Treaty Negotiations

Many of you who have known me for awhile, know that I have worked mostly with First Nation issues. I spent nearly five years providing litigation support in the form of historical research for the federal government for various land rights cases.

After a half decade stint as a contractor for the federal government, I obtained a job with a First Nation organization. I became their Treaty Analyst while they were in the third stage of the 5 stage British Columbia Treaty Process. I began work with them just over a decade ago, and have spent most of that time (with the exception of a 8 month stint researching for litigation, and an 8 month period working for another treaty First Nation organization) making progress towards the completion of a modern day treaty.

In-SHUCK-ch Nation is the amalgamation of three First Nation groups that have been historically identified in various ways- as Lillooet, as St'atl'imx, and as the Douglas, Samahquam and Skatin Indian Bands. In 1993, when the BCTC process was opened to applicants, In-SHUCK-ch were first through the doors to place their statement of intent to negotiate in the hands of the Commissioners. Since then, we have been at the forefront of the negotiations in British Columbia. For more about past and more recent progress, as well as current excerpts of the issues of the Ucwalmicw (the monthly newsletter), click here. We also host a blog, where we post photos of our major events, as well news items about First Nations in Canada.

Modern day treaties in British Columbia have components for self government, resource ownership and management, ownership of land and a cash settlement. Each subject is covered in great details. There will also be agreements that will not be in the Treaty but will add to it. When the treaty has been ratified (voted on by the community first, and taken to legislature of the province and the House of commons for the federal government) by all of the parties, it will become law.

On July 16th, we reached a milestone that I would like to include here. As I mentioned above, the process as it is set up in British Columbia, is a five stage process with stage 5 being the actual treaty (we also call it the Final Agreement). We have finally completed all of the work for stage 4. The document, the Agreement in Principle, has been approved by the In-SHUCK-ch community, and has had enough approval by the Canadian and Federal governments to grant permission to their Chief Negotiators to initial the document. On Sunday, we took advantage of a really nice day at Twenty Mile Bay on Harrison Lake, and put pen to paper.

We hope to have the formal signing of the Agreement-in-Principle by this fall- so stay tuned. The Final Agreement is currently in progress.