge ™





'











2 NESIKA

Jan/Feb 76







NESIKA:

On reading the article on
‘“‘the controversy’’ in the
recent NESIKA, I would
like to offer some views and
opinions and I am trusting
NESIKA to grant me some
space.

’ In the first meeting after
the assembly I made plain
that I could not work for
dried fish, or berries or
seaweed. Nor could I work
full-time for $500. We
spent an afternoon hearing
Bill Wilson tell us that this
is what we had to do. This
got a lot of applause for
Bill, but very few results as
Bill makes clearer every
‘day.

So it was resolved that we
would suspend responsibi-
lities until we could care-
fully consider our priorities
and objectives.

So Fred went home to
Dawson Creek. Doris conti-
nued to work with the
people. she cared for and I
went to Rupert and conti-
nued my jobs.

At this point I will say that
I recognize the possibility
of being called full-time for
the Association. In this
interest I instigated efforts
to move to Vancouver and I
became aware of concerns
about my membership. It is
and was obvious that I will
not win popularity contests
with the Board. It was in
these times that it was
suggested that I should
resign and we_ enjoyed
several tempestuous meet-
ings. Mrs. Ronnenberg had
gone largely for espousing
the beliefs which she made
plain at the Assembly. The
Board and she surrendered
to each other and she
resigned. I don’t know if
the Board could accept a
resignation from an elected
person but even if they can
I say now as I have said in
meetings that I will not

Letters

In Octaber I was asked if I
was available to work. Mr.
House had worked his way
up from nil to $1,000 a
month so I assumed that I
should be paid the same. I
asked the Board several
times to lay down my terms
but they were unable to
find time in their meeting
for this. So I set out to try to
circulate information to the
locals and hoped to excite
Locals about the new tribal
concept. I submitted a
review of my _ situation
which was quoted in the
last NESIKA.

This has been in the hands

of the Board members since
October.

I pledge now that none of
my work for which I was
paid was in any way to
BCANSIs disadvantage. In
fact we were availed of an

office and equipment and _

staff which supported us.

The Board as a whole may
not be really burning up the
course since the Assembly
but we have sampled some
directions and there are
some real things happen-
ing. As is to -be expected,
there are some internal
conflicts. Fortunately these
are largely philosophical
conflicts and I feel they are
normal where concerned
individuals are endeavour-
ing to represent a large
membership. On our behalf
I will say that we have
never embarrassed you as
members and we feel that
the next assembly will be a
monumental one and will
see us choosing paths
toward our destiny. —

Jamie Sterritt -
Prince Rupert



NESIKA:

Increasing concern has
been felt by many people
about the seeming disinte-
gration of unity in Indian
politics. This disintegration
slows down the progress,
and makes us ripe for
outside manipulation.

One way to: unify and
strengthen ourselves as a
people is to have a strong
District Council, and an
equally strong Executive,
who will work toward the
goals set by the people. It is
important for the persons
who accept these positions
to be able to take direction
from their electors, regard-
less of their own personal
feelings.

The process of selection,
therefore, needs to be very
closely examined to deter-
mine if it yields the right
people - those who will help
to bring about the desired
results.-In order for these
results to come about, the
persons elected need to
have the support of their
electors. There is no

| question of this support if

they work for the people, as
directed; on the other hand,
if they work for themselves
naturally there is no sup-
port, and disintegration
sets in.

In the past, the Executive
Members of a _ District
Council have been nomina-
ted, and through a process
of elimination, either by
secret ballot or by a show of
hands, have found them-
selves in a position of
responsibility. - i.e. an
Executive Member. In rea-
lity then, the whole process
- instead of attracting the
persons who understand,
and agree with, and would
stop at nothing to attain,

the goals set by the people -
has ended up as nothing
more than a_ popularity
contest. ‘

In other cases, some
persons elected to these
positions of responsibility,
although they may under-
stand and agree with the
goals set by the people,
have other priorities that
prevent them from fulfilling
the responsibilities asso-
ciated with: an executive
position. These people can
not do an effective job for
the people who elected
them. To be fair to the
electors then, these people
should decline when nomi-
nated; otherwise they be-
come Executive members
in name only.

One question that has
come up is-whether consi-
deration has ever been
given to our Elders. Tho-
ugh many of them lack
formal education, they pos-
sess a wisdom far beyond
what can be found in books.
Their knowledge of a
sharing way of life, which
has all but disappeared in
today’s dog-eat-dog type of
world, is something we
should encourage them to

share with us. If and when
they do, we should listen,
and hopefully we will learn.
Otherwise, we will all end
up as strangers on our own
reserves.

The question arises then -
has the process of selection
of our spokesman worked to
our satisfaction, or do we
need to change this pro-
cess, and how? ,

Nominations, as shown,
have not always yielded the
persons who have either
the time, or the ability, or
the willingness, to do an
effective job for the District

as a whole. ;
A suggested alternative

might be to have those
people who are truly
interested in working for a
better future for our people
campaign actively, and be
elected by the people on
this basis. Much along the
lines of applying for a job,
the applicant (the campaig-
ner) would thus show his
interest in putting his best
into the job, and the choice
would be based upon his
qualifications, his sincerity,
and his desire to do a
worthy job.

Hopefully, this would
result in a stronger, more
unified District Council that
is truly representative of
the people within its
boundaries.

Joan Cranmer
Chilliwack





SINCE THE WHITE MAN CAME

Some years ago since the white man came
Has been some years we played
With white man’s games.

Where are we now?
Getting drunk.
Shooting junk.

My people must never die.
The young must keep their heads high,

And walk our old way.

Walter Cook
Alert Bay



resign.

A Canada Manpower
program with potentially
valuable results for the land
claims movement is now
under way. The program is
called a Demographic Sur-
vey of Non Registered
Indians, and is adminis-
tered by Jim Lanigan, a
past Vice-President of the
B.C. Association of Non
Status Indians, and now a
member of their Board of
Directors.

The government hopes the
survey accomplishes two
objectives:

1) That it obtains an
accurate picture of the
number and location of
people of Indian ancestry in
six areas within the pro-
vince, and

2) That it obtains as
accurate a picture as
possible of the employment
situation of metis and
non-status Indians.

Survey Director Lanigan
hopes that an unofficial
survey that will be conduc-
ted at the same time will be
the basis for a registration
program listing all non-sta-
tus Indians who would be

eligible to participate in the
future recognition of Native
Title and Aboriginal Rights
in the province.
Manpower justifies the
survey by citing the fact
that little or no information
exists regarding the num-
bers or employment figures
of non-status Indians, while
DIA maintains a fairly
comprehensive data system
for status Indians. They
also state that this informa-
tion would enable native
organizations to plan com-
munity improvements with
greater certainty and stre-
ngthen their requests for
programs and services ava-
‘lable from government,
and also enable the gove-
mment to evaluate such
requests.

The survey will take place
in two phases, one in the
north and one in south.
Phase 1 involves hiring 16
workers (5 in Vancouver, 2
tn Delta, 2 in Surrey, 4 in
Victoria, and 3 in Courte-
nay/Comox) to conduct the
interviews, with a March
31st date for completion.
The workers hope to

interview all the native
people over the age of 14 in
each native household in
their area. If a _ native
person answers as being a
status Indian, then only
their name and address are

recorded to give Manpower -

some idea of the number of
off-reserve Indians. If they
answer as being non-status
they will be asked to
answer Manpower’s ques-
tionnaire about their em-
ployment situation. They
will also later be asked to
complete the unofficial part
of the survey, giving details
of their place of birth and
tribal ancestry.

Phase II of the survey will
take place in the north from
April Ist to May 31st. A
total of 10 workers will be
hired in three places - 4 in
Prince George, 4 in Prince
Rupert, and 2 in Dawson
Creek, to do the same
thing. The workers in both
phases will, for the most
part, be working out of
their homes.

The BCANSI Board of
Directors frequently dis-
cussed the need for a

registration program listing’
the numbers and _ tribal
origins of all the non-status
Indians in the province.
Lanigan saw an opportunity
to achieve this objective,
and with the unofficial
blessings of the Board, was
later hired by Manpower to
administer the survey.

It is hoped that 15,000
non-status Indians will be
contacted by the survey,
and Lanigan points out that
the results of both surveys,
especially the unofficial one
on tribal origin, will be
strictly confidential. All
that information will not be
given to: Manpower, but
will remain the property of
Lanigan. He has stated that
he will give this information
to BCANSI and/or the
UBCIC to help begin a
registration program for
non-status Indians to be
used in any eventual land
claims settlement.

RESEARCH STAFF
The names, addresses,

Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Indians. ..

and phone numbers of the
research staff are as follow:

Vancouver - Ernie Duchar-
me, 1304 Cotton Drive,
254-9256; Marie Dennis,
#9-1450 Maple St. 732-9175
Barry Gunville, 512 Camp-
bell Ave. 253-0594.

Delta - Harriet Cook,
5414-44th Ave. 946-4947.
Richmond - Judy Wagner,
1039 Dennis Cres. 274-8569
Surrey - Bill Brown, 11072-
140A St. 588-1383; Pearl
Keenan, 13187-88th Ave.
596-1384.

Victoria - Katherine McNeil
3482 Bethune Ave. 388-65-
81; John Masters, 2124
Chambers St. 385-3734; Pat
Ginger, #10-119 Croft St.
385-8547; Flora Seeds, -
417A Creed Road, 478-1915

Courtenay - Ethel Pearson,
1771 Robb Ave. Comox,
339-4574; Sandra Pebernat,
3525 Bayside Rd. Courte-
nay.

Jim Lanigan_ can be contac-
ted at Canada Manpower in
Vancouver, phone 666-6346



Jan/Feb 76

NESIKA 3

Planning Underway for UBCIC Assembly

The first meeting of the
Chiefs’ Council of the
Union of BC Indian Chiefs
since the Kamloops assem-
bly was held in the

Vancouver Indian Centre .-

on January 16th and 17th.
The meeting was notable
for the number of people it
attracted. A total of 12 of
the 15 districts were repre-
sented in stark contrast to
the poor attendance at
Council meetings prior to
the Kamloops Assembly.
The following is a summary
of the major items dealt
with at the meeting:
Cut-Offs - In order to
eliminate and prevent pos-
sible confusion over com-
mon goals in the land
claims movement, Council
voted to invite representat-
ives of the Cut-Off Com-
mittee to the next Council
meeting.

Finances - The Union had a
bank balance of $14,000, it
owes about $10,000 in
accounts payable, and re-
cently received a donation
of $5,000 from the Anglican
Church, bringing the bal-
ance of their account to
$9,000. Complicating the
matter, however, is a figure
of $22,000 which the
Victoria Indian Cultural
Centre claims is owing for
past work done for the
Union. The Centre offered
to keep the Union’s Land
Claims library in place of
payment, but Council voted

to have Bob Manuel and
Steve Point get additional
information. The issue is
confusing since the Cultur-
al Centre and the Union’s
Land Claims Centre shared
the same building in
Victoria, and often shared
the same staff and equip-

‘ment. -

Fund-Raising - The Union’s
financial situation is not
bad, but it’s not good
either, especially with the
$22,000 bill hanging over
their heads, so not surpris-
ingly, Council discussed a
number of fund-raising
methods. Many bands have
already given their “‘BC
Special’’ to the Union, and
the Council members ag-
reed to ask the bands in
their districts to forward
them to the Union. It was
reported that the Union’s
van is still up for sale, but
no reasonable offets have
yet been received. Council
also agreed that the people
have to be approached and
asked to support -the
organization if it is to be a
people’s movement.

Membership Cards - In
order to get people involve-
ment and support, Council
voted to print and = sell
membership cards to. the
people for $2.00 each. The
cards are being prepared,
one for those people of 1/4
Indian blood with ancestry
in the province, and who
are eligible for membership

in the Union of BC Indians.
Another is being prepared
for associate membership
in the Union, for those
people who support aborig-
inal rights for Indian people
in BC. It is expected that
the district representatives
will take the lead in
distributing the cards prior
to the assembly. If accepted
by future assemblies, there
is a possibility that card-
holders will have voting
rights.

Annual Assembly - Present
plans for the Annual
General Assembly call for it
to be held in the Strathcona
Gardens, the arena in
Campbell River, BC, from
Wednesday the 12th, to
Saturday the 15th of May.
Church Support - Mike
Lewis gave a report to
Council on the local church
support system for land
claims. It is a_ project
funded by local churches
and under the direction of
George Watts, and _ ulti-
mately, the Chiefs’ Counc-
il. The Council then passed
a supportive motion that
the project continue and try
to extend itself to the
labour unions. They also
agreed that $2,000 be
loaned to the project for
seed money for printing a
land claims information
booklet which would be
repaid when the copies are
sold. Profits would enable
the book-printing to cont-

inue without further sup-
port from the Union.
N.1.B. - Council voted that
UBCIC Maintain a relation-
ship with the National
Indian Brotherhood for the
purposes of land claims and
aboriginal rights only.

New Government - It was
voted that the Executive
meet informally with the
new government in Victor-
ia, however, a February
12th request for a meeting
with Allan Williams has
gone unanswered.

EXECUTIVES KEEP ON
TRUCKING
The Executives are

mid-way to reaching an
ambitious goal they have
set for themselves of
meeting with all 188 bands
before the end of March.
Bill Wilson is scheduled to
meet with all the bands in
these districts: Fort St.
John, West Coast, Babine,
Terrace, Kootenay-Okan-
agan. Bob Manuel’s dis-
tricts include: Lakes, Wil-
liams Lake, Thompson-Nic-
ola, South Island, Lytton-
Lillooet. The five which
Steve Point has to cover are
Bella Coola, East Fraser,
West Fraser, North Coast,
and Kwagewlth.

In addition to travelling,
Steve Point has the respon-
sibility of handling the
administration of the U-
nion’s office at Coqualeet-
za, and much of his time to

' date has been spent in that

area.

The Executive are
enthusiastically preparing
their plans for the Camp-
bell River Assembly. They
have already indicated they
don’t want another assemb-
ly like Chilliwack, but want
a working session instead.
They hope to get the
structural and voting chan-
ges out of the way as soon
as possible, and then have
the people begin working
on prelimimary positions on
commercial fishing, food
fishing, hunting, trapping,
agriculture, resource use,
and other items related to
land claims and aboriginal
rights.

The major focus of the
assembly will be changing
it and the organization from
a delegate’s organization
and assembly to a people’s
organization and assembly.
They want to see all the
people interested enough to
attend, have a say and a
vote on positions taken,
resolutions, elections, and
the future of the Union. To
that end, they will be
inviting everyone interest-
ed in the land claims issue
to attend.

The next meeting of the
Chiefs’ Council is schedul-.
ed for March 6th and 7th at
the Squamish Band Office in
North Vancouver.



New Mines Minister Wins Custer





Custer Award Winner
Tom Waterland







The Custer Had It Coming

Award this issue goes to
the new Social Credit
Mines Minister Tom Wa-
terland. While his com-
ments in a front-page
article in the VANCOUVER
PROVINCE do not specifi-
cally relate to Indians, he
certainly qualifies for his
lack of understanding of
our land, our resources,
and our environment.

The January 14th article
detailed his speech to the
annual meeting of the B.C.
and Yukon Chamber of

Mines the previous day. .

Waterland began by saying
that ‘‘a recent headline
saying he would ‘not be a
patsy’ for the mining
industry had created the

impression to those who
only read headlines that he
was anti-mining.’’ He sta-
ted that to correct -the
wrong impression, he was
only interested in a ‘‘heal-
thy industry’’. That, -cou-
pled with his announce-
ment that royalties on
metallic minerals will be
replaced by a profit-based
tax was the high sign for
the mining industry to
return to exploiting and
exporting the mineral ri-
ches of the province.

But Waterland won the
Custer Award for his

statements that as a mining»

engineer, “‘he scoffed at
the statements made in the
last few years that ore is a
‘non-renewable’ resource
that is being ‘depleted’.

‘*‘T ook at the ore reserves
in this province over the
past 140 years and tell me
that we are depleting this
resource,’’ he said. ‘‘In
1836, when mining began
in B.C., we had not one
pound of ore reserves in
B.C. In 1972 we had billions
of tons of ore reserves. and
more was being added all
the time.
industry, through explora-
tion
technology, has constantly
added to the mineral
wealth.”’

His incredible statement
begs several questions.
Does Waterland think that

The mining.

and advances in



4 NESIKA

Jan/Feb 76

the mining industry is
putting gold, copper, and
coal back into the ground?

Does he think that the
amount of minerals in the
province is magically incre-
asing all by itself?

Can’t he ever foresee the
end of the mining industry
in the province?

We are also deeply
concerned over his plan to

drop all royalties on metal-

lic minerals and replace
them with a tax based on
mining profits. Our con-
cerns are based on the
mining industry’s account-
ing practises. They appa-
rently will be free to inflate
their own prices, salaries,
and expenses to the point
where they will be making
no profit, and therefore
paying no tax. International
mining companies would be
encouraged to make their
mining operations lose mo-
ney in B.C., but make
money elsewhere, so they
don’t have to pay tax.
Under the new method,
there is no guarantee that
the province will receive
any money for the minerals
being extracted, while at
least the old method saw
the province receive a
certain royalty. on each
pound or ton of ore mined.
Waterland’s plan will have
a tremendous impact on the
industry since metallic mi-
nerals make up over 40
percent of B.C.’s second
largest industry. The value

of minerals mined in 1975
was $1.2 billion and the
value of just four metallic
minerals mined last year
(gold, copper, zinc, and
molybdenum) was worth
$485 million.

We also are less than
crazy about his intention to
allow mining companies to
resume operations inside
provincial parks again.
’ With the new Minister so
seeminly committed to sho-
velling the mineral riches of
the province out as fast as
humanly and mechanically
possible, with no guaran-
teed financial return, and
with respect to future land
claims negotiations, we can
only ask, “‘What is going to
be left to argue about?”’
HONOURABLE MENTION

Skeena MP Iona Campag-
nola has earned an honou-
rable mention for the
Custer Award for her
statements concerning a
precedent for land claims
settlements in B.C. Her
remarks speak for them-
selves and we pass them
along without further com-
ment as they were reported
in the January 23rd edition
of the NORTHERN TEMES:

“Will the final outcome of
the Nishga negotiations
with the federal and pro-
vincial governments set a
precedent for other native
people of B.C. who are

looking for a land claim -

settlement?”’
‘“When this question was

ward

put to Skeena MP Iona
Campagnola on an openline
program recently, she re-
plied the Nishga settlement
would indeed set a precen-
dent for other land claims
issues in the province.”
‘‘Asked if she did not
think that since this was the
case, other native repre-
sentatives should be allo-
wed to sit in on the Nishga
negotiations, Ms. Campag-
nola intimated that this was
not necessary, since the
rest of the Indian people
were ‘‘quite satisfied’’ to
see the Nishga settlement
set a precedent.”’

“After all, as Ms.
Campagnola pointed out,
the Nishgas have been
negotiating for a long
time.”’

‘““‘The James Bay
settlement in Quebec set a
precedent for the whole of
that province. Ms. Cam-
pagnola has said that the
situations of native people
in northern and southern
B.C. differ, yet a northern
land claims settlement is
apparently setting a prece-
dent for the whole prov-
ince.”’

‘‘Asked if disagreements

among native people would

affect the outcome of the
Nishga negotiations, Ms.
Campagnola said such dis-
agreements would have to
be settled among the
Indians themselves after a
settlement with the federal
government,”’

Asp Quits BCANSI Board

‘‘There’s nothing dull
about BCANSI.”’ At least
that’s the way an old saying
about the organization goes
and events of recent mon-
ths seem to indicate it’s
true, since once the organi-
zation manages to resolve
one controversy, another
always seems to crop up.

STERRITT

CONTROVERSY

RESOLVED

The differences between
Jamie Sterritt, Secretary-
Treasurer of BCANSI, and
most of the other Board of
Directors were finally iro-
ned out at the January 24th
and 25th meeting of the
Board. The differences,
mostly financial, were set-
tled, although philosophical
differences remain (see
Sterritt’s letter to the
editor). Sterritt is no longer
on salary but he retains the
title of Secretary-Treasurer
and in the future will play
the same role as a Board of
Director within the organi-
zation.

Bill Lightbown, who had
served as the Official
Spokesman since the Kam-
loops Workshop’ without
salary, was put on salary
with BCANSI at $1,000 per
month. Because Lightbown
indicated a growing need
for help in dealing with the
administrative matters of
the association, the Board
voted to hire a full-time
secretary. Since then, Shir-
ley Scow, a former Secreta-
ry with BCANSI, was hired
and began work on Februa-
ry Ist.

- Federal Involvement Sought on Cut

A surprising turn of events
at a meeting of the Cut-Off
Lands Negotiating Com-
mittee with the Province on
February 10th, saw the
agreement signed last June
between the province and
the Cut-Off Lands Commit-
tee of the Union of B.C.
Indian Chiefs go ‘‘out the
window’’, according to
Chief Adam Eneas, the
Indian representative on
the negotiating committee.
The situation came about
as a result of the federal
government’s refusal to
take the role assigned to it
by Levi, the NDP Minister
then-responsible for Indian
Affairs. When negotiations
were taking place last June
30th, the Indians were
asking for three parties to
be involved in settling the
dispute: the federal and
provincial governments,
and the Indians. Levi
assured the Indians, how-
ever, that the province
would deal with the federal
government so that only the
province and the Indians
need be involved in work-
ing out the details to a
settlement. The Indian
representatives eventually
agreed to that arrangement
and the memorandum of

George Asp had attended
the Board meeting of the
Native Council of Canada
earlier in January, and
gave a report on the latest
activities within the N.C.C.
At their meeting, the NCC
voted to make aboriginal
rights and land claims their
sole mandate. They have
since halted all programs
they had been running and
laid off the program staff. A
huge brown bureaucracy in
Ottawa has been reduced to
a staff of six. The NCC will
be embarking on an ‘‘Abo-
riginal Rights Political Pre-
ssure Campaign’’. The
campaign will feature spe-
aking engagements, TV
shows, hotline programs,
and press conferences to
try to get the federal
government to. recognize
aboriginal rights and land
claims for metis and non-
status Indians nationally.
The goal of their pressure
campaign, it should be
pointed out, is a recognition
of their aboriginal rights
and a funding commitment
of eight million dollars to
research and document
their land claims.

The beginnings of a new
controversy were evident at
the BCANSI Board meeting
as George Asp sought to
get a $1,000 donation to the
Tahltan Nation to help fund
an organizational confer-
ence in the north. Asp,
himself a Tahltan, and
instrumental in organizing
the Tahltan people, saw
that the move would likely
be defeated, so he with-

understanding was signed
whereby the Indians would
stop blocking the roads,
and enter into negotiations.

Progress over the summer

‘was slow, and late last fall

Levi finally wrote Judd
Buchanan, outlining the
agreement that had been
signed, and spelling out the

federal government’s res- —

ponsibility. Buchanan re-
plied in the middle of the
provincial election cam-
paign that the federal
government would not have
their participation dictated
by the province; that they
had some responsibility for
a settlement; and _ they
wanted to become involved
in the negotiations.

The Indians then had to
wait for the election results,
and then the cabinet
appointments, and finally
attended a meeting with
Allan Williams, provincial
Minister of Indian Affairs,
to learn the province’s
intentions. At that meeting
Williams stated the pro-
vince was willing to com-
plete negotiations, but saw
no point in doing so until
the federal government
commits itself to a settle-
ment of the dispute, and to
bear its share of the

day,

drew the motion. He
reintroduced it the next
but the lack of a
quorum prevented it com-
ing to a vote. The issue
generated heated discus-
sion and split the Board in
two. One side (G. Asp, R.
Sterritt, J. Sterritt, N.Ster-
ritt, A. Smitheram) argued
that the donation would be
a meaningful gesture in
supporting an emerging
tribal group and well within
BCANSI’s mandate. The
other side (B. Lightbown,
T. Miller, D. Smith, J.
Lanigan, R. Poitras, R.
George) argued that BC-
ANSI was not a funding
agency, would set a dan-
gerous precedent, and also
that funding is the respon-
sibility of the Tahlitan
people.

GEORGE ASP RESIGNS

The Tahlitan donation was
the first item of business at
the February 21st and 22nd
meeting of the Board, with
the discussion falling along
the same lines as the
previous meeting. How-
ever, Asp warned the
Board that if the motion
was not approved, he would
resign. The vote was 4 to 2
defeating the motion, with
G. Asp and R. Sterritt in
favor; and B.Lightbown, J.
Lanigan, T. Miller, and R.
George against. After the
vote, Asp stated that
BCANSI didn’t intend to
honour their previous mo-
tion that the Association
organize on a tribal basis.
He then left the meeting
sayingthat a written letter

compensation. -

Judd Buchanan has
already indicated verbally
that the federal govern-
ment will become involved
and Adam Eneas has sent a
memo to all bands with
cut-off lands to get them to
put pressure on Buchanan
to honour that promise.
Provincial Indian Affairs
Minister Allan Williams is
scheduled to-meet Bucha-
nan on February 26th, and
intends to get the federal
government’s confirmation
at that time.

His memo stated that the
‘‘Commission has not been
dissolved as yet. Informally
however, all indications are
that we will not be able to
continue in this format. The
federal government must
be involved and wants to be
involved. Further we would
no doubt welcome such a
method provided that this
is set up without undue
delay.’’ and “‘as far as we
(the Commissioners) are
concerned, this Commis-
sion is finished and the way
to more positive action is
opened. Perhaps we should
regroup and see what
directions we take from
here.”

He privately stated that

of resignation would be
submitted.

Many Locals have been
enquiring about the next
BCANSI Assembly but the
Board discussed it only in
general terms since the
cutrent plans rely heavily
on developments within the
UBCIC and their upcoming
assembly in April. The
Board had previously given
Lightbown the mandate to
co-operate if possible, with
the Union’s Chiefs’ Coun-
cil. If plans for the joint
assembly fall through, the
assembly will likely be held
sometime soon after the
Chiefs’ assembly. The lo-
cation of the assembly was
not discussed.

As for funding the
assembly, the mood of the
Board is such that they
won’t be applying for a
grant, and the finances of
the organization are such
that it can’t finance the
assembly from its bank
account. They are asking
the Locals to begin fund-
raising activities so that the
delegates could have their
expenses paid by their
Local. Bill Lightbown st-
resses the importance of
Locals funding their own
delegates since the asso-
ciation can only guarantee
to meet the conference
expenses at this. time.

FRED HOUSE HONORED

BCANSI members, Board
of Directors, friends and
family paid tribute to Fred
House at a spirited dance
held in his honor on
February 20th. Fred rece-
ived a gift from the Surrey
Local, who sponsored the
dance, and several spea-
kers acknowledged his ef-

though he has told Wil-
liams that the agreement is
“out the window’’, he

“*‘doesn’t see any need for a

return to. militancy just
yet’’, since both sides have
indicated a willingness to
work out the differences.

Eneas says that although
the past eight months
should probably be consi-
dered a waste of time, the
fact that the election threw
a wrench into the works
should be considered a
good thing since it preven-
ted the same breakdown
occurring at a much later
date.

Philip Joe, Chairman of
the 23 band Advisory
Board, will probably be
contacted and asked to
arrange a meeting of the
bands involved to learn the
bands’ position on federal
involvement. Since a new
negotiating committee will

‘have to:be appointed, the

bands will probably also be
asked to consider whether
Eneas should be re-appoin-

ted as the Indians’ negotia-

tor.

Eneas’ memo included a
brief review of the research
findings made by the

forts on behalf of non-sta-
tus Indians over the past
five years as the President
of BCANSI.

LIGHTBOWN HITS THE
ROAD

As the amount of time
required for dealing with
administrative details of
the Association becomes
less and less, the amount of
time that Official Spokes-
man Billi Lightbown can
spend in meeting with the
Locals is increasing. To
date, he has concentrated
on the Locals in the Lower
Mainland and Vancoluver
Vancouver Island, but he
intends to meet with as
many BCANSI Locals as
possible before the Assem-
bly. He is asking the Locals.
to contact the office (phone
732-6122) to arrange a

‘meeting. In order to facili-

tate his travel plans, he also
asks that the new names
and addresses of Local
Officers be sent to- head
office.

In addition to meeting
with the Locals, Lightbown
has spoken on the land
claims movement to-a wide
variety of non-native chu-
rch, labour, and youth
groups in the Lower Main-
land.

FUNDING RESOLVED

A late report indicates that
the differences between
BCANSI and the Secretary
of State office have been
ironed out and the way is
now open for the Locals to
apply directly to Secretary
of State for core-funding on
the local level, without
getting the approval of the
Vancouver office.

Offs

provincial government. The
findings showed that the

‘disposition of lands in
question can be generally
classified as follows:’’

1) ‘*Lands returnable with
little or no complication.
These are lands that are
unencumbered and _ held
solely by the province.’’
These’ would include 13
parcels of land and involves
eight bands (Songhees,
Quatsino, Nahwitti, Upper
Similkameen, Port Simpson
Nazko, Ohiat, Ulkatcho).
The total acreage of these
lands is 16,828, and is
approximately one-half the
acreage of all the cut-off
lands.

2) ‘‘Lands that have been
partially alienated and whi-
ch would require negotia-
tion.”’ There are 15 parcels
of land affected and there
are 11 bands involved
(Squamish, Penticton, and
Kitwanga are some _ of
them) and detailed nego-
tiations would be required.
3) ‘‘Lands which have
been alienated in total.’’
There are 6 parcels of land
affected and four bands
involved and negotiations
as to what kind of compen-
sation would be required.



Jan/Feb 76

NESIKA 5

Rod Robinson, James Gosnell, and Bill Mackay





sralatala toate tleha tb tat ll lL EDEL LL LOLOL GLADE OUr



JAA AA AR AA AA RA RARARARARARARARARARARA AA RA AA RA RA RARA AS AR GA RARARAEA AA AREA AA RAR RAPA RA RARA RA RA RARARA AA AARARAARAARARA AN RARA RD

TUE





notes from 1887 ROYAL COMMISSION

Charles Russ of Greenville, (a sub-chief) - For a long time we have had trouble in our
hearts, and we have felt very sore about our property; but we are all very glad you
chiefs have come, and that we have a chance to lay everything before you...

We are not going to show you how wise we are, or how much we know, but to tell
where our trouble is, and what our wants are. What we want is to speak about our
property - our land. We want to have for ourselves that Mountain first pointed out to
Mr. O'Reilly, as much as we need to use, and we want the words and hands of the
chiefs on both sides, Indian and Government, to make a promise on paper - a strong
promise - that will not only be for us, but for our children and forever...

It is just lately the white people are changing the name. Now it is called the Indian
reserve, instead of the Nass people’s land. If you ask the Hydas, Alaskas, Stickeens;
Bella Bellas, and Fort Ruperts, they will tell you that this is the Nass people’s land...

You have heard from the other chiefs what we ask for. We don’t ask much for
ourselves; we only ask for a little - the land that Mountain spoke of. This land is only a
little bit compared to what is outside of it. All these mountains and lands outside of
what we ask for are for you; we are not asking for it. Go up the mountains and you will
see other mountains, with nice valleys in between; all that too is for you - the white
people. But we want a solemn promise - a treaty...

We want sufficient land now for our numbers. We want food, salmon, berries,
animals for food and furs, timber for houses, canoes and boxes, bark for mats. Now
these things are got in different places, and we want land where we can get them...

Our children and their children will honour anything done by the chiefs present here
today...

Charles Russ - We hear your words and you have heard the words of our chiefs, but
the words you have read to us we have never heard before in our lives. When they
made the laws that you speak about they had never been to see us; they did not know
what we used or what we wanted. I would like to know, sirs, if there was one chief of
the Nass present when that law was made, and whether they asked him to speak for
the Nass people? Or did they write a letter asking them about it? Why, they never
even sent us a letter to tell us it was done. You see these chiefs present laugh. We can
not believe the words we have heard, that the land was not acknowledged to be ours.
We took the Queen's flag and laws to honour them. We never thought when we did
that that she was taking the land away from us...

How did the Queen get the land from our forefathers to set it apart for us? It is ours to
give to the Queen, and we don’t understand how she could have it to give to us...

Neis Puck (an old blind Indian) - I am the oldest man here and can’t sit still any longer
and hear that it is not our father’s land. Who is the chief that gave this land to the
Queen? Give us his name, we have never heatd it...

Charles Russ - We love the land; we love the places where our fathers’ graves are and
where our children are buried; but we will leave them and go to a new country sooner
than stay where it is said ‘‘the lands do not belong to us.”’

David Mackay - What we don’t like about the Government is their saying this: ‘‘We
will give you this much of land.’’ How can they give it when it is our own? We can not
understand it. They have never bought it from us or our forefathers. They have never
fought and conquered our people and taken the land in that way, and yet they say now
that they will give us so much land - our own land. These chiefs do not talk foolishly,
they know the land is their own; our forefathers for generations and generations past
had their land here all around us; chiefs have had their own hunting grounds, their
salmon streams, and places where they got their berries; it has always been so. It is
not only during the last four or five years that we have seen the land; we have always
seen and owned it, it is no new thing, it has been ours for generations. If we had only
seen it for twenty years and claimed it as our own, it would have been foolish, but it
has been ours for thousands of years...

Yesterday we told you that the law and report you read to us, to the effect that we
were not the owners of the land, but that the Queen owned it - did not satisfy us, that
we could not receive it into our hearts, and we wish to tell you that when we heard it
again tonight we did not change our minds. The land was given to our forefathers by
the great God above, who made both the white man and the Indian, and our

ww

A

dbcbdidutdodckckAcchdlcdutddebdduldakdedk-kebaedaidebddidedekekcdkddedk Ahh Dedkeh A Akeded A hADbod Md RA AAR AR DRAG Add tcttdedhdhAnd Ach Ab Ak Add RRARALARPRICALELALAROLARARARAR AD A





rz forefathers handed it down to us, and we have not given it to anyone. It is still ours,

F3 and will be ours til we sign a strong paper to give part of it to the Queen. And we shall

Fr}. pray to our God to give you great wisdom, and guide us all that we may find peace.

3 Clee-took oe Calder David

A Se-bas-sa ess-yset Mountain 2

3 Nass Harbour Ah-wel-agh Tall-a-hat Charles Russ &

Ps Oct.. 19, 1887 Am-clam-am Victoria, per Job Calder 4

= =“
js Jrvivdiaitbderdokubtidied AA ALAA LRA AAA AOA AARRAPL EAGER ED Wa A Wd We a





“Our 107 year wait is
over.”’ So said Nishga
Tribal Council President
James Gosnell as he left the
historic January 12th meet-
ing between the Nishgas,
federal, and provincial gov-
ernments in New Aiyansh.
The meeting, mostly cere-
monial, symbolized the
beginning of negotiations
over the Nishga claim to
4,000 square miles of land
in the Nass River Valley.

This issue traces some of
the history of the Nishga
claim. In 1887 a Royal
Commission was sent to the
Nass to meet with the
chiefs and report back to
Victoria on the establish-
ment of reserves. In 1913,
they sent a proclamation to
the King of England, seeck-
ing help over their differen-
ces with the BC Govern-
ment. Finally, in 1976, they
have issued a Declaration,
stating their basic position
on the forthcoming negotia-
tions.

We hope and trust the
Nishga people will be able
to negotiate a settlement
that will honour the mem-
ory of their forefathers.

J



ee

a strong promise -





‘SOUR 107 YEAR WAIT IS OVER”’



1. From time immemorial the said Nation exclusively possessed,
occupied and used and exercised sovereignty over that portion of
the territory now forming the Province of British Columbia which
is included within the following limits...

2. When sovereignty over the territory included within the
aforesaid limits was assumed by Great Britain, such sovereignty
was accepted by the said Nation, and the rights of the said Nation
was recognized by Great Britain.

3. From time to time the Crown has by Proclamation recognized
the right of the said Nation to possess, occupy and use the said
territory, and, in particular, by the Proclamation of His Majesty
King George the Third issued on the 7th day of October, 1763...
4. The said Nishga Nation is one of the nations mentioned in the
said Proclamation as being under the protection of the Sovereign,
and all members thereof are Your Majesty’s loyal subjects.’
5. No part of the said territory has been ceded to or purchased by
the Crown, or by any person whomsoever.

6. No part of said territory is within the limits of the territory
granted to the Hudson’s Bay Company.

8. From time to time the Government of the Province and various
persons acting in the name of the Crown, under the assumed
authority of the ‘‘Land Act’’, have made surveys of, granted
records of pre-exemption of, sold and issued patents for, various
parts of the said territory.

10. The said transactions have been entered into in violation of
the provisions of the said Proclamation of King George the Third
and without competent authority.

11. From time to time Your Petitioners have delivered to persons
entering the said territory under the assumed authority of the
“Land Act’’, written notices of protest, of which the following is
one: ‘

‘‘Whereas we, the Indian people of the Nass River, being the
lawful and original inhabitants and possessors of all the lands
contained therein from time immemorial; and being assured



excerpts from the 1913 NISHGA PETITION

in our possession by the Proclamation of 1763;

‘‘And whereas, up to the present time our lands have not
been ceded by us to the Crown, nor in any alienated from us
by any agreement or settlement...

“We do therefore, standing well within our constitutional
rights, forbit you to stake off land in this valley, and do hereby
protest against your proceeding further into our country -
until such time as a satisfactory settlement be made between
the representatives of the Crown and ourselves.

12. On the 3rd day of March, 1911, delegates representing the
said Nishga Nation waited upon the Government of British
Columbia, asserted the title of the said Nation in respect of the
said territory, and protested against the refusal of that
Government to recognize such title. ~

14. Your petitioners are aware of the provisions of the agreement,
made in the year 1871 and set out in the ‘‘Terms of Union’’, and
they also are aware of the provisions of an agreement made
between Canada and British Columbia, relating to the matter of
the so-called reserves, and nothing contained in either of the two
agreements does or can take away any of the rights which they
claim.

15. Your Petitioners, claiming to hold a tribal title to the whole of
the said territory both by aboriginal right and under the said
Proclamation, and having no other recourse for securing justice,
humbly place this Petition before Your Majesty...

Your Petitioners also humbly pray that Your Majesty may be
pleased to take such measures as may be found necessary for the
protection of the Nishga Nation in the exercise and enjoyment of
the rights so adjudged and determined.

This Petition is presented by the Nishga Nation in pursuance of a
resolution passed at a meeting of the Nishga Nation, held at the
village of Kincolith, on Wednesday, the 22nd day of January,
1913.





NISHGA LAND COMMITTEE OF 1910

we want the words and hands of the chiefs on both sides,Indian and Government, to make a promise or

that will not only be for us, but for our children and forever...”

ee



Judd Buchanan and Allan Williams



nuda D Il LiL LILLE LDL LE LL LLL



RA RARARARA RA RA RA AR RRA PARA RARARAPARARARA AA RA AA RA RA RA AR RA RA RA ARAA RA RAGARA AA AABARARARARARARARARA RARARA

ala

AA AA RA RARA RA AA RA AAR

AAA





Vii

1976
NISHGA DECLARATION

The Nishga people is a distinct and unique society:



within the many faceted cultural mosaic that is Canada :
The issue is whether the Nishga element within this

mosaic will be allowed to face the ‘difficulties’, will be



particular and the country in general. The positive
aspect of this participation, we feel, must be through
self-determination, self-determination that is depen-
dent on the shared and mutual responsibility o
governments and Nishga People.

If Canadian Society and Nishga Society of which it is
part, is to be truly free, we as a distinct people and as
citizens, must be allowed to face the difficulties and
find the answers, answers that can only be found: by
determining our own social, economic and _ political
participation in Canadian life. Governments, both
Federal and Provincial, must be persuaded that Nishga
self-determination is the path that will lead to a fuller
and richer life for Nishga People and all Canadians.

We, as Nishgas, are living in a world where dynamic
initiatives must be taken to achieve self-determination
especially in respect to-the natural resources of the
Nass Valley, in order to control our own process of;
development within the larger Canadian Society and to
make decisions that affect our lives and the lives of our
children. We realize that our struggle for
self-determination will be a difficult one, but we refuse
to believe that it is in vain, if governments and the
Nishga People agree to their mutual responsibility for
that growth and development. Nishga self-determina-
tion of resource development within the Nass Valley is;
the economic base that will allow for self-determination:
of the other aspects of modern 20th Century society that;
makes up this Canada of ours.

In 1969, N.T.C. agreed in principle with the statemen
of the Government of Canada on Indian Policy, in th
face of strong opposition from other Native Peoples}
across the nation. That agreed principle was
incorporated in the policy statement: ‘“‘true equality
presupposes that the Indian people have the right t
full and equal participation in the cultural, social,
economic and political life of Canada’’. Such an
agreement in principle, however, does not necessarily,
mean the acceptance of the steps to. implement as
suggested by the 1969 Policy Statement. Co-existen
with the N.T.C. agreement of the stated principle is
also the N.T.C. agreement with the Hawthorne Report,
that ‘‘Indians should be regarded as Citizens-Plus; i
addition to the normal rights and duties of citizenship,
Indians possess certain rights as charter members 0
the Canadian Community’’.

Undergirding the whole of the above, is the deman
that, as the inhabitants since time immemorial of th
Nass Valley, (the boundaries of which are stipulated i
the case, Calder et al vs the Attorney-General of B.C.
all plans for resource extraction and ‘‘development’
must cease until. aboriginal title is accepted by th
Provincial Government. Also, we, the Nishga People
believe that both the Government of B.C. and th
Government of Canada must be prepared to negotiat
with the Nishgas on the basis that we, as Nishgas, ar
unseparable from our land; that it cannot be bought o
sold in exchange for ‘’extinguishing of title’’.

CONCLUSION

What we seek is the right to survive as a People and
Culture. This, we believe, can only be accomplishe
through free, open-minded and just negotiations wit
the provincial and federal authorities, negotiations tha
are based on the understanding that self-determinatio
is the ‘’answer’’ that government seeks to th
’difficulties’’ as they apply to the Nishga People.

allowed to become full participants contributing in a
positive way to the well being of the Nass Valley in



TRA AS A AGA RO Ach AB fed A Robe Adee BetindechsBedinltntnlh mR nbabuetadidl



PAC j

Yukon



Land











é ae) a





HMMM...
LAND, YOU KNOW...
PRICELESS THESE DAYS

...A& CASH SETTLEMENT You SAY-
You COULD INVEST 1T IN

LAND’S NEARLY

from the Yukon Indian News.





Chances for the land
claims negotiators in the
Yukon to sign an agree-
ment by the March 3lst
deadline are as good (or

bad) as Quebec Premier
Bourassa having all the
facilities ready for the.

Montreal Olympics. Unlike
the Olympics, however, the
fact that the deadline will
not be met is not cause for
panic and is probably one of
the more encouraging signs
in the whole land claims
movement.

Much has been made of
the March 3ist deadline,
but closer examination sh-
ows that it is Judd
Buchanan and the federal
government waging a pu-
blicity campaign focusing
on the deadline in an effort
to pressure the native
people into a settlement,
much as they had done in
James Bay.

The native people refer to
March 31st as a ‘'target
date’’ for an agreement in
principle to be signed. Joe
Jacquot, one of the native
negotiators, says there is
‘*no way’’ the target date
will be met, and in fact, he
sees “no speedy solution”’
since an agreement will
depend on how reluctant
the government is to
change their position.

RECENT HISTORY OF
THE YUKON LAND
CLAIM

The present negotiations
stem from a _ proposal
submitted by the Yukon
Native Brotherhood to the
Federal Government in
1972 entitled ‘“‘Together
Today for Our Children
Tomorrow’’. At the time,
there was some criticism of
the proposal because it
didn’t involve much input
from ‘‘non-status’’ Indians
or people in the communi-
ties. As a= result, the
Council of Yukon Indians
was formed to better
represent the territory in
the area of land claims. It is
a 48 person council with 4
people from each of the 12
villages in the territory, 2 of
‘the representatives being

‘*status’’ Indians, and 2 of
them ‘‘non-status’’. It is
this group which has the
mandate to seek a settle-
ment of the land claim in
the Yukon Territory.

The Supreme Court Calder

decision in the Nishga case,
plus the Liberal govern-
ment’s minority position in
the House of Commons,
combined to force the
Federal government to
reverse its position on
aboriginal rights, and acce-.
pt the Yukon proposal in
1973.

The basis for the 14 point
negotiating list which was
eventually worked out by
the Council of Yukon
Indians, was the original
‘Together Today’* propo-
sal with additional input
from the people in the
communities. The C.Y.1.
established a four person
negotiating committee: Eli-
jah Smith, past President of
the Yukon Native Brother-
hood; Joe Jacquot, past
President of the Yukon
Association of Non-Status
Indians; Johnny Johns; and
Harry Allan.

The negotiations took an
on-again, off-again nature
for over a year until both
the Indians and the gove-
rnment agreed last year to
set a target date of March
3lst, 1976, to sign an
agreement in principle.
Probably because of its
involvement in James Bay,
the Government did not
take an active role in the
Yukon negotiations until, in
October, they appointed
Digby Hunt, Assistant De-
puty Minister of Northern
Affairs in D.I.A., to handle
its side of the negotiations.
The appointment of such a
senior official camé as a
surprise to the native
people. However, Hunt’s
government duties inclu-
ded co-ordinating the plan-
ning for the Mackenzie
Vally Pipeline, and his
appointment as a land
claims negotiator, if not a
conflict of interest, was at
least a lucky coincidence.

trol) 11)



8 NESIKA

Jan/Feb 76



‘ho speedy solution”

Since that time, the
government and the native
people have put forth their
initial positions and Hunt
has returned to Ottawa to
plan the second round. The

| native people have retur-

ned to the villages to
consult with their people,
and that is where the
matter stands today.

Recent conversations with
native people involved in
the negotiations have given
an insight into the inten-
tions of both sides. Joe
Jacquot has stated they
refer to. the James Bay
agreement but only beca-
use they don’t want that
kind of a settlement. He
also explained that some of
the negotiators have visited
New Mexico and New
Zealand, and are investiga-
ting other areas to come up
with the best possible
agreement. He said ‘‘our
conception is the same as
the Nishgas. We won’t give
up our rights, but only deal
with land matters in terms
of lease arrangements...we
must have control - control
is the name of the game.
WE must be in a position to
opt in or opt out.”’

Mike Smith, a recent UBC
law school graduate who is
involved in the negotiations
states: ‘*There is no rush to
settlement. However, the
Indians are not going to
wait, but are going to try
and force the government

. into the issue.”’

THE NEGOTIATING LIST

The government and the
Indians have agreed on a 14
point negotiating list: 1)
Eligibility 2) Land 3)
Withdrawal of lands from
alienation 4) Hunting, tra-
pping, fishing 5) Develop-
ment institutions 6) Timber
7) Resource revenue shar-
ing 8) Water 9) Taxation 10)
Local government - (con-
Programs 12)
Residual rights 13) Cash
payment 14) miscellaneous.

The first item, eligibility,
appears to be a _ major

stumbling block in_ the
negotiations. The Indian
position is that to be

eligible, one must have at
least 4% Indian blood, and
be able to trace one’s
Indian ancestry in the
Yukon at least as far back
as January ist; 1941. The
government’s position is
that there should be no
minimum blood require-
ment (the same as the
James Bay agreement).
According to Mike Smith,
‘eligibility is the key to a
settlement because the
government intends to use
it to whip the rest of the
issues into line.’’ Several
other sources suggest that
che reason for the govern-
ment’s strong stand on the
issue is that it will allow
them to implement the 1969
White Paper policy and

abolish federal responsibi-
lity for Indians.

The government’s barga-
ining position, as it had
been in James Bay, was
based on the treaties
signed with the Indian
people in the Prairie
provinces during the late
1800’s. Although no ,one
considers those treaties
fair, either then or now,
these treaties allot each
Indian family of five one
square mile of land. The
opening round of negotia-
tions saw the government
take the position that it
couldn’t offer more than
that because it would then
be unfair to: the Prairie
Indians and would force
them to renegotiate the old
treaties!

We in B.C., and
particularly our Nishga
brothers, should know what
to expect from the govern-
ment when it comes our
turn to talk with them.

TERRITORIAL
GOVERN MENT
INVOLVED

Complicating the situation
in the Yukon is the position
of the Yukon Territorial
Government, which sits in
an advisory capacity to the

‘federal government in the

negotiations. They prepa-
red their own 16 point
negotiating list (items like
economic development, so-
cial welfare, alcohol, justi-
ce, culture) which doesn’t
include any mention. of
Indian hunting, fishing, or
trapping rights.

Apparently what the
Territorial Government
wants out of a settlement is
the opportunity to gain full
provincial status and beco-
me Canada’s 11th province.
Their involvement in the
negotiations could be com-
pared to a vulture circling a

. hunted animal, waiting for

a chance to pick the bones.
If the situation seems bad,

Joe Jacquot thinks it may.

have improved over the
past year. He gives the
Berger Inquiry credit for
moderating the white back-
lash to the land claims issue
in the Yukon.

A recent letter to the
editor of the Yukon Indian
News suggests that all is
not well within the Indians’
camp, however. Some ex-
cerpts:

‘There is concern among
the status and non-status
Indians that negotiations
are being speeded up.
Many of the Indian people
themselves are being kept
in the dark. Due to the
policy of secrecy, only a
select few Indian people
claim they know and
understand what a land
claims settlement means...
The interest of the majority
of Indian people is not there
and they can _ hardly

be blamed because they do
not know what is going on.
Notwithstanding this fact,
negotiations are sailing
along and progress is being
made, so the news releases
tell us...

“‘T attended two such

meetings and felt -very
uneasy at the way these
meetings were conducted.
Instead of the representa-
tives being well briefed on
the business at hand and
advising the negotiators,
the negotiators presented
their recommendations and
resolutions to a vote, and in
many instances the dele-
gates did not take time to
debate the motion. Even
though many of them did
not fully understand the
motion, they voted after
carefully looking around
the table to see who or how
many others put their hand
up first.
‘*A negotiator was usually
appointed spokesman for
C.Y.I. but questions from
the floor were mostly
answered or argued by the
legal advisor. If a question
was replied to by a
negotiator, he took the
question as a_ personal
affront, and made a long
and noisy response in a
defensive manner instead
of just answering the
question in a straightfor-
ward, honest, and direct
reply...

‘‘The members of the
Advisory Board and Gene-
ral Council have some
responsibility to report to
their people in their home
communities on the busi-
ness of that meeting, but
they are for the most part
not doing this. The Indians
themselves should make
their views known to their
representative and they
must share the blame for
not asking questions and
seeking information and
playing a major role in the
decisions that are being
made by the negotiators
who claim they properly
represent all Yukon Indians
‘‘] read with interest that
the C.Y.I. are calling a
meeting of the Advisory
Board on February 17. Will
this meeting be ‘closed’ to
the Yukon Indians not of
delegate status as other
meetings have been, or will
the eligible Indians who
qualify for enrolment in a
Yukon land claims settle-
ment be welcomed as
observers for thier own

information?”’

If these complaints are
true, then the council of
Yukon Indians will have to
speed more time overcom-
ing the communication
problem with their own
people. Hopefully, it shou-
Idn’t be a major problem,
but it has to be corrected if
the Yukon people are to be
strong and united in the
struggle ahead.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

hunting, fishing, and trap-
ping rights. These rights,
however, are apparently
still subject to federal and
provincial regulation, and
present restrictions on Ind-
ian rights will not be lifted.
There are a few exceptions
to the Indians’ ‘‘exclusive
rights’’, in fact, there are
18 of them! Non-Indians
will be allowed to use the
land for water rights,
mining, forestry, scientific
studies, pre-development
rights, and other uses.
There is no doubt that these
activities will directly and
indirectly reduce the chanc-
es for the Cree and Inuit
people to maintain their
traditional lifestyle.

Category III - Thousands of
square miles will be flooded
by the hydro dams on these
lands, and the remaining
land (about half the prov-
ince), will be under the
contro! of the province and
the James Bay Develop-
ment Corporation. After
the settlement is finalized,
the Cree and Inuit people
will have given up all their
land rights, and their
aboriginal rights will have
been extinguished.

CASH

The cash settlement
involves a total of $225
million to be paid to the
Cree and Inuit people, and
is divided in three $75
million parts.

The first $75 million is a
straight cash deal compen-
sating the native people for
the extinguishment of their
rights in the area. Out of
that total, the federal
government will pay 333
million, and the provincial
government $42 miilion.
The money is payable over
the next 20 years, and
except for the interest it
earns, is non-taxable.

The second $75 million is
payable no later than 1996
and will come from the
profits earned by the James
Bay Development Corpora-
tion from the sale of
electricity. This money
practically guarantees that
the native groups will make
no further efforts, through
the courts or otherwise, to
block the hydro project. For
if the hydro developments
are stoppped or delayed,
the corporation will make
no profits, and the Indians
won't get any money.

The third $75 million is a
straight payment in place of
any and all mineral royal-
ties from the entire area,
and is payable over the next
ten years. The Indians
originally asked for a 25 per
cent royalty on all minerals,
but later agreed to accept
the $75 million instead.

Apparently a report was
released after the agree-
ment was signed stating
that the potential mineral
value in the settlement area

is worth several billion
dollars. Even if those
minerals are worth only one
billion dollars, that would
make the natives the losers
in the deal by $175 million.

The total $225 million is
only 4% per cent of the
natives’ original asking
price of $5 billion, and the
Government in Quebec is
reportedly getting wide
publicity by bragging about
the ‘‘good deal’’ and the
savings it made for the
province.

According to Goodleaf, the
seemingly huge sums of
money will not even be free
for the Indians’ use, as the
government retains some
say over how the money is
used.

He also pointed out that
the agreement in principle
is final in terms of
compensation for the native
people, but it does not limit
the government and _ its
actions. They can build
more hydro dams, use more
land, exploit more resourc-
es, and they don’t have to
compensate the native peo-
ple an extra nickel for the
development, pollution, or
destruction they cause.

money on the Olympics
than they will be for the
cash settlement. The feder-
al government will probab-
ly be spending at least 3
times as much money for
police protection, coins,
etc., than their contribution
to the cash _ settlement.
Those fantastic expendi-
tures are for two weeks of
running and jumping. How
can anyone balance those
games out against the lives,
land and culture of the
Cree and Inuit people?

PROGRAMS AND
LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Included in the agreement
are provisions for. the
government to provide ed-
ucation, welfare, and heal-
th services to the native
people. What must be
remembered here is that
these programs, now a part
of Indian Affairs, are
nothing special, they are
rights guaranteed to every
Canadian!

The agreement also calls
for special local boards to
administer the services and
govern the area, but
non-Indians (the govern-







“Take the $24 while it’s still worth $24.’’





The most obvious thing
wrong with the cash settle-
ment is that no provision
has been made for inflat-
ion. Figures provided by
the Faculty of Commerce at
U.B.C. show that inflation
has reduced the value of
the dollar to 57 cents over
the past ten years. If that
rate continues for the next
10 to 20 years, the $225
million cash settlement will
be worth only $92 million.

Dollar figures - with
bunches of zeros can be
confusing, but the figures
involved can be more easily
understood if one compares
them to the cost of the
Montreal Olympics. The
estimate for the total cost of
the Olympics is now over
one billion dollars, and it is
expected to lose more than
800 million dollars! That
means the Quebec govern-
ment will be spending more
than 20 times as much

ment and the hydro corpo-
ration) have enough repre-
sentation on these boards
to. make sure that the
Indians are out-voted at
least half the time.

ELIGIBILITY

There are four categories

of people eligible under the
James Bay Agreement:
1. a person who is’ a
registered member of one
of the eight James Bay
Cree bands,
2. a person of Cree ancestry
ordinarily resident in the
territory (there is no %
Indian blood requirement)
3. a person of Cree or
Indian ancestry recognized
by a Cree community as a
member, ,
4, the adopted child of one
of the above.

A person who has been
absent from the region for
ten years ceases to be

-Cree Chiefs,

entitled to participate in the
settlement, but if they
return, are entitled to
participate.

Goodleaf reported that if
there is any doubt over
whether a person qualifies
under those categories, the
last word rests not with the
government in Ottawa, and
not with the Indians, but
with the government in

Quebec!
RATIFICATION
While the eligibility

categories include ‘‘non-st-
atus’’ people, apparently
only the ‘‘status’’ Indians
in the 8 James Bay Cree
Bands voted on the propo-
sal. Since it was an
agreement in principle,
signed by the representa-
tives of the native people
and the government, it has
to be approved by the
people, in votes held in each
band, and by the govern-
ment. All eight Cree bands,
composed of roughly 6,000
people, approved the agre-
ement by a total vote of 991
in favor, and only 1 vote
against. It still has to be
approved by the Inuit
people in the north, and by
government to be legal.
The Inuit villages have until

‘March 14th to approve the

agreement, but one of the

‘villages has held’ off doing

so. They have
their

replaced
representative and

lawyer, and are taking a

new look at the agreement
with ideas of changing it
before it is approved.

OTHER INDIANS

The agreement signed by
the Cree and Inuit people
specifies that the special
rights of all the Indians in
the territory will be extin-
guished. The Algonquin
and Montaignais people
have reserves and traplines
within the territoriy’s bou-
ndaries, and have traditi-
onal hunting and fishing
grounds there too. These
separate Indian nations will
have their rights extingui-
shed by the agreement,
according to Goodleaf, and
there won’t be anything
they can do about it, but
they will be provided with
compensation by the go-
vernment for the loss of
their rights. Big deal.

HOW DID IT HAPPEN?

Billy Diamond, one of the
still insists
that his people got a good
deal. No doubt he believes
this, but his close involve-
ment with the negotiations
probably made him unable
to see the forest for the
trees.

There were actually seven
parties represented during

the negotiations: the Crees,
the Inuit, the federal
government, the provincial
government, the James
Bay Development Corpora-
tion, the James Bay Energy
Corporation, and Quebec
Hydro. Goodleaf didn’t

explain the mystery of how

the provincial power and
development corporations
came to be equal partners
in negotiating with Indian
people over their land and
aboriginal rights.

The seven party
negotiating committee es-
tablished a total of eleven
sub-committees dealing
with specific subjects - |
economic development, en-
vironment, aboriginal rig-
hts, etc., and each of the
seven parties had repre-
sentatives on each of the
sub-committees making re-
commendations to go into
the final agreement. The
governments and corpora-
tions could afford the
high-priced lawyers, expe-
rts and consultants to
report to the sub-commit-
tees, but the native people
could not. |

The major problem with
the negotiations was that
they weren’t based on
certain basic principles as
stated by the Indian people,
but that these principles
were actually up for negoti-
ation.

The few Indian represen-
tatives worked through the
long daily negotiating ses-
sions for weeks on end
against a constantly chang-
ing cast of characters
representing the govern-
ments and _ corporations.

The native negotiators were
constantly frustrated by the
government’s tactics - hav-"
ing to fight for their goals
again and again in the face
of an always changing team
of government representa-
tives.

The native people were
also out of their natural
element, holed up in a
fancy Montreal hotel away
from their family, their
people, diet, and clean air.

The lengthy sessions, the
frustration, and the incre-
dible pressure applied by
the government eventually
caused the native negotia-
tors to cave in, believing
they had gotten the best
deal they could under the
circumstances.

The question is - ‘*Will the
same thing happen here?”’

It will, if we allow it to
happen. But there are
lessons to be learned from
the experience of our
brothers and sisters in
James Bay. We must learn
these lessons if we are to
avoid the same fate.



Jan/Feb 76

NESIKA 9

The 1975 Indian Election Strategy

The ’75 provincial election
is over and the widely-pub-
licized Indian election stra-
tegy, with one outstanding
exception,.can fairly be said
to have failed. The strategy

developed by several lea-

ders of Indian organizati-
ons, you will recall, asked
Indian voters to vote for
Indian candidates regard-
less of their party.

HOW THE STRATEGY
DEVELOPED

Dave Barrett’s snap
election call caught every-
one by surprise, including
the Indian organizations.
The leaders of these orga-
nizations, some of them
with political aspirations,
called a meeting on No-
vember 12th to develop a
strategy to deal with. the
election campaign. The
meeting was held on the
same day as the voter
registration deadline, in the
offices of the Native Brot-
herhood, and included re-
presentatives from the Bro-
herhood, the Union of B.C.
Indian Chiefs, and BCAN-
SI. In attendance were Fred
House, Don Moses, Forrest
Walkem, Lonnie Hindle,
Kitty Maracle, Percy Paul,
Andrew Charles, Delbert
Guerin, Clarence Joe, Ja-
cob Kruger, and Adam
Eneas.

It was obvious that those
attending had different
purposes in mind. Don
Moses wanted to publicize
and make use of the
political survey he prepared
outlining potential Indian
voting strength. Fred Hou-
se wanted to announce his
candidacy for the Fort
George Liberal nomination,
and others, like Kitty
Maracle and Forrest Wal-
kem, were there to test the
political waters as they
planned their entry into the
campaign.

A press conference had
been called for that same
day, and the group used it
to protest the lack of time
for voter registration. In
fact, there was very little
time to register, especially
for native people in rural
and isolated areas, in
winter, with no public
transportation. [Earlier in
the day, Clarence Joe
outlined the major effort
the Sechelt Band had made
to ensure that all their
voters were registered,
including the use of a
school bus to overcome the
transportation problem.

The group did not come to
any agreement concerning
a political party or philoso-
phy to support, and came
up with the only decision it
could have, given the
differences within the gro-
up - that Indians vote for
Indians. Nothing was said
about who Indian voters
should support if there was
no Indian candidate in their

10 NESIKA

riding.

Many Indian people
seriously questioned the
wisdom of the strategy on
hearing the announcement,
and the lack of further
announcements or meet-
ings of the group or the
candidates probably incre-
ased voter skepticism as
the campaign unfolded.

THE CAMPAIGN

Five Indian candidates
were eventually nominated
and ran in the election:
Frank Calder switching
from the NDP to. Social
Credit in Atlin; Dan Han-
use for Social Credit in
Comox; Fred House for the
Liberals in Fort George;
Kitty Maracle for the
Liberals in West Van-Howe
Sound; and Forrest Wal-
kem for the Conservatives
in Yale-Lillooet.
person, Peter Prince from
Fort St. James, was unsuc-
cessful in trying to get the
NDP nomination in Omine-
ca.

Some candidates had
serious intentions of win-
ning the election, some
were in it for the experie-
nee, some wanted to
publicize and promote the
land claims issue, and all of
the candidates probably
had a combination of these
in mind.

Some of the candidates
may have been successful
in publicizing their camp-
aign and/or the land claims
issue on the local level, but
the big media outfits - the
Vancouver Sun and Prov-
ince, CTV and CBC barely
mentioned the subject after
the initial press conference.
No doubt an Indian election
strategy could have gene-
rated a great deal of
coverage if it was well
organized and had the full
support of the organiza-
tions.

- The land claim never
became an issue in the
campaign since the three
‘free enterprise’’ parties
mouthed promises to nego-
tiate the issue and Barrett,
late in the campaign,
hinted he would negotiate
with the Nishgas and Norm
Levi followed it up with a
definite commitment at the
Native Brotherhood Con-
vention.

RESULTS & ANALYSIS

As everyone knows by
now, almost everyone (90
percent) tn the past election
voted either NDP or Social
Credit. Given this fact,
then, only the Socred
candidates stood a chance
of being elected. Frank
Calder was re-elected, this
time as a Socred, and Dan
Hanuse lost out by only 1
percent of the vote. The 3
others were out of the
running before the camp-
aign had begun, and
eventually ended up far
back in the polls.

Jan/Feb 76

A sixth |

An over-all study of the
election is impossible as the
results defy analysis. One
general conclusion that can
be drawn is that the
election strategy was too
little, too late, and the only
thing the candidates had in
common was the colour of
their skin.

What follows is an
analysis of each campaign
using election results from
those polls in the riding
with mostly Indian voters.
One of the ridings had only
1 reserve that voted by

itself, while others had
several.
FRANK CALDER

Frank Calder’s surprising
mid-stream switch from the
NDP to Social Credit didn’t
hurt his election chances,
and probably improved
them. Calder had repre-
sented the riding as an
NDP MLA since 1949, and
increased his vote from 40
percent in 1972 to 55
percent as a Socred in this
past election. The Nishgas
in the Nass River Valley
have had a long history of
organized block voting and
they solidly backed Social
Credit in ’75 as a result of
Barrett’s failure, until too
late, to negotiate the
Nishga land claim. Even
the non-Nishga Indian peo-
ple at Iskut voted 59
percent in favor of Calder.
The lowest support for
Calder in a Nishga village
was an amazing 73 percent
at Kincolith, and went as
high as 97 percent in
Canyon City. The Indian
NDP vote in the five
villages dropped from 40
percent in °72, to what
appears to be a hard-core
base of 11 percent in 1975.

DAN HANUSE

Dan Hanuse is the MLA
who could have been. The
one difference between him
and the other Indian
candidates was that he was
the only one not involved in
Indian politics, and this
probably caused him to lose
the close election. He was

the only Indian candidate

who received a_ smaller
percentage of votes (32
percent) from Indians than
he did from the riding as a
whole (39 percent). A
logging contractor from the
riding, he lost the election
by only about 350 votes as
Karen Sanford and_ the
NDP maintained a strong
attraction for Indian voters,
gaining almost half the
votes. Hanuse would be an
MLA today if he worked
harder in Cape Mudge and
Alert Bay to gain Indian
support, especially when
one considers that 450
eligible .voters in those
villages did not vote.

FRED HOUSE
Fred House’s late entry

into the campaign didn’t
hurt him since he was

easily recognized and wi-
dely-known in the riding,
having been the President
of BCANSI for four years,
and consequently having
received a great deal of
media exposure. House
eventually settled on the
Liberal nomination in Fort
George, although he did
consider a late offer to run
as an NDP candidate in
North Vancouver-Capilano
against Gordon Gibson.
The fact that he was
parachuted in didn’t help
him, but he ran a strong
campaign nonetheless. He
picked up editorial support
from several newspapers as
being the best individual in
the race. House was swam-
ped by the NDP-Socred
vote which totaled 90
percent, but he did manage
to double the 1972 Liberal
vote from 3 to 6 percent. He

‘was the least successful of

the five Indian candidates
in attracting the Indian
vote, gathering only 10
percent of the votes in
Mcleod Lake and Shelley,
as the Indians there voted
almost exactly as the riding
had done. Not discouraged
by the results, Fred House
has announced his inten-
tion ‘to run in the next
Federal election as a
Liberal against Frank Obe-
rle.

KITTY MARACLE

The other Liberal
candidate, Kitty Maracle,
was also swamped by the
NDP-Socred _ polarization.
Her opponent, Allan Wil-
liams, doubled the vote he
received as a Liberal in ’72
(from 34 percent to 68
percent), this time as a
Socred. A past President of
the B.C. Native Women’s
Society and a resident of
the riding, Maracle got 13
percent of the vote over-all
from what must be consi-
dered the hard-core Liberal
base. Previously little kno-
wn in Mt. Currie, Maracle
managed to attract 32
percent of the vote there in
the only easily-identifiable
Indian reserve vote in the
riding. The Indian vote in
Mt. Currie showed almost
50 percent support for
Social Credit but only 15
percent for the NDP -
probably as a result of the
NDP government’s handl-
ing of the blockade on the
reserve last year. The
figures show that the
Indian vote Maracle gained
came from only one source,
the potential Socred voters,
as the NDP vote remained
the same as the riding’s.

FORREST WALKEM

A successful businessman
and long-time UBCIC Chi-
efs’ Council Member, For-
rest Walkem was widely-
known by the Indian voters
in his home riding. For
these reasons, he was the
second most successful of
the five candidates in
attracting Indian voters.
His support was fairly

constant on three reserves
in the riding and averaged
out to be 41. percent.
Walkem’s campaign had
wide Indian support and it
came at the expense of both
the Socreds and the NDP.
However, the high polari-
zation in the riding (85
percent either NDP or
Socred) cost him as the
Conservative vote dropped
from 11 percent in ’72 to 10
percent in ’75. Walkem’s
over-all vote could have
been higher since 28
percent of the voters in the

_ riding are Indians, but less

than '2 of the Indians
registered to vote actually
voted. A deeply disappoin-
ted Don Moses, who was
Walkem’s campaign mana-
ger, said that ‘‘provincial
elections are obviously low
priority with native peop-
te".

CAMPAIGN FUNDS

The financial figures
released by the candidates
show that the two busi-
nessmen were the _ big
spenders. The reported
campaign expenses were:
Dan Hanuse $28,245;
Forrest Walkem - $12,644,
Frank Calder - $12,017;
Kitty Maracle $6,814;
Fred House - $1,987.

The lack of funds
undoubtedly hurt Fred Ho-
use’s chances in the cam-
paign, but at the same
time, an almost unlimited:
amount of money didn’t get
Dan Hanuse elected. Exc-
luding the double member
ridings, Hanuse was the
fifth biggest spender in the
election.

OBSERVATIONS

Was the Indian election
strategy successful? It de-
pends on what you mean by
success. Each of the five
candidates were successful
in one way or other, but
only one, Frank Calder,
could be said to be
successful by the toughest
standard of measurement -
he got elected. It must be
remembered that in spite of
the strategy, all five are
individuals and opportuni-
sts, and there would have
been chaos if they all had
been elected.

The four losing candidates
and the organizations who
sponsored the ‘‘strategy”’
are probably realizing only
now the hard work and
organization necessary to
develop power at the polls.

Indian voting patterns in
other ridings, Skeena, Pri-
nce Rupert, Alberni, Mac-
Kenzie, showed high NDP
support, up to 70 and 80
percent, and was greatly
responsible for re-electing
several NDP MLA’s.

It is not too early to begin
working on the next elec-
tion, to build on the
strengths and weaknesses
of Indian voting habits so
that native people will be
better represented in the
next legislature.

see chart on page 11]



GITKSAN-CARRIER NATIONS ORGANIZE FOR LAND CLAIMS

The eight villages which
make up the recently-for-
med Gitksan-Carrier Tribal
Council seem to have made
substantial progress since
beginning work on the
claim to their tribal territo-
ry in northern B.C.

The Council is formed of
the six villages of the
Gitksan Nation (Kispiox,
Glen Vowell, Hazelton,
Kitseguecla, Kitwanga, Ki-
twancool) and two of the
Carrier villages (Hagwilget
and Morricetown). In Jan-
uary of this year, the
Council established an 18
person working committee
to define the outer bounda-
ries of their tribal territory
based as much as possible
lon the ancient laws as
remembered by the tribal
elders. The committee also
has the responsibility to

‘define a land claims posi-

tion to be used in future
negotiations.

The committee is formed
of one elder and one youth
from each of the eight
villages, and has two
co-chairman: Neil Sterritt
and Al Mason.

Most of the work to date
has been on defining the
tribal boundaries, using
tape-recorded interviews
with the elders, and a map
is being prepared showing
the boundary and using
Indian place names. The
map is nearly complete and
shows not only the outer
boundary, but the area
inside the boundary is
being identified as being
owned by one of the four
clans of the Gitksan-Carrier
people. The committee will
be meeting with neighbou-

ring nations in order to
ensure that all the neigh-
bouring nations agree on
their common boundary
with the Gitksan-Carrier
people. Hopefully, this will
enable the Kitwancool peo-
ple to iron out their
differences with the Nish-
gas over their common
boundary.

The $100,000 funding
proposal which was to have
been submitted to Secreta-
ry of State for a land claims
research budget to. do
essentially the same thing
is gathering dust on a shelf
somewhere as the people
have been raising the funds
by themselves to carry on
the work.

Work on the map has been
progressing so well that the
committee expects to have
it completed before their

June Ist objective, and
have it adopted by the
Tribal Council before the
end of March. They have
not set a date for complet-
ing a land claims position to
be used in negotiations.

A related event saw a
timber sale near the village
of Kitwanga stopped by
Resources Minister Water-
land on Feb. 27th, at the
insistence of the Tribal
Council. The timber in the
sale was apparently fitted
into Kitwanga’s economic
development plans, and
several Band Council Reso-
lutions and much corres-
pondence was unable to
stop the sale until Water-
land was contacted perso-
nally. A spokesman stated
that the native people were
pleased with his prompt
action, but expressed frus-

tration and dissatisfaction
in their few dealings with
new Indian Affairs Minister
Allan Williams. They were
reportedly unable to get
any response from Wil-
liams and blame it on his
Labour portfolio which doe-
sn’t allow him enough time
to deal with Indian probl-
ems.

We congratulate the
committee on being able to
reach their present stage so
quickly, and we’re happy to.
hear that many people,
young and old, are becom-
ing involved.

Those wantirg more
information or wishing to
become involved are asked
to contact Ray Jones,
Chairman of the Gitksan-
Carrier Tribal Council, in
Kitseguecla.



MUSQUEAM

The Musqueam Indian
Band is suing the Federal
Government because they
say that the Department of
Indian Affairs made a bad
deal when DIA leased 162
acres of reserve land to the
Shaughnessy Golf and Co-
untry Club in 1958. A writ
was filed in Federal Court
on December 23rd, 1975,
by lawyer Doug Sanders
stating that the federal
government did not act in
the best interests of the
band when the lease was
arranged.

Chief Delbert Guerin
stated that DIA ‘‘reneged
on its duties as a trustee’’.
A 75 year lease was
negotiated. by DIA, acting
as trustee for the band, ata
time when the band was not
allowed to hire their own
lawyer, even with their own
money. The band did not
approve the original agree-
ment since they say that
DIA did not include several
items in the lease that they
had requested.

The land was leased for

SUES GOVT

reviewed every 15 years
after and a maximum 15
percent increase each time.
The band had the land
appraised by two different
sources in 1972, and the
land’s market value was
then between’ ten and
eleven million dollars. A
standard rental return of 8
percent would net the band
$800,000 a year income
instead of the $33,000 it
receives now. The band
states that DIA wrongfully
valued the land as if it were
uncleared and unimproved.

They are asking the court
to declare that the federal
government acted in breach
of trust and that in
arranging the lease, they
failed to exercise the proper
management required of a
trustee and that this has
resulted in loss of revenue
to the band. The band is
seeking compensation for
this loss of revenue.

Chief Guerin indicated the
band is willing to negotiate
the matter, but that they
are prepared to go to the



An unusual election in late
1975
elected by band members,
rather than just the chiefs
alone, as Chairman of the
West Coast District Coun-
cil.
The election became
necessary when in Septem-
ber George Watts and
Charlie Thompson resigned
as Chairman and Co-Chair-
man of the Council. The
Ehattesaht and Nuchatlaht
Bands were successful in
getting the Council to adopt
their suggestion that the
Chairman be elected by the
band members. Formerly,
they were elected by the
dozen or so chiefs on the
Council, and it was hoped
the new way would put an
end to complaints that the
Chairman did not have the
support of the people
because he wasn’t elected
by them.

Eventually, there were
four people who ran in the
election: Simon Lucas; Bert
Mack, who was elected
Co-Chairman; Jack Tou-

saw Simon Lucas

the responsibility to arra-
nge a band meeting to hold
a vote, or to conduct a
door-to-door poll of band
members.

Although there are
probably between 2,000
and 3,000 people in the
district who were eligible to
vote, when the votes were
totaled at a district council
meeting in January, there
were only a total of 261
votes cast.

Despite the small turnout,
the election holds some
significance for the rest of
the province, particularly
the re-structuring of the
Union of B.C. Indian
Chiefs. They are the first
district in the province to
elect their representative
by the people, and the
matter is due to be
discussed by the other

‘districts at the UBCIC’s

General Assembly in April.
It is one of a series of
recommendations to re-str-
ucture the UBCIC submit-
ted by Executive Bill
Wilson at the Kamloops

W. COAST REP ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE

the Executives of the Union
elected by the _ people,
rather than the chief
alone.

Simon Lucas will receive.
$200 per month for carrying
out the duties of district
chairman, because of the
time involved in co-ordina-
ting the council’s land
claims activities, the coun-
cil’s sole mandate. Part of
his duties will include
representing the West Co-
ast on the UBCIC’s Chiefs’
Council.

The West Coast District
was the first district in the
province to take over the
administration of health,
education, and social wel-
fare programs from DIA.
After Chilliwack, The Dis-
trict closed down its offices
and laid off all the staff.
Except for three people
who recently began work-
ing on an L.I.P. project to
produce the Ha-Shilth-Sa
paper, the district still has
no staff. Contrary to rum-
our, the council is not dead,
but is still active, meeting

















$29,000 for the first 15 Supreme Court of Canada J chie; and Andrew Callicum. Assembly which, it is and planning its land
years, with the lease to be to get a fair settlement. Each band manager had hoped, will eventually see claims activities.
* native vote % party % native % votes % native votes
name riding party in riding rec'd in votes rec'd rec'd by rec'd by candi-
'72 '75 by candidate SC NDP’ date in:

CALDER Atlin Social Credit 54% 40% 55% 84% 55% 28% Iskut 59%
(NDP) Greenville 93%
Kincolith 73%
Aiyansh 92%
Canyon City 97%
avg. NDP vote 11%
HANUSE Comox Social Credit 6% 29% 39% 32% 39% 40% Alert Bay 37%
Cape Mudge 25%
avg. NDP vote 48%
HOUSE Fort George Liberal = Te 3% 6% 10% 57% 33% McLeod Lake AN
, Shelley 15%
avg. Socred vote 55%
avg. NDP vote 33%
MARACLE West Van- Liberal 4% 34% 13% 32% 68% 15% Mt. Currie 32h
Howe Sound (Lib) Socred vote 49%
NDP vote 15%
WAL KEM Yale- Conservative 28% 11% 10% 41% 47% 38% Coldwater 38%
Lillooet Quilchena 44%
a Douglas Lake 41%
Information on the percentage of native voters in each riding was avg. Socred vote 31%
obtained from the political survey prepared by Don Moses. avg. NDP vote ° 24%

The percent of native votes was arrived at by averaging the vote totals

in all the predominately-Indian polls in each riding.
Jan/Feb 76 NESIKA 11

Province-wide implications



@



A ten year dispute over the
provincial government’s re-
fusal to compensate the
Lower Nicola Indian Band
for widening a provincial
highway crossing two of the
band’s reserves has ended
up in court, with important
implications for bands a-
cross the province. The
government’s stubborn-
ness to compensate the
band could cost them
much, much more than
what is involved at this
stage, and give them a
tremendous headache in
the process. |
The dispute centres around
a 1938 Order-in-Council
and whether the provincial
government has the autho-
rity to take Indian reserve
land, with or without
compensation, and use it
for a public highway.

The trial begins
March Ist, and the Band is
secking a court declaration
that the present road, as



The Stalo people, after
five years of fruitless
negotiations, are demand-
ing an immediate return of
58'% acres of land at the
Coqualeetza Complex at
Sardis as a sign of good
faith from the federal
government that it will
negotiate the Stalo claim to
the land in the Fraser
Valley.

Six weeks have passed
since the Stalo people
originally requested a me-
-eting with DIA Minister
Judd Buchanan to discuss
the matter. No response
has yet been received, and
the Stalo people are getting
the distinct impression that
Buchanan is ignoring them.

At issue is title to’ the
buildings and the 58%
acres at Sardis. The 24
bands which make up the
East Fraser District of the
Union operate the Coqua-






well as the future road-wi-
dening project, constitutes
a trespass on the reserve.
If that move is successful,
they will also seek damages
from the government for
that trespass.

Ten years of negotiations
proved fruitless as the band

was refused any compen- .

sation by the government
for its proposed road-wi-
dening project, citing the
Order-in-Council authority.
When construction actually
began last November, the
Band sued, and the pro-
vince agreed to remove its
equipment and halt work on
the road pending the
outcome of the trial.

The road, west of Merritt,
runs for 8 miles across the
Mamit No. | reserve and %
mile across the Pipseul No.
3 reserve. It is presently 15
feet wide, and the province
wants to extend the right-
of-way to 66 feet.

THE ORDER-IN-COUNCIL

@



leetza Education Training
Centre from a building on
the complex and offer
social, cultural, and educa-
tional programs to 37 bands
throughout the area.

Their argument is with
DIA even though the title
now rests with the Depart-
ment of Public Works. The
land has a_ complicated
history of transfers from
one agency to another, but
it shouldn’t be considered
as similar to: the cut-off
situation, since the Stalo
people view it as the first
step in the resolution of
their land claim.

HISTORY OF
COQUALEETZA

The Coqualeetza site was
the place Indian people
used for gathering food,
roots, cleaning blankets,
and has been in continuous
Indian use for thousands of
years.

The Stalo elders say that



Order-in-Council 1036 was

passed in 1938 when T.D.
Pattullo was Premier. At
that time, the province
apparently wanted to keep
its land-grabbing intentions
away from public view, so it
was passed at a meeting of
the cabinet. Although it
has essentially the same
effect as a law passed by
the legislature, it meant
that the issue was not
debated or even discussed
by other members of the
legislature prior to pas-
sage. The Order-in-Council
gives the province the right
to take up to 1/20th (5S
percent) of any reserve land
for public use (highways,
railways, hydro transmis-
sion lines, pipelines) with-
out any compensation,

Imagine the protest that
would be raised if a street
was: being widened in
Shaugnessy (a rich section
of Vancouver) and the
property owners there we-



the acreage was included in
the original reserves that

were established in the
1860’s, although that claim
can not yet be documented
using today’s records. The
original reserves in the
Chilliwack area totalled
12,000 acres but were
reduced in a number of
ways to the present 2,000
acres.

In the late: 1800’s the
chiefs in the area gave

‘permission to: the Metho-

dist Church to: build a
school on the land to
educate the children. Per-
mission later was given to
build a hospital on the land
which was used for the
treatment of tuberculosis.
When the hospital was
closed in 1969, it was being
operated by the Depart-
ment of National Health
and Welfare, and the Stalo
people began negotiations
to have title transferred to

ren’t compensated for the

land lost to the widening.
THE TRIAL

At the upcoming trial, the

province will undoubtedly

argue that it has the
authority to widen the road
by virtue of the Order-in-
Council.
The band, through lawyer
Larry Page, will be arguing
that it doesn’t, and in fact,
will be seeking to over-
throw the Order-in-Council.
Page has stated that the
‘‘exclusive legislative ju-
risdiction over reserves is a
federal responsibility and
not a provincial one’’, and
that the province does not
have the authority it claims.
He has indicated that he
will trace the history of the
road back at least as far as
1878 when the-land was
made a reserve.

The argument revolves
around the British North
America Act, which clearly
sets aside Indians and

them. At a meeting with
DIA officials in Ottawa a
few years ago, the Depart-
ment agreed to return the
land for the nominal price
of 1 dollar. However, after
the Stalo representatives
climbed off the plane from

- Ottawa, they received a

telex stating that DIA had
changed its mind and that
the price would be (surpri-
se!) $450.000.

The title was transferred
from DNHW to the Crown
Assets Disposal Corpora-
tion, and now is held by the
Department of Public Wo-
rks, which manages the
property. The Coqualeetza
Centre pays over $10,000 a
year rent to DPW, but don’t
have a lease since DPW
would not agree to a
provision that the lease not
jeopardize the Stalo claim.

The Stalo people have
reached agreement with
the Armed Forces and

lands reserved for Indians
as a federal responsibility,
and whether a provincial
law, the Order-in-Council,
can over-rule the federal
charter. Page will obvious-
ly say that it can’t, and
that’s why the band is

seeking a declaration of

trespass. Any damages
from that declaration would
be for encroachment on
grazing, farmlands, and
residential premises.

Page has stated that he
“has a very arguable
case’’, and if he is
successful, it would have a
tremendous impact on ot-
her bands in similar situa-
tions because the Order-in-
Council has never been
challenged in court before.
A ruling on the Order-in-
Council would set a prece-
dent for the rest of the
province, so we should be
watching the trial results
with more than casual
interest.



Defence Minister James
Richardson over interim
use of some of the land
until the Armed Forces find
alternate space.

On January 21st, 1976, the
East Fraser District telexed
Judd Buchanan asking for a
meeting, within a month, to
discuss the land transfer.
Needless to say, the meet-
ing wasn’t held, and in fact,
Buchanan has not even
acknowledged their requ-
est.

As a result, a number of
Stalo people travelled to
Vancouver and demonstra-
ted in front of the DIA
offices on February 27th.
Future demonstrations are
planned if Buchanan cont-
inues to ignore them.

Those wishing additional
information on the situation
may contact the Coqualeet-
za Education Training Cen-
tre at Box 370, Sardis,
B.C. phone 858-9431.



Slave gas dispute

The threatened confronta-
tion between the Slave
Indian Band (pronounced
slay-vee) and the B. C.
Government has been post-
poned until Indian Affairs
Minister Allan Williams
meets with: his federal
counterpart, Judd Bucha-
nan, on the matter of
natural gas royalties. The
band has been insisting for
the last 15 years that it
should be receiving royal-
ties from the natural gas
which is being pumped off
the reserve. The mineral
rights presently: rest with
the province, and many
years of the band refusing
to. make waves over the
issue and being ‘‘good’’
Indians wasn’t able to: get

them what they wanted.
Their frustration finally
resulted in the band giving
the government an ultima-
tum on February 4th. They
warned the government
that unless it was prepared
to negotiate mineral rights
and gas royalties for the
band, it would block the
roads to the wells and halt
production of one-quarter
of B. C.’s total daily gas
output. »

The ultimatum is the result

of a dispute: which goes.

back to 1961 when the
reserve was established.

At that time, the province
turned the land over to
Ottawa but refused to turn
over the mineral rights,
which they ordinarily would

have done, because they
had previously issued oil
and gas development per-
mits in the area.

Since then, natural gas
from the two wells has been
flowing off the reserve for
years at a rate of almost 5
million dollars worth- per
year, and the band has
received no return on this
depleting resource. The
band stated that they had
reached agreement with

the previous NDP govern-

ment so that the profits
from the B. C. Petroleum
Corp. would be placed in
trust until
settlement was worked out.
(A 3 percent royalty would
earn the band almost
150,000 dollars per year.)

a negotiated

Once the Socreds came to.
power, Mines Minister
Tom Waterland stated they
could find no record of any
such agreement and refu-
sed to place the royalties in
trust. It was then that the
band issued its ultimatum.
The blockade, scheduled
for February 8th, was
called off when Chief Harry
Dickie agreed to attend a
meeting with: Allan Wil-
liams on the matter.
Several band members and
UBCIC Executive Bob Ma-
nuel accompanied Dickie to
the meeting in Victoria, but
the band failed to get the
government to put the
royalties in trust, and
swapped promises with
them instead. The band
promised to withhold action

on the blockade while:

Williams promised to. dis-
cuss the matter with. the

federal authorities.

As the situation now
stands, the gas company is
getting everything it wants
and the band is getting
nothing from a _ resource
which can never be re-
placed. Placing the gas
revenues in a trust account
would certainly not work a
hardship on the gas com-
pany and would protect the
band’s interest. at the same
time. We hope that
Waterland and Williams
see that this would be an
equitable course to: follow
until-a settlement is nego-
tiated.

The band has shown good
faith: They do not want a
confrontation; they only
want a just settlement, and
the outcome of this dispute
will indicate. this govern- _
ment’s intentions in deal-
ing with Indian people.