Treaty would restore lands to Canada's Nisga'a Indians
Story-Date: 04:01 a.m. PST Wednesday, August 5, 1998

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Treaty would restore lands to Canada's Nisga'a Indians

Reuters

NEW AIYANSH, British Columbia -- Against a backdrop of snow-capped
mountains and beating drums, Nisga'a Indians celebrated Tuesday the
initialing of a treaty they hope will restore land lost to Europeans
some two centuries ago.

The agreement has been hailed as a "template" to ease the damage unresolved
Indian land claims have inflicted on British Columbia's economy, but has
also been condemned for eroding the rights of the Canadian province's
non-Native residents.

"Today we make history as we correct the mistakes of the past and send a
signal of hope around the world," said Joseph Gosnell Sr., Nisga'a chief
and negotiator. Gosnell and other Indian leaders were joined on the podium
by top officials of the federal and British Columbia governments, which
negotiated the treaty over the past 25 years.

More than 500 Nisga'a members, most adorned in the red and black costumes
of four clans, sang songs of celebration and danced outside the new
community hall where the initialing took place.



Self-government rights

The agreement would cede the Nisga'a (pronounced nis-GAH) about 750 square
miles of land around the Nass River near the Alaska panhandle, grant
extensive self-government rights and pay the tribe about $126 million in
cash over 15 years.

The treaty must be approved within 90 days by a vote by the Nisga'a, then
ratified by the federal Parliament and the British Columbia legislature.
The majority parties at the federal and provincial levels strongly support
the treaty.

The ratification process has been under attack since negotiators gave the
treaty "handshake" approval in mid-July, with critics demanding a
provincewide referendum on the deal.

Critics also complain that giving the Nisga'a law-making powers in their
territory will give them special rights over non-Indians -- especially the
estimated 120 non-Indians who live in the area ceded the tribe.

Indians make up 3.8 percent of British Columbia's 3.7 million people, and
treaty supporters say it would be unfair to have such a vote on an issue of
minority rights.



Rough road to pact

The tribe's path to this treaty has been as rough as the road to New
Aiyansh -- a long gravel road that near the village crosses the surreal
landscape of a lava flow that killed an estimated 2,000 Nisga'a in the
1770s.

Although Sir Francis Drake first claimed their region for England in 1579,
the first recorded European contact with the Nisga'a came in 1793 when
George Vancouver, a British sea captain, encountered the tribe's canoes
while mapping the coast.

The Nisga'a and other British Columbia tribes were soon complaining about
the loss of traditional fishing and hunting grounds, but Canadian and
provincial officials responded by outlawing their right to pursue land
claims.

"We had all the land. It was arbitrarily taken from us," Roderick Robinson,
a longtime Nisga'a leader and negotiator, said while preparing for
Tuesday's event.

Although the rules against land claims were repealed in the 1950s, the
negotiations that produced this treaty did not begin until 1976, and
British Columbia declined to join federal and tribal negotiators until
1991.

If ratified, it would be the first comprehensive land-claims settlement in
British Columbia this century, and Premier Glen Clark has called it a
"template" for talks under way with nearly 50 other tribes.

"Tomorrow we must continue our work to renew the treaty process to ensure
it delivers to all First Nations the opportunities that will flow to the
Nisga'a as a result of our agreement today," Clark told the gathering.

The uncertainty caused by the unresolved treaties has been repeatedly cited
as one reason the province's resource-based economy has lagged in recent
years.



Impact on other tribes

Nisga'a leaders play down their treaty's impact on other talks, but do see
it as way to improve the plight of the tribal members -- more than half of
whom were unemployed and on welfare. They want more tribal members employed
in harvesting the trees cut from their lands.



The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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