SELF-GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMIC INITIATIVES
The Delgamuukw court action is only one of many strategies employed by the Gitxsan to assert ownership, jurisdiction and self-government on their traditional territories. The Gitxsan had a well-organized society before contact with Europeans and are using the traditional political, social, legal and economic systems, based on House groups, in self-government initiatives.
Advances in self-government are incremental because the Gitxsan still operate under the jurisdictions of the provincial or federal governments and rely on the willingness of those governments to devolve power. The areas of health, justice and education have seen the most change under this strategy. The Gitxsan Health Authority is responsible for delivery of health services, both on and off reserve, and is organized on the House group system. Unlocking Aboriginal Justice is a program for resolving disputes and providing an alternative model to deal with offenses under the Canadian justice system. Local education agreements with provincial agencies enable Gitxsan to develop schooling programs in context with traditional values. These incremental changes are small steps along the road to true self-government.
Developing self-government agreements in the area of land and natural resources has proved more difficult. Successive provincial governments have been unwilling to negotiate on joint jurisdictional arrangements, especially when dealing with non-reserve land. An example of this unwillingness was the decision by BC to walk away from treaty negotiations with the Gitxsan in February 1996. Lack of progress on how to co-manage the land base often results in conflict. In trying to stop unsustainable forestry practices on their land, hereditary chiefs and House members become the target of court injunctions by the province and multinational corporations. Some natural resource initiatives are working, especially in fisheries which is a federal government jurisdiction. The Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en Watershed Authority has taken over many of the conservation activities previously enforced by federal fisheries officers. In the area of conservation and resource management, the Gitxsan have established a sophisticated computer mapping system and using information technology combined with traditional ecologic knowledge House groups monitor and make plans for their forestry and fisheries resources.
Economic initiatives are tied to self-government strategies and aboriginal title. House groups have formed co-operatives and trusts to undertake a commercial inland salmon fishery and to pursue pine mushroom harvesting and export. Direct action on the land by House members, and the Delgamuukw Supreme Court of Canada decision on consultation, has meant gains in forestry. House groups are practicing alternative forestry, such as partial cutting systems rather than clearcutting, and carrying out silviculture activities on their lands. Most of the Gitxsan forest land is still allocated by the province to major forest companies for clearcutting.
“If you take a bucket of water out of the Skeena River, the
Skeena keeps on flowing. Our rights still flow and they will flow forever.”
- Hereditary chief Delgamuukw at a press conference following the BC Court
of Appeal ruling, June 25, 1993
- Gitksan Treaty - Continuity and Vision
- Gitxsan Statement
- Why a treaty?
- Gitxsan Treaty Transition Strategy
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