Aboriginal Title and Rights
The first human inhabitants of BC’s coast were, by many accounts, experts in ecologically sustainable development. Despite thousands of years of occupation, natural resources remained plentiful and continually available for each generation to use to meet their needs. They were closely connected to their food supply and understood that over-harvesting of shellfish beds or salmon runs, for example, would have direct negative consequences for them and their children. In less than two hundred years, immigrants who introduced systems and technologies of massive natural resource extraction, have reduced biodiversity and degraded the soil, water and air which sustain all life.
With the exception of a few treaties covering small areas around Victoria on Vancouver Island, none of the native groups living in the coastal area of what we now call British Columbia signed treaties giving up their traditional territories to the newcomers. Since the “discovery” of “British Columbia” by Captain Cook, native people have been discriminated against through repressive laws and policies, forced to assimilate, and not allowed an equal place in the economic development of BC. For generations, native people in BC have been seeking a fair, negotiated settlement of land and sea claims which would respect their right of resource ownership and right to self government. A parks and protected area system plan to preserve watersheds and the ancient temperate rainforests of BC must be negotiated with the native owners, recognizing their rights to subsistence use and economic benefits arising from protected area status.
Today, respect for the traditions and values of native peoples is growing. The federal and, more recently, the provincial governments have begun to negotiate land ownership and other rights with First Nations groups. The areas that have been claimed by the native bands on the coast in formal submissions to the federal government are shown on the map in the centre of this page.
Comprehensive claim submissions
