‘A10 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 3, 2006 Tahltan leader happy with unity progress © “ONE TAHLTAN leader hopes last year’s : confrontations and’ disputes leading. to a . blockade ofa resource road and arrests can . be avoided this year. ~ _ At issue is who within the Tahltan com- munity can make resource’ use and other . decisions on ‘their traditional territory to the. - north of here, but Tahltan Central Council ~ president Curtis Rattray : Says much progress © » was, made at a session n of. leaders and elders . éarlier this spring. . “Unity is starting to happen and that Ss re: “ally the key,” said Rattray. « “We're now’ working on creating . stiuc- - ‘tures and’ policies,’ deciding who is Tespon- 7 . Sible for what activity,” he added. ; Rattray ‘said’ that while the Tahitan are - working on unity and decision- -making, it _ would be unrealistic to. assume that each and every decision is going to have the Support 4c of each and every Tahitan. . solve i issues as a nation,” he said. « fi 4 f ca ene Se de - Pushing everything i is the growing world: “Wide demand for metals, resulting i inaparade . ‘of mining and resource: companies making “their way into: Tahltan. territory: wondering = “who they need. to. deal with i in order to gain * pproval for.their projects. :. ects. , -_ “There are ‘two Tahltan ‘bands, the Tahitan Wy, band based ‘in. ‘Telegraph Creek, which also “has a reserve in Dease. Lake, and the Iskut.- > First Nation in Iskut, ‘south of Dease Lake. . ‘ But the two band councils only make de- «,. Council as speaking for what happens off- “cisions: affecting | their village, lands, leaving Open’ ‘the question of decision making Within. - the much larger Tahitan territory. - family. groups; is’meant.to act/as the déci- RESOURCE. COMPANIES are going to _ have to-meet a high standard if they want their projects approved i in Tahitan traditional - : territory, says one‘of their leaders. “Tahitan Central: Council president Curtis - Rattray said projects are going to have to . achieve an 85 per cent approval i in 1 ratifica- tion votes. | That’s the same percentage of Tahltan who approved an economic and social de- "velopment deal with NovaGold Resources, ‘ which has: a= world-class copper and gold property at Galore Creek set to go through environmental approval very soon, he said. ““NovaGold set the precedent. That’s go- ‘ing to be. what’s needed for development projects on our traditional territory in the’. . future,” added Rattray. “Anything like 50 per cent plus one won’t do. It's going. to be: 85 Per ¢ cent from now, . ‘there are is one of the priorities of the central Lae on.” ‘Ideally \ we want’ consensus but. we know - thar s not going to be realistic. But I can tell ; | you projects won’t be approved if there is anything lower than 75. to 80 per ¢ cent,” Rat- fray: continued. : 7 - And . that:has.. caused: ‘internal ‘conflict’ ‘ » within the Tahitan over the scope and pace of : resource devélopment when placed against’ | * the desire to preserve. their traditional use of» the land and its resources and worries about: 1 “social and- other i impacts of large scale Proj- - 7 tray ‘continued. “sion: organized to create ‘a unified decision _-mines minister Bill Bennett as it is leading to 7 \ provement compared to where we were last “The Tahltan “Central Council, “made up . - of representatives from the 10 main Tahltan | sion-making body. within the traditional: ter-" ‘ritory- but.it and: Rattray have been criticized - ot being Tepresentative of all:Tahltan j in- - Development approval - will need huge support omit established five goals ~ communication, healing, land use policy, governing ‘struc: tures and unity. " promises jobs, business opportunities and a _ trust fund based on royalties. : ; Although the ~ NovaGold. proposal re- “| ceived 85 per cent support, Rattray did add terests. . The stand-alone Tahltan Nation Develop- . ment Corporation, which ‘strikes deals with _ mining and other companies to do work for * them, also plays a role but it is also regarded with suspicion by some Tahltan. . om Conflict broke out early last year when a - group of elders and others upset at how the Tahltan band/at Telegraph Creek was being ‘run occupied its offices. | Then Shell Canada, which has provincial ; approval to explore the Klappan area for coalbed methane natural gas potential, pulled out after protests by elders and others. And in July, a resource road into the _Klappan was’ blocked,’ preventing Fortune . - Minerals from doing work on its anthracite ‘coal deposits.” The company then obtained an injunction . and the blockade was lifted after arrests were. . * made but further legal action was halted. “But we. are making every effort to re- - Rattray said the general consensus among Tahitan leaders and elders is that the.central “ council will now speak on resource issues ~ within their traditional territory. “Tt will all come through the central coun- cil and we’ re now working on those details,” he said. ' - But the central council will only. act ‘once leaders, and elders: give their approval, Rat- And he said. elders involved j in ‘ast sum- ‘mer’s protests were part ofthe March ses- making structure. - AIL of. this -is ‘satisfying to provincial certainty for his' government and for mining and resource companies eager todo business in the Tahltan territory. - “We now. regard the Tahltan Central . reserve,” said Bennett. “It’s a pretty big im- - year. I have to give the Tahitan a lot of credit’ for the work they’ve done.” Rattray said the leaders’ and elders’ sum-.: .. u The NovaGold deal with the Tahitan that only approximately 500 Tahltan voted when the deal went to ratification late last - year. And he wasn’t certain what percentage that 500 represented of the Tahltan nation. “We don’t have that kind of baseline in- . formation. It could be 3,000 to 6,000. peo- ple,” said Rattray of the Tahltan population. “Your guess is as good as mine.” The Tahltan, just like any other native group, have people living within reserves on their traditional territory but also -have peo- ple living outside of that. territory making it difficult to come up with precise member- . ship numbers. Establishing exactly how many Tahltan council.’ ’ “But ‘we have a lot of: priorities and it comes down to the capacity issue,” said Rat-"- tray of the limited manpower and money the : central council has to do its job. 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