Native: land clainis have not ’ only kept lawyers and polticians busy, they’ve also inspired a ' number of books, And since thé great majority of unresolved claims are within B.C., @ significant number of - -the ‘books are about the situa- tion in the province. This fall, Terry Glavin, a Vancouver Sun reporter. : Specializing “in native affairs, -released A’ Death Feast’: in - Dimlahamid about the Gitksan ‘and Wet'suwet’en who live in “the Hazelton area.. It recounts native stories of ‘the ancient city of Dimlahamid, ; which ohcé "existed in the ~ Hazelton aréa, in the context of a 1989 blockade to prevent lope- ing in areas. claimed by the Gitksan and Wer’ ‘suwet’ en. and claims | The Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en are now waiting fora B.C. Supreme Court deci- sion over their claim, filed as Delgam Uukw versus The Queen, to 54,000. square kilometres of northwest. B.C, That ‘decision is expected early in- the new year. UBC political science pro- Jessor Paul Tennant’s book, Aboriginal Peoples and Poiltles Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 19, 1990 — ~ Page AB. 200ks proliferate’ is about the history of. land: . claims in B.C., beginning in 1849. Bill Clancey was once the ex- ecutive assistant to B.C. Premier W.A.C., Bennett. In his The New Dominion of British Columbia, Clancey says there is - |. a place for natives ina B.C. that is separate from the rest’ ‘of Canada. The coming fall of Dimlahamid By TERRY GLAVIN Delgam Uukw would be | . there, but it would not be ihe : Delgam Uukw wha stood beside Gisday Wa when the chiefs first _ Filed their statement of claim in | _ the Smithers court registry on Oct." 23, 1984.” Back then, Delgam Uukw was Albert Tait. By:the time Delgain -Uukw arrived in the Smithers. courthouse -for the opening of the trail in May 1987, Deglam Uukw was Kenny Muldoe,: When closing arguments got underway in the same Alfred Ave. courthouse in the spring of 1990, the ascen- dancy was about to pass again. On April 8, while the lawyers summarized their respective cases, Muldoe was dead, and his body was being carried in a long pracession of. cars and pickup trucks and four-by-fours back to Kispiox for the beginning of the round of feasts that would conclude with a new Delgam Uukw. The chiefs would. call him -by his baby-name,,and jn- vite-their peers:to his cremation. Whatever happened in the court case, the constantly circl- ing whirlpool of Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en names would carry on.. Life for some people in,s.the. Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en territories would continue to proceed in the western, linear fashion. But for the Gitksan ‘and Wet’suwet’en, time would also continue to move in cycles, Maybe even long after people had forgotten what the Supreme Court of Canada was, the peo- ple.in these mountains would know Delgam Uukw, Mas Gak, Wii, Seeks, ’Noola, Sgenna, Yagosip, Wii Muugalsxw, Haa'txw and the others. The. roadblocks that came down would come up again, and: y the final days of July ak During the second decade of his:administration, in the mid to late: 1960s, Bennett. and his municipal af- fairs. minister, Dan Campbell, proposed the setting up of local governments by and fer the In- dians.themselves, In, “effect these would have been. Indian municipalities, run by Indian administrators elected by ‘Indian residents. It was the first true recognition by any level’ ‘of government: anywhere in Canada of: Indians’ right to govert themselves within the framework of the larger provin- cial and federal structures. The proposal was never realized, possibly because, as some ‘suggested at the time, the Indlans-were not ready or were unwilling to shoulder such responsibilities, “However, perhaps there was anollier reason whch has shown itself only in recent years. Land cal wth dians may ‘have: lost some: ‘battles, but ‘they. are still out:to. win the war. Those who reason: thus, make:the® point, Why have: part of* the cake when you could, : with the finan- cial: Help: of those you'd take it fron{y-have the whole damned ‘cake,’ Premier W,A,C. ° 1990, during the time of a par- tial eclipse of the sun in B.C.’s Yast northwest, there were blockades and highway. check- points at Gitwangah, Kispiox a and Moricetown. - Ottawa’ 8 comprehensive ‘claims: policy would come and go. B.C.'s refusal to negotiate . land claims settlements would one day go, too, - . Dimlahamid rises and falls. It was a very real place in linear lime, but it was clearly about much more than that, The first mistake was to use the stomach of a bear as a toy. The first warning was a feather than fell from the sky. The first punishment was the dismember- ment of the people of the city. Then they are forgiven, and made whole again. Again, the people are careless. They abuse the animals, offend the mountain goats. Strange visitors arrive on _the outskirts of the city, they lead, the .peopleyta.;a, feast on Stegyayden,.anda, massacre. gn: sues. ;One of:.the. goats ‘spares one. of the-young, goat: hunters, and he returns with a new cove- nant. Dimlahamid is reborn. The next punishment begins with the rain. It fills the streets of the city, and only those who have remembered the sky peo- ple’s instructions are save. Their houses become like ships, and when the waters subside, the people rebuild Dimlahamid. Then comes the Medeek, the vengeance of the trout’ spirits who were offended when the women made headdresses from their:bones at the Lake of the Summer Pavilions. The Medeek, like a great bear, arises from the waters of the lake and a terrible war follws. The bear is at last driven off, and it returns to the bottom of the lake. Then there is the great W.A.C. Bennett settled, but no one has sug- gested yet that Indians who receive lands should lose their special status and become or- dinary citizens like the-rest of . "Stripped of - all’ bureaucratic gobbledygook: ‘and ° deliberately confusing: legalese, having the best of both worlds is precisely what land claims cases boil.down.to. re ‘The point upon which indian . land:. claims; : proponents: and | their. hired. legal and political. : the MORICETOWN THIS past summer was the scene of just one of several blockades put up by the Gitksan and Wet’suwet'en. The blockades appeared after Oka and concentrated on stopping logging ‘trucks and handing out Information to motorists. Mas Gak Don Ryan snowfall, provoked by a diplomatic affront to the na- tions of salmon, The final dispersal and the last of the great migrations begin when ‘Noola, the last chief to leave Dimlahamid, finds Kwiskwas at the edge of - the smokehole of his house. 1 remembered the early days of the Suskwa blockade, after it had been moved out closer to the bridge, when Mas Gak talk- ed about Dimlahamid. People just couldn’t sustain such big in- frastructures and bureaucracies. semblance of validity for pur- poses of purely philosophical discussion, But that's as far as it goes, or should go. The sare white men not only improved and cultivated and developed those lands and their resources, but returned much to Indians in the form of roads, schools, haspitals and: social benefits which, in many cases, outstrip those extended to other Cana- dians and British Columbians. The land claims issue is an ex- ample of first and second class citizen proposition, However, the Indians reap the benefit since all productive Canadian taxpayers foot the bill for legal and court costs of claims cases as well as for the high costs of the Department of Indian Af- fairs. It might well be described as paying the fox to raid the ‘will continue. to mount at our expense.) 5°. In British Columbia, for ex- ample, ‘when the Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en Inunched their -land-claim-test case before the 7B.C, Supreme Court, the, 8 al government put. aside: 15 million of our money to chicken coop, These legal costs _ Again, the people are careless. They abuse the animals, offend the mountain goats, Strange visitors arrive on the outskirts of the city, they lead the people to a feast-on Stegyawden, and a- massacre ensues, But it had been there, with one end somewhere near the Suskwa camp and the other end several miles away somewhere down by Gitsegukla. Maybe two glacia- tion periods ago. The fact that people hadn't found it was a good t thing, Mas Gak had said" 'Nobady idle how old it really was, or whet, it i really meant. But it was ad-. - justing to life after Dimlahamaid that was in- teresting, returning to the house territories, becoming part of the spiritual landscape, That’s what really matters. What it meant for Mas Gak was a lesson, and among many othe things, the lesson was that the Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en don't need to tolerate institu- tions that deny them their rightful power. He was sitting beside the bir- chpole triped at the roadblock fire, carving a circle in the ground between his boots. The sun Was out. So that's what's happening,” he said. ‘That's what it is,”’ He carved a second circle around the first. As an aside, the average hourly tate paid to lawyers working on such cases inciden- tally is $125 or $150, so may be it is not just the Indians who are to blame. Another farcical aspect of land claim cases is that Indian Jand claimants are not deman- , Gecentralize things? The’ whole’: One of the greatest crimes is the extinction of these great species that have evolved here, like the fish, We try to develop these exotic species, and we do . the same thing with forestry,” “The ministry...of forests . doesn’t have the knowledge or tHid iutharlty. So we're trying to bureaucracy is going to change. The unions, work, everything.” “We're seeing that here, We have seasonal type of employ- ment, different professions, multi-professional people. It’s a slow decline. Modern states are on the decline.” “Dimlahamid is a physical thing, but it didn’t occur just once or twice. The constant thing that goes through it for us is the clan system. That’s the ongoing tension throughout our history, So there’s a second or a third or a fourth Dimlehamid, happening right now.’’ ‘ICs happening right now." A Death Feast in Dimilahamia by Terry Glavin is published in Vancouver by New Star Books, [t’s available at local Claims history starts in last. century For most British Colum- bians, the issue of native land claims appears as. large headiines in newspapers and glaring scenes of blockades on television. University of British Col- umbia political science pro- fessor Paul Tennant's Aboriginal Peoples and Politics changes that by trac- ing the history of land claims in B.C, “‘The Indian land quesiion is as old as British Columbia itself. The question remains as critical as it has ever been, and it is today more con- troversial than it has been for aver a century,’’ says Ten- nant in a preface to the book. Tennant begins in the mid- die of the last century, with the arrival of the British and the establishment by them of colonial-government. James Douglas, at first the Hudson Bay Company chief factor for Vancouver Island and then the governor of the colony of Vancouver Island, signed treaties and bought land from the natives, This process was onty par- tially completed, says Ten- nant, and never started on the mainland when colonial government there took hold.’ Jt was this failure, Tennant continues, that has lead to the situation in B.C. today. | He explains, throu documents and he’s at , record that’ provincial’ policy | toward native claims up to 1990 remained the same as it was in the past century. Tennant also provides an interesting history of the mytiad of native organiza- tions formed to promote their cause of land claims. That in itself is just cause for reading the book for it demonstrates that whites in B.C. aren’t alone in their habit of creating a colourful and confusing system of politics. Aboriginal Peoples and Politics is published by the University of British Colum- bia Press. It's now in its se- cond printing and is available in local bookstores. bookstores, roads or halting development projects and logging operations without being held financially responsible for their actions. The illegal activites are usual- ly disguised under the label of “protecting traditional Indian lands’’, or ‘protecting the en- vironment’, but can best be Stripped of all the bureaucratic gobbledygook and deliberately confusing legalese, having the best of both worlds is precisely what land claims cases bail down to. ding compensation based on what the lands were originally worth, but on their present day worth and potential. Most of the land claimed by Indians in these cases is today worth many, many times what it was when mon-Indians _ first came to develop and build on it. Where. is the compensation. for those. who improved the land? It would seem some In- dians ‘have learned to bargain well! Added to the cost burden on taxpayers for underwriting land. Claims cases are the additional ‘costs to individual businessmen, . workers ‘and other taxpayers -- when Indian groups take illegal uch | AS blockading described as media attention- getting ploys. In. many such cases the . businesses or industries involv- ed are very much aware of en- vironmental considerations, and governments at all levels are developing stringent laws gover- ning such matters. JFarthermore, not ail Indians are in tune with some who purp- ‘port to speak for their tribal brethren, as many are workers employed: in ‘productive enter- prises; - "These - sre the praginatists . among the Indian peoples; they recognise the necessity as welll as the inevitability of resource development and the building ‘here’ s aplace for natives in “New” B.C. of towns and cities. Often they are referred to by others of their race as “apple Indians’* — red on the outside and white underneath — an un- fair designation. Therein lies the nub of the whole Indian issue. Those who are prepared to strive for that “‘goad life’? in a Dominion of British Columbia will be extend- ed all the courtesies, help and benefits they deserve, together with the chance to compete for their fair share of the “‘good life’ being worked for by other British Columbians, In the Dominion of British Columbia, Indians would be ac- corded all the benefits of full citizenship and be required to shoulder all its attendant responsibilities, in exactly the same manner as all other British Columbians. No more and no less, If native people wished to maintain a separate and distinct society within a Dominion of British Columbia, ihe Bennett- Campbell plan could possible be revived to accommodate those wishing to gothat route. — .; The New Dominion of British ‘Columbia, subtitled “Goodbye Canada”, is published in soft=- < . ‘cover by Melinda Holdings Ltd: ; in Vancouver, ae hee ae Tem Ne area R a tre?