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[The Battle
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A history of Nisga’a land claims: Part Il

This article is the second in a
series by Terrace Review reporter
Tod Strachan on the history of the
Nisga’a people of the Nass Valley
since white settlers arrived in the
area. It is based on material pre-
sented by chief Harry Nyce to the
Salmon Enhancement Task Group
in Terrace during September.

The first visit to Nisga’a territory
by white explorers was a curious
event. The year was 1793 and the
leader of the expedition was Cap-
tain Vancouver. Vancouver is
reported to have sailed into the
mouth of Portland Canal and then
northeast to Observatory Inlet and
Salmon Cove, where he dropped
anchor.

We can only imagine the scene.
Nisga’a observing the largest

-. canoe they had ever seen from

obscure land-based vantage points.
British sailors nervously pacing the

deck of their ship to the occasional
sound of bells and guttural belches
of, "All's well."

Who were these strange looking
men who howled alien words?
Where did they come from? What
did they want?

For four days the Nisga’a and
British traded curious stares, nei-
ther finding the courage to make
the first advance. During the night
of the fifth day, however, three or
four Nisga’a warriors paddled their
way silently out into the cove for a
closer look. And what they found
was even stranger than they had
envisioned.

On their return they reported
seeing men with light coloured
skin and fuzzy faces: Strange
looking people who "slept on top
of one another" — presumably in
double bunks. Those who weren’t
sleeping walked back and forth on
deck and yelled as though they

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The sailors knew they had been
secretly observed and this helped
break the ice. With stores of flour,
sugar and rum the British lowered
a skiff and headed for shore to
meet the natives.

First contact was a quiet and
cautious meeting: Gifts were
exchanged and the wary Nisga’a
treated the rum in particular with
care. It was a black, sweet-smell-
ing, foul-tasting liquid that might
poison them.

As a warring nation, the Nisga’a
captured prisoners and then put
them to work as slaves. One of the
slaves was picked to sample the
rum. If he died, a deceitful trick
would be foiled. If he lived, these
strangers might not be unfriendly
at all.

After a short time and a few
drinks the slave began behaving
strangely. He became daring,
smiled a lot... then collapsed into a
motionless heap. The Nisga’a were
confused. Had the slave been
poisoned? Was he dead? Confused

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Terrace Review —— Wednesday, November 20, 1991 9

and fearing for their lives, they
ordered the sailors to return to
their ship.

The next morning, though, the
"dead" slave woke up, He was
moaning, holding his head... and

he was obviously very ill. The

Nisga’a people weren't exactly
men of the world, but they were
far from innocent. They knew
exactly what was wrong with the
slave. For centuries the Nisga’a
had fermented berries to brew a
liquid for serving at feasts and
special events, The slave had not
died. He had simply had too much
to drink and was now paying the
price.

The Nisga’a could see the
humour in their earlier unfounded
fears and deemed the strangers to
be friendly. A curious people,
perhaps. But a people the Nisga’a
could accept as friendly visitors to
their land. A people with whom
they could co-exist.

The decades that followed were
relatively uneventful. White visi-
tors came and then left and their
presence was never considered a
threat. But over time, that changed.
In 1835 the Hudson Bay Company
decided to count noses in the Nass
(Naas) Valley and came up with a
grand total of 1,615.

That number represented only a
small portion of the Nisga’a
nation. But it suited the Hudson
Bay Company’s notion that a few
hundred natives had little say over
the future of land recently dis-
covered and claimed by white
explorers. :

This concept of a new land ruled
by Europeans was further
entrenched in 1858. Although the
area that is now British Columbia
contained a population of 63,000
native people and only 400 whites,
it was established as a British
colony and its future would be
determined by a governor who

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saluted the flag of England..

By 1860, 67 years after Captain
Vancouver's gift of flour, sugar
and rum, the Nisga’a people were
beginning to feel the pressure on
their land — not only from whites
but from other native nations as
well.

The Nisga’a were still at war
with the Tsimshian nation to the
south and west, and it was time to
take a stand to assert their fishing
rights in the Nass watershed. The
Nisga’a won their point. In 1869,
the Nisga’a and Tsimshian signed
the Sparrow Hawk Treaty which
entrenched Nisga’a control of
fishing rights to the river valley
they had called home for countless
centuries.

The success of their victory,
however, was short lived. Seven
years later, in 1876, Canadian
politicians agreed amongst them-
selves not to discuss “Aboriginal
Title” with native leaders before
the white man’s grip on all
resources was secure and the boun-
daries for native reserves were
established.

The Nisga’a, and all other native
nations of B.C. for that matter,
were furious. In their view they
had been double-crossed. Trusted
white leaders had used a political
system foreign to the native mind
to say that they didn’t exist. Didn’t
exist, that is, in terms of a unique
nation with a culture and territory
that was historically theirs.

There was little the Nisga’a
could do., They had successfully
defended” their territory. against
Tsimshian aggressors in the

1860's, but this latest attack was —
much different. There were no

traditional adversaries against
which Nisga’a warriors could fight
and die for their land, and no
traditional weapons to use. Instead,
there were the police and the law
and white government legislation.

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