Canadian High Court Ruling Gives Support to Indians’ Land Claims

Canada’s Supreme Court issued a landmark decision Thursday establishing the principle that native Indian rights to resource-rich land were not invalidated by European settlement.

The case involves claims to 22,400 square miles of the West Coast province of British Columbia--an area almost three times the size of Massachusetts--but has implications for almost all of British Columbia and other parts of Canada.

The ruling could also bring large compensation settlements for Indians, with ramifications for lumber and mining companies and the ability of non-Indians to develop land.

“We’ve got a decision from the Supreme Court of Canada that says that we have a proprietary interest in the land and that we have an interest in the forests, land and resources--all the commodities,” said Don Ryan, chief negotiator for the Gitxsan, a group of about 5,000 Indians.

The Gitxsan, along with the 1,500 members of the neighboring Wet’suwet’en tribe, have been campaigning since the 1970s for ownership rights over the disputed land. They launched a four-year legal battle over land rights in 1987 but lost in a lower court.

The tribes appealed to Canada’s highest court, arguing that they retained rights to the land because they never signed treaties relinquishing those claims with British officials who colonized the area.

British authorities in Canada signed no land treaties for most of British Columbia, which is rich in mineral resources and timber. Nor did they sign treaties for vast tracts of land in the Northwest Territories and other scattered areas in Canada.

The Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision by six judges that the case should be retried, but the justices added that it would be preferable for the federal and British Columbia governments to negotiate a settlement with the native Indians.