The Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en First Nations of northern British
Columbia began arguing their claim to over 57,000 square kilometres of
land in northwestern B.C. before the Supreme Court of Canada on June
16.
The land claim, named Delgam Uukw in honour of one of the Gitxsan
chiefs, was initiated in 1984 and is the biggest in Canadian history.
It has gone to court following the failure of the federal and
provincial - governments to reach a settlement with the First Nations
in 1996.
In 1991, Chief Justice Allan McEachern of the B.C. Supreme Court
handed down a decision condemned by many as racist. Judge McEachern
ruled that the hereditary rights of the First Nations making the claim
were extinguished by the Crown in the colonial period. He suggested
the lives of the Aboriginal peoples of northwestern B.C. before the
arrival of the first European settlers were "nasty, brutish and
short," and compared their social organization to that of a pack of
wolves.
The B.C. Court of Appeal unanimously overturned his ruling in 1993,
ruling instead that Aboriginal rights were never extinguished by the
colonial government before Confederation. However, the same court
rejected 3-2 the First Nations' claim to jurisdiction and
self-government on traditional territories.
The 51 First Nations chiefs who have brought the case to court have
called for the full restoration of their hereditary rights. "It has
everything to do with the future," says Herb George, a Wet'suwet'en
chief. "Right now, there is no future on the reserve, there is no
future governing ourselves under the Indian Act. The future lies in
becoming a part of the soiety, in our people being able to take the
benefit in the land and resources that everyone else benefits from."
Continuing with the Canadian state's long-standing practice of trying
to negate the hereditary rights of the Aboriginal peoples, B.C.'s
Attorney General Ministry released a statement last week saying "the
province is not prepared to acknowledge the very expansive conception
of aboriginal title that the Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en will be urging
upon the court."
A decision from the Supreme Court is not expected for at least six
months and possibly as long as a year. Gitxsan lawyer Gordon Sebastian
pointed out that irrespective of the Supreme Court decision, the First
Nations will continue to fight for the full affirmation of their
hereditary rights. "It's not going to stop at the Supreme Court," he
told reporters.
CPC(M-L)
Shawgi Tell
Graduate School of Education
University at Buffalo
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
