Gitksan Wet'suwet'en sign accord

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The Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en have adjourned the Delgam Uukw land title action in the Supreme Court of Canada. The bands have also given the province of British Columbia up to 18 months to negotiate a settlement to their 17-year-old land claim.

An accord of recognition and respect was signed June 13 by Gitksan hereditary chief Delgam Uukw; Wet-suwet'en hereditary chief Gisdaywa and B.C. Premier Mike Harcourt, thereby marking the beginning of talks on jurisdiction, ownership and self-government on Native traditional territories in northwestern B.C.

The Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en claim almost 58,000 sq. km. as traditional lands. Legal action will resume if a negotiated settlement can't be reached, says representatives.

Gitksan hereditary chief Maas Gaak (Don Ryan) said the Harcourt government has the resources and is now organized enough to negotiate with his people. But they must go beyond the rhetoric, he warned.

"We are not going to tolerate the attitude the province has displayed in other land title negotiations."

One main ground rule was established before negotiations could begin.

"It is not acceptable for the province to make offers to us about a reduced land base," said Ryan.

This was a major concession by the province, said Sat'san (Herb George), speaker for the Office of Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs.

The decisions to suspend legal action in favor of negotiation was carefully considered said Gisday Wa (Alfred Joseph) speaking for the Wet'suwet'en people.

"You have used some good words in your Accord of Recognition and Respect," Joseph said. "We have spent more than three weeks carefully reviewing your offer."

Joseph said no other premier of B.C. had ever made the kind of offer Harcourt had proposed. Still, some of his people were suspicious.

"Will your ministries continue with 'business as usual' on our territories or will interim protection measures result in real protection of our lands and resources?"

He said signing the accord was a leap of faith for the Wet'suwet'en.

"We are cautious, but ready," said Delgamuukw (Earl Muldon), speaking on behalf of the Gitksan. Although the Gitksan are pleased the province has offered to enter into treaty negotiation, the people find it difficult to believe the Harcourt government, or any government, would negotiate with them on their own terms, said Muldon.

"We do prefer negotiations to the courts," he said and reminded those witnessing the signing that the original quest in filing the land claim in 1977 was to negotiate. But the province refused.

Since then, the Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en people have been in court on numerous occasions. The original trial, held between May 1987 and June 1990 garnered international attention when Chief Justice Allan McEachern described the lives of the Aboriginal people before contact with Europeans as "nasty, brutish and short."

A United Nations Commission on Human Rights report on world-wide discrimination, released in 1993, said the judgment demonstrated that "deeply rooted Western ethnocentric criteria are still widely shared in present-day judiciary reasoning."