More than 220 years after their ancestors tossed feathers and red dust into the sea to greet Capt. James Cook, members of the largest tribal group in British Columbia signed their first treaty with the provincial and federal governments yesterday.
The treaty gives Indians self
More than 220 years after their ancestors tossed feathers and red dust into the sea to greet Capt. James Cook, members of the largest tribal group in British Columbia signed their first treaty with the provincial and federal governments yesterday.
The treaty gives Indians self-rule, a large cash payment and shared control with non-Indians of spectacular old-growth forests and other natural resources.
Like other recent treaties in Canada's westernmost province, this one limits the right to vote in local elections to Indians, and restricts participation in local governments to members of the native bands, measures that have outraged some non-Indians who consider them unconstitutional and racist.
Government negotiators say the outlines of the treaty offer a new way to handle forest resources, an issue that in other parts of Canada has led to violence between Indians and others whose livelihoods depend on logging.
Under the agreement, the 7,000 members of the Nuu-chah-nulth (noo-CHAL-nulth) Tribal Council and the provincial government will jointly manage large stands of moss-draped fir and cedar trees on the island and split in half the revenues from timber that is harvested. The Indians may cut the timber themselves or allow commercial loggers to do it. After 25 years, all revenues will go to the tribes exclusively.Continue reading the main story
The agreement offers a one-time payment equivalent to $152 million, the richest ever in British Columbia. And it gives 12 separate bands within the Tribal Council autonomous rule over almost 260 square miles of old-growth forests, beachfronts and mountainsides on Vancouver Island and nearby Meares Island.
In return, the Nuu-chah-nulth must give up their exemption from paying Canadian taxes and forfeit the right to future land claims.
Environmental groups in Canada and the United States have supported the Nuu-chah-nulth land claim as a way to slow down commercial development in the area. But the agreement is expected to be opposed by some members of the provincial Parliament, which has to approve the treaty before it can become legally binding. The tribes will also have a chance to review the tentative settlement before it can become permanent later this year.
More than 40 other Indian bands in British Columbia have made land c