[news] Selling land giving up trational practices

[resist]

-----Forwarded Message-----
From: ANGE S. <noxmadima at yahoo.com>
To: socialjustice at lists.resist.ca, redwire list <redwire at resist.ca>, noxmadima at yahoo.com
Subject: [Redwire] Selling land giving up trational practices
Date: 14 Aug 2003 09:01:35 -0700

Here is some mainstream information of the treaty that was signed up here in Prince George (Lheidli T'enneh territory). For me it is sad that our people continue to sell land to be futher exploited. I think if you wanted some good feedback about the treaty you may want to contact mavis ericson, although she is difficult to get a hold of and no longer works at the Tribal Council. The article following the treaty article is an article regarding the DFO and Aboriginal fisheries. There have been a few Nations up here that I have heard of that are following this very oppressive model of giving up traditional food and ceremonial fishing in exchange for recieving "donations" or "handouts" from the commercial fisheries. There is something very wrong with that picture and I do not understand why there has not been any form of protest from the communities. 

BACKGROUND ARTICLE (July 14):
 
Free press Article, July 14, 2003

Its finally official. The Lheidli Tenneh First Nation has completed the
first land claims agreement-in-principle in the history of the
modern-day treaty process. 

Chief negotiators for the band and the provincial and federal
governments recommended the AIP to their respective political bosses on
May 2. 

The agreement needed to be approved by the Lheidlis treaty council and
the B.C. and federal cabinets before negotiators could begin working on
a final treaty. 

Federal negotiator Tom Molloy confirmed Thursday the federal cabinet has
approved the agreement. The provincial cabinet did the same three weeks
ago, while the Lheidli Community Treaty Council approved it in early
June. 

Whether there will be an official signing ceremony, and when it might
be, have yet to be decided, he said. 

The Lheidli had not heard the news when contacted. It wasnt unexpected,
though, said Rick Krehbiel, director of treaty policy and research for
the band. 

It was just a rubber stamp. It was never really in doubt with the
federal government. With the province, it was a little more touch and
go. 

The AIP definitely fell within Canadas negotiating mandate, he said. So
there was little doubt the federal cabinet would approve it. 

Because the province changed its negotiating mandate after last years
treaty referendum, there was more concern around whether the B.C.
Liberal government would support it, he said. 

The three parties will now spend the summer creating a work plan that
will guide what are expected to be up to two more years of negotiations
toward a final agreement. 

The main components of the proposed deal include 4,027 hectares of land,
$12.8 million in cash less money borrowed to negotiate the treaty for
the 304-member band. It also includes self-governance provisions and a
number of resource sharing arrangements in fisheries and forestry. 

The Snuneymuxw First Nation in Nanaimo reached a tentative AIP earlier
this spring, but it has yet to be formally approved. The Maa-nulth  a
breakaway group of five bands from the Vancouver Island Nuu-chah-nulth
Tribal Council  are also near final approval of an AIP
 
****Free Press staff writer Aug 14, 2003****

The Lheidli T'enneh First Nation will accept nothing less than the 7,500
sockeye salmon commercial fishery offered to it in an
agreement-in-principle. And a recent court ruling calling a pilot
aboriginal sales fishery "racially discriminatory" will not change their
minds, says a band spokesperson. 

"We will certainly not accept any backtracking on what's agreed to in
the agreement-in-principle on the fishery," said Rick Krehbiel, director
of treaty policy and research for the Lheidli T'enneh. "The commercial
fishery is a fundamental part of it." 

The Lheidli are in the third year of a "feasibility study" to determine
if a commercial sockeye fishery on the upper Fraser River is viable. The
study is being done, in part, in anticipation of the creation of a
"harvest agreement" to be negotiated in conjunction with a treaty. 

Senior political leaders from the Lheidli and the provincial and federal
governments were in Prince George, July 26, for the official signing
ceremony of the agreement-in-principle. Two days later, provincial court
judge William Kitchen ruled an aboriginal-only pilot fishery on the
lower Fraser River contravenes the Charter of Rights and constitutes
"government-sponsored racism" against non-aboriginal commercial
fishermen. 

The decision appeared to throw all aboriginal fisheries into question.
But the federal government contends the ruling only applies to three
specific pilot sales fisheries - the lower Fraser, Port Alberni and the
Skeena River. It will affect neither sales under the Lheidli feasibility
study nor negotiations toward a final treaty, they say. 

"It's not a pilot sale. It's a feasibility study, but it does include an
element of sale," said Brian Martin, acting regional director with
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. "We're proceeding with the
feasibility study. We're quite confident that it's lawful." 

The B.C. Fisheries Survival Coalition, the most vocal opponent of
aboriginal-only fisheries, considers such distinctions a cop-out. 

"It doesn't matter whether it's in Prince George under a so-called
feasibility study or on the lower Fraser or Port Alberni under a
so-called pilot project," said spokesperson Phil Eidsvik. "No matter
what you call it, it's a race-based commercial fishery and it's
discriminatory and racist." 

Eidsvik's group continues to attack the provincial and federal
governments for including a commercial fishery in the Lheidli AIP. He
points out statements made by Premier Gordon Campbell in 1997, in which
the then-opposition leader said native-only fisheries "are morally,
ethically and legally wrong." 

"It's still morally, ethically and legally wrong even if it's called a
feasibility study," said Eidsvik. 

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which is running the study, says
there is one crucial difference between it and a pilot sales fishery, a
distinction that insulates it from any legal challenge - it is being
conducted as part of the treaty process. 

"I'm having a bit of a hard time understanding on what grounds it would
be challenged. We have AIPs in place in other places where there are
commercial opportunities provided for," said Don Radford, DFO's acting
regional director of fisheries management. 

The Lheidli's Krehbiel says the difference is that treaty rights deal
with governmental jurisdiction. It's not about skin colour, but rather
about who was here first, he says. 

"It has nothing to do with race, it has to do with being here originally
and the international recognition of rights that belong to people who
were here originally. 

"It wouldn't have mattered who was aboriginal. Were the Vikings
aboriginal Canadians, they would have those rights." 

Krehbiel throws the racist label back at the feet of Eidsvik. He
suggests that, by trying to deny the Lheidli T'enneh what he says is a
constitutional right, they are in fact promoting inequality. 

"The language of equality is the new language of racism. Mr. Eidsvik and
his ilk don't understand what equality means in Canada. 

"When he says aboriginal people should not be entitled to the protection
of the Constitution, that's the worst form of racism that I can
imagine." 

The harvest agreement referred to in the AIP is to be negotiated as a
side agreement rather than as part of the final treaty and will
therefore not be constitutionally protected. 

According to the terms of the AIP, the band will also have the right to
harvest 5,000 sockeye and 500 chinook salmon for food, social and
ceremonial purposes. There is also an allowance for an "incidental"
catch of pink and coho salmon. 

Negotiation of a final agreement is expected to take a further 18 months
to two years. 


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