Treaty offer heading for scrap heap

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Two of the largest of the 14 Nuu-chah-nulth communities have already rejected the proposed agreement-in-principle (AIP) put forward recently under the British Columbia Treaty Commission process.

The people of Ahousaht voted 74 per cent against the AIP. Tseshaht voted 92 per cent against. Those communities represent about one-third of the total Nuu-chah-nulth population.

As of April 4, six First Nations have voted in favor of the agreement. Three tribal council members-Hesquiaht, Nuchahtlaht and Ehahtteshat- have not yet participated in the ratification vote that was to have been held on or before March 31, just three weeks after the agreement-in-principle was initialed. Those bands say the March 31 deadline was too soon.

One band, Tla-o-qui-aht, has not yet voted because of a death in the community. Two other bands are negotiating separately with Canada and the province and are not included in this process.

The agreement that was put to the people includes $243 million and 550 square km of land. Newspaper reports in the province have dwelled on how much is in the offer, but many Nuu-chah-nulth people are looking at how small a percentage of their unceded territory and resource are included.

Treaty-making has accelerated in the province right now. The Opposition Liberals, expected to defeat the NDP government when a provincial election is called in the near future, have already said they will hold a referendum on the entire treaty process, if elected. Premier Ujjal Dosanjh has turned that threat into a lever to fast-track treaty negotiations while desperately appealing to the electorate, saying only his party will respect the rights of minorities.

The Ehattesaht First Nation, an isolated community near Nootka Island that is a six-hour drive from Victoria and only accessible after a final 45-minute trek along a logging road, walked away from the negotiations.

Dawn Amos was the chief of that community from 1998 until October of 2000. She was also the treaty negotiator before quitting to attend the University of Victoria. She said she returned to her community to warn the people what would happen if they ratified the treaty offer.

"Speaking as the former negotiator for our tribe, we undertook an analysis of the agreement-in-principle almost two years ago," she said. "At that point, we already had some concerns with the language and in our analysis there were five areas that were brought to the tribal council with respect to jurisdiction, governance, fiscal relations, certainty and taxation."

After she left council, Amos said, the new council did not follow up on those objections.

"As soon as my council left, those issues left the table. It wasn't until the eleventh hour, the day before the initialing, that I went back into the community and shared what we had done and it totally refreshed everybody's memory. Regardless of my status (as an ex-chief living away from the community), I was still a band member, so I went to my first community meeting in seven months and just put out exactly what I said to you. People aren't even supportive of the process. They feel like it's failed them entirely," she said.

Amos claims the treaty offer is small for the more urban communities in the tribal council and miniscule for the smaller, more remote communities.

"For Ehattesaht, and I even believe it's for Nuu-chah-nulth, from some of the research that I've done since the offer has come out, it's zero-point-one per cent. I'm not kidding," she said. "And for Ehattesaht, it's point-zero-zero-one per cent in addition to the already existing reserves. At that point we only have 1.5 per cent of our traditional territory as reserves. So they didn't really make a big offer. It's not even five per cent. If you combine land and cash it makes five per cent. The smaller tribes are paying."

Amos knew she would be criticized for speaking against the offer, but she felt she had no choice.

"I was afraid what would happen if I didn't say nything," she said. "I've been totally criticized by my own people and I've received numerous emails basically scolding me or saying, 'This is the best deal we're going to get.'"

One powerful figure on the tribal council, co-chair Richard Watts, has also walked away, saying he'd vote against the deal.

"Right in the paper, he said he'll be voting no. I think that'll have a big influence," Amos said.

Another community that reached the agreement-in-principle phase of the treaty process also backed out when it came time to finalize things. After their negotiators reached what looked like an acceptable deal to them, the Sechelt people, whose traditional territory is the Sunshine Coast, north of Vancouver, decided that the insistence that they extinguish their tax-free status in exchange for a small percentage of their traditional lands and resources, was unacceptable.

Amos believes that will be a pattern that will be repeated over and over again.

"Well, I know for our community that people are running scared and it's the people who make a living off this process. Those people are running around trying to get us back at the Nuu-chah-nulth table right now. It's only them. It's not the real grassroots, average people," she said. "There's a lot of people who have gotten rich from this process and that's why I left. I quit as our negotiator before I actually quit as our chief just because I didn't feel I could be the one who is responsible to sell this thing to our people and take money to do it."

Tribal council spokesman Archie Little defended the deal and the ratification process.

"We understand that support for the agreement is not unanimous, but we understand also that it may never be so, and we respect the opinions of those who do not support the direction in which we are going," he said. "We firmly believe the agreement provides opportunities for our communities and gives us a proper basis for our proper place in British Columbia and Canada."

A source with the Briish Columbia Treaty Commission (BCTC) confirmed things "didn't look good" for the proposed treaty. Brian Mitchell, of BCTC communications, said a meeting must be held to formally recognize that the AIP has been officially rejected, but nothing has yet been scheduled.