News
2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 | 1994 | 1993 | 1992 08/06/2006
ICC Recommends Canada Accept the Williams Lake Indian Band Village Site Claim For Negotiation
Ottawa (June 8, 2006) - In a report issued today, an Indian Claims Commission (ICC) panel recommends that the federal government negotiate a settlement with the Williams Lake Indian Band concerning its claim to village sites in Williams Lake, BC. Commissioners Alan C. Holman and Daniel J. Bellegarde formed the panel which concludes its inquiry into the pre-emption of two village sites, one at Missioner Creek or Glendale and the other at the foot of Williams Lake. The Chair of the panel, Commissioner Alan Holman, remarked that “We heard oral evidence from the Elders of the Williams Lake Indian Band and legal arguments from lawyers for Canada and the Band. Based on the balance of the documentary evidence we found that Canada breached its basic fiduciary duties by failing to act when the Band needed land set aside for it.”
The panel concluded that the Williams Lake Indian Band had occupied the village sites at Missioner Creek and the foot of Williams Lake at the time of pre-emption and that these village sites were “Indian settlements” within the meaning of the legislation in operation at the time. In addition, the panel concluded that the pre-emption of the Indian settlements around 1861 was not valid pursuant to the pre-emption legislation. The panel found that the Williams Lake Indian Band had an interest in the use and occupation of the village sites at Missioner Creek and the foot of Williams Lake both prior to the pre-emptions and after the pre-emptions. Based on this interest, the ICC panel concludes that Canada had a pre-reserve–creation fiduciary obligation to the Williams Lake Indian Band, limited to the basic duties of loyalty, good faith, full disclosure, and ordinary prudence or diligence. The panel found that these basic duties of loyalty, good faith, full disclosure and ordinary diligence were breached by Peter O’Reilly in 1881, when these village sites should have been set aside and recommended as possible reserves. The breach was not rectified later by allotting more reserve land than was originally intended. The panel therefore recommends that Canada accept the village site claim of the Williams Lake Indian Band. The Williams Lake Indian Band has a long history in the Williams Lake area. Its traditional way of life was based on a seasonal round: the Band would move or camp in regular cycles, depending on the resources that were available in the area, and, each winter, band members would return to their permanent villages, where they lived in sunken structures known variously as“pithouses,” “kickwillie” houses, or “quigly” houses. On January 4, 1860, the Governor of the colony of BC, James Douglas, issued Proclamation No. 15, allowing settlers to acquire, or pre-empt, unoccupied and unreserved Crown land in BC. Indian reserve or settlement areas were prohibited from being occupied. In 1861, Governor Douglas instructed that a 400-500 acre reserve be set aside for the Williams Lake Indian Band, but his instructions were never carried out. When British Columbia joined Confederation in 1871, the province retained control over its lands and resources, while acknowledging the Dominion of Canada’s jurisdiction over Indians and lands reserved for Indians. The intention was for the province to convey lands set aside for the use and benefit of Indians to the dominion. However, the “Indian land question” became a source of conflict between the two levels of government. In 1875, BC and the Dominion agreed to form the Joint Indian Reserve Commission (JIRC) to address the Indian land question and to allot reserves. By 1879, the Williams Lake Indian Band still had no land set aside for it, and all of the land that the Band had originally settled and lived on had been acquired or pre-empted by settlers. That year, Chief William of the Williams Lake Indian Band wrote a letter to the editor of the British Daily Colonist, protesting the conditions under which his people were forced to live, stating “I am an Indian chief and my people are threatened by starvation. The white men have taken all the land and all the fish. A vast country was ours. It is all gone.” In 1881, Peter O’Reilly, the Indian Reserve Commissioner, visited the Indian Band and set aside 14 reserves for it, with a total acreage of 5,634 acres, including 1,464 acres of pre-empted land purchased from non-native settlers. None of the reserves were located at the original village sites of the Band. In 1894, an additional 168.76 acres was set aside for reserve purposes at Carpenter Mountain. In 1912, the McKenna-McBride Commission was established to settle the differences between Canada and BC regarding Indian lands. Chief Baptiste William appeared before the Commission in 1914, outlining grievances related to the pre-emption of its village sites and requesting more land due to the rocky nature of the reserves. In 1915, the McKenna-McBride Commission confirmed all 15 reserves for the Williams Lake Indian Band that had been previously set aside by O’Reilly. By the time provincial Order in Council 1036 was passed in 1938, only reserves 1–6 and 15 were transferred to the Williams Lake Band. Reserves 7–14 (the graveyards) were deleted from the list and not set aside. The ICC was established in 1991. Its mandate is: to inquire, at the request of a First Nation, into specific claims that have been rejected by the federal government or where the First Nation disputes the compensation criteria being considered in negotiations; and to provide mediation services on consent of the parties at any stage of the claims process. To download the backgrounder To download the report - PDF 
|
