Past Historical Treaty Process

The British Columbia treaty process was formed to address outstanding land rights of British Columbia First Nations. British Columbia is one of the few areas of Canada where most of the province was not treatied between its government and First Nations. According to British law and later the law of Canada treaties are normally a requirement prior to the settlement of an immigrant population. Treaties serve to compensate First Nations for alienated lands as well as confirm First Nations treaty rights in areas such as resource use. The only treaties entered into in British Columbia were the fourteen treaties of Vancouver Island signed between 1850 and 1854 by the colony of British Columbia and the First Nations of that area. Also, some First Nations in northeastern British Columbia are part of treaty number 8 which was entered into in 1899.

When British Columbia entered Canada in 1871 both governments signed a document entitled the Terms of Union. The Terms of Union was negotiated by the two governments. It includes sections on areas of federal and provincial jurisdictional responsibility. Also, under the Terms of Union all lands except lands reserved for First Nations were now under provincial jurisdiction. the effects of the Terms of Union was to separate First Nations from their systems of governance and lands. There was no involvement by British Columbia First Nations in any of those negotiations.

Successive federal and provincial governments in British Columbia refused to settle outstanding land rights of British Columbia First Nations who demanded treaties. In 1885, the Tsimshian became the first British Columbia First Nations delegation to travel to Ottawa to discuss their land rights. In 1887, Tsimshian chiefs travelled to Victoria to discuss their land rights with the provincial government. The basis of their lobbying was that governments were wrong in imposing the reserve system without treaties. The effect of those lobbying efforts by the Tsimshian and other First Nations was the formation in 1887 of the Federal-Provincial Commission of Inquiry to investigate First Nation complaints regarding the imposition of the reserve system without treaties. The Commission's terms of reference was to review land rights complaints but under its terms it lacked the power to recommend that governments enter into treaty negotiations with First Nations.

The reserve system was imposed on the Tsimshian and other First Nations of British Columbia. The purpose of the reserve system was to separate First Nations from most of their lands. In 1910, the hereditary chief's authority over the Gitselasu was replaced by a Federal Government appointed chief and four or five appointed councillors. While two years later the Band was allowed to elect its Chief Councillor and Council, the Government continued to discourage hereditary succession to power. This was a great disruption to a major portion of the Band's social structure. First Nations resistance was further weakened by a combination of forces that included laws preventlng First Nations people from voting in either federal or provincial elections, the federal governements 1885 amendment of the Indian Act banning the potlatch, as well as the 1927 amendment of the Indian Act making lobbying for land rights a criminal offence.

Gradually, federal and provincial laws changed. In 1949, the provincial government granted First Nations people the right to vote in provincial elections. In 1951, the Indian Act was amended repealing the laws that prohibited the potlatch and land claim activities. In 1960, the federal government granted First Nations people the right to vote in federal elections. The effects of these political changes permitted First Nations the opportunity to legally return to addressing their land rights.

First Nations have used political as well as legal strategies to pursue their land rights. Successful actions include First Nations lobbying to recognize aboriginal and treaty rights as part of the 1982 Constitution Act of Canada and the 1973 Supreme Court of Canada Calder Case began the legal recognition of some form of First Nations aboriginal title rights to land. The effects of these decisions as well as other political and legal outcomes have convinced the federal and the provincial governments of the necessity of entering into the treaty process.