No-Longer-British Columbia (part II)
No-Longer-British Columbia (part II)
a guest update by TelynK
(Tk'emlups, 1998)
“Skicza7!” Tsil was calling. Margaret woke up from her nap to realize that her son needed her. It was a lazy Saturday, and Eileen was off at the Tk'emlups Centre helping with preparations for the Winter Ceremonies. Tsil had been working on something for school, and Margaret had taken advantage of the quiet to relax on the couch. Her job as a nurse had her up so early every morning that she never was able to get enough sleep during the week.
Margaret stumbled into the kitchen where Tsil was hard at work at the table with his Aboriginal Studies textbook open in front of him. “Skicza7,” he said, “I'm supposed to be writing a paper on the UAN government. I understand the Division of Powers between the Federal, Provincial, UAN [1], and Band levels of government. I understand the methods by which the various governments are elected. But why, why is everything in the UAN level of government so complicated? Why are there the complicated formulas as to how the Bands are represented in the UAN? Why does the UAN have different powers in different parts of the Province? And why is everything so much simpler over on the other side of the river in Kamloops where Carl goes to school?”
“Well,” Margaret replied, “my brother who works for the Department of Education says that the UAN is complicated because it 'does justice to the diversity of the traditions of the people it represents'. Truthfully, that's nothing more than a campaign slogan. The real reason everything about the UAN government is so complicated is because the nearly 100 Bands which are represented by the UAN negotiated dozens of separate treaties, which the UAN government is bound by.”
“Well, why didn't they just all negotiate one treaty together? Wouldn't that have been the better approach? Wouldn't that be advantageous in the same way that the collective bargaining that unions use is advantageous?”
“Hey! Remember you're talking about peoples who spent a good part of our history going to war against each other!” Margaret said with more than a little bit of sarcasm. “More seriously, though, there was as much conflict within our communities as there was between us and the Canadian government. For example, the case that was brought before the Court of Arbitration by the St'at'imc National Council was not endorsed by all the Chiefs of all the St'at'imc Bands. Many Bands feared reprisals from the Canadian government, and others were worried that a ruling from the courts that our people's land had never been surrendered to the Canadian government would deprive us of the rights we already had under the Indian Act. [2]”
“Even once we had won our court case,” Margaret continued, “there was still debate over what to do next. Some believed that we should negotiate a surrender of our land in exchange for treaty rights as other bands had done in the 19th century. Some believed that we should try to keep as much of our land as possible in the treaty but should fully recognize Canadian sovereignty, becoming nothing more than landowners. Others felt that self-government was more important than land and worked to try to have our reserves recognized with a status equal to that of the Provinces.”
“Each of the treaties negotiated in the 1960s and 1970s found a different balance between these competing desires and the interests of the Federal and Provincial Governments. The Union of Autonomous Nations was formed only
after the treaty negotiation process had concluded. Its relationship with British Columbia and Canada isn't governed by a single treaty, but by dozens of treaties, each negotiated by a different set of Bands with a different set of needs…”
“You never really answered my question,” Tsil interrupted. “Why didn't the UAN form
before the treaties were signed in order to negotiate a single treaty? And why don't we renegotiate a new treaty now that we're all together under the same government? You'd think that would work better....”
“Ahhh, well,” Margaret replied, “we did actually try negotiating a single document that would cover all of our needs. It was called the Winnipeg Charter [3] and, well, it went down in flames like every other constitution Canada has tried to pass since. [4] Really, the solidarity movement that became the UAN started in order to present a unified position to Canada and the Provinces so that we
could negotiate a common status for all of our peoples. But, with the failure of the 1980s constitutional accords, we've resorted to making bilateral agreements with Canada and British Columbia separately. We've succeeded at standardizing the treaty rights that involve matters of solely Provincial or solely Federal jurisdiction, but, for those matters which involve both levels of government, we've had to stick to the text of our original treaties.”
“So, are you saying that the structure of our UAN government is the way it is because of the failure of the Winnipeg Charter?”
“Yes, in a way.”
“Then I think I have my paper topic. I'm going to write about how the Winnipeg Charter has affected our system of government here in the UAN.”
“You should talk to Mom about that when she gets home. She's pretty knowledgeable about that sort of thing…”
* * * * *
Eileen had hoped to have a chance to relax when she got home from her volunteering, but found Tsil eagerly awaiting her return. He was writing a paper, it seemed, and rather than go down to the library, he'd decided to hit up the good ol' Library of Mom's Brain. Eileen wasn't sure how he'd cite his sources for this one, but it seemed that High School teachers were much more lax on citations than the professors that Eileen had had back at UVic. [5]
“So, tell me about the Winnipeg Charter,” Tsil asked, “you said that it was not just supposed to be an agreement between our people and the Federal and Provincial governments, but that really it was designed to help resolve disputes between Canada and the Provinces?”
“Well yes,” Eileen replied, “have you learned about the Crisis of the 1960s in History yet?”
“Well,” Tsil replied, “we've just started that unit. There was something about Québec wanting to separate?”
“Well, that was part of it. Québec wanted more autonomy within Confederation, and was threatening to separate if it didn't get it. But, out here there was a bigger crisis, which was the conflict between the Federal and Provincial governments over the St'at'imc Treaty.”
“Ok, explain that one to me.”
“Well, basically, the Court of Arbitration had ruled that, if the Canadian government didn't sign a treaty with the St'at'imc Nation, that the St'at'imc territory would cease to be a part of Canada, and would become independent. The Federal Liberal government of the time immediately started negotiating with the St'at'imc. However, many people in BC were outraged, especially those non-Natives who lived on St'at'imc traditional territory, and those who worked for the forestry and mining companies which relied on the natural resources which had just been declared St'at'imc property. Thus, the 1961 Provincial election elected a Right-Populist Dogwood Party [6] government which immediately withdrew from negotiations with the St'at'imc National Council and threatened to separate from Canada. The 1965 election increased further the Dogwood Party's majority in the Provincial legislature and convinced the Federal government that their conflict with BC would not end easily. The Federal-Provincial conflict over the St'at'imc Treaty was the second part of the Crisis of the 1960s which forced the conference which led to the Winnipeg Charter.”
“So the Winnipeg Charter was when all the Provincial, Federal, and Native leaders got together to try to find an agreement that would work for everyone?”
“Yes, that was the idea. By the time of the conference, the Federal Government and the St'at'imc had reached an Agreement in Principle on their treaty, and the Feds and the St'at'imc were hoping that they could convince British Columbia and the other Provinces to accept this agreement in exchange for concessions elsewhere.”
“So the Winnipeg Chater was based on the St'at'imc Treaty?”
“Well, not 'based on'. The St'at'imc Treaty was really a small part of it, but the idea was that the Feds felt that the conditions which had been acceptable to the St'at'imc would hopefully be acceptable to the other nations which still held un-extinguished Aboriginal Title. The Winnipeg Charter would have given all Aboriginal Nations which had unresolved land claims the ability to opt-in to an arrangement similar to the St'at'imc Treaty. The St'at'imc, having won their case with the Court of Arbitration, were negotiating from a position of strength that no other Nation could take advantage of. So, many other Nations would have been very willing to accept the terms of the St'at'imc Treaty at that time, as it was likely better than what they could get through a separate treaty.”
“So, what were the terms of the St'at'imc Treaty?”
“Well, firstly, I should mention that, at the time of the Winnipeg Charter, the agreement was not yet a Treaty and just an Agreement in Principle. It would still have to be ratified by the government and by the St'at'imc people before it could become legally binding. In the Agreement in Principle, the St'at'imc gave up possession of much of their traditional territory in exchange for a form of limited sovereignty over that territory. [7] They were guaranteed the right to be able to hunt, fish, and gather plants anywhere in that territory, and the right to be compensated financially if they lost the ability to hunt on any part of that territory. They were given the right to a share of the revenues off any natural resource exploited in that territory, and the right to veto any development project on their traditional land. However British Columbia retained the right to regulate the use of this land and to build roads, railways and other infrastructure projects through it, although they would have to compensate the St'at'imc on the loss of hunting grounds through the construction of such projects.”
“However, there were two exceptions to this limited sovereignty arrangement. The first was the 'Autonomous Native Territory' that was formed from existing reserve land and an additional 5% of the St'at'imc traditional territory. The ANT, as it was called, was mostly non-commercially-exploited wilderness, and the various St'at'imc bands got full ownership over their portion of this land [8], and the right to administer powers roughly equal to that of municipal government. The second exception was land that was currently part of towns and cities or was currently farmed by non-Natives. This land remained a normal part of British Columbia as it had been before 1959.”
“I should also mention,” continued Eileen, “that, through the Agreement in Principle, the St'at'imc were set to also gain a great deal of autonomy. The St'at'imc were given control over their own local government matters, their own eduction system, and each Band was given the authority to determine who would and who would not be considered Band members. The various bands also gained the right to give or sell their ANT land to anyone, however, each St'at'imc Band would retain the rights of municipal-level government over any land that they sold. In exchange, the St'at'imc gave up some of the rights they had held under the Indian Act. For example, individuals living on reserve land would now have to pay tax like any other Canadian citizen, and each Band's budgets would no longer be subsidized by the Federal government. Instead, the Provincial government would fund the St'at'imc education system on a per-student basis, the St'at'imc would have the right to collect rent and property tax on their land, and any additional expenses would be covered by the St'at'imc share of the natural resource royalties collected from their traditional territory. The Provincial government would transfer funds to the St'at'imc National Council who would in turn distribute these funds to the individual bands.”
“So,” Tsil asked, “this was just the Agreement in Principle, and it was supposed to be incorporated into the Winnipeg Charter. So, I understand that the Winnipeg Charter was rejected by referendum, so what happened to the St'at'imc Treaty negotiations afterwards?”
“Well, a good part of the reason the Winnipeg Charter was rejected was that it incorporated many of the separatist demands of the Dogwood Party government. While the Dogwood Party had been elected to form two successive provincial governments, in neither election had they received more than 40% of the popular vote, with the remainder of the vote being split between the traditional Liberals and Conservatives, and the Provincial-level One Canada Party. The Dogwood policies were seen as extreme by many British Columbians, and their desire for British Columbian autonomy was seen as excessive. Both my Abbott grandfather, who was a traditional Conservative, and my parents, who were left-wing One Canada supporters despised the Dogwood Party and what they stood for.”
“So,” Eileen continued, “when the time came to vote on the Winnipeg Charter, it was rejected by the voters. Soon, the Dogwood government fell and was replaced by a Liberal government in the 1968 elections. The Provincial Liberals worked closely with their Federal counterparts to rush the St'at'imc Treaty through before the 1969 deadline. Partly in order to better ensure that the treaty would pass its referendum, the parties negotiating the treaty agreed that any Canadian citizen who had at least one full-status St'at'imc grandparent would be entitled to vote yes or no to the treaty. This angered many of the more radical Native activists, as they felt that those who were mostly white should have no say in their treaty. However, the resulting protests did not deter the passage of the referendum, and the St'at'imc Treaty was signed within weeks of the deadline.”
“Ok,” Tsil replied. “The St'at'imc Treaty was the first modern treaty signed in Canada, right? How long was it before the other Nations of the UAN signed their treaties?”
“Well, during the time of the Winnipeg Charter, many other BC Nations had been prepared to opt-in to the provisions in the Winnipeg Charter which would allow other Nations to accept the same terms that had been offered to the St'at'imc. Minor adjustments were made in each case, especially with regards to which specific pieces of land would become Autonomous Native Territory, but many Nations accepted terms comparable to those accepted by the St'at'imc in the early 1970s. However, many of the Nations which opted for provisions very different from the St'at'imc Treaty took more time in the negotiations and didn't settle their treaties until the late 1970s.”
“How were these provisions different from those of the St'at'imc Treaty?” Tsil asked.
“Well, basically, by 1980, the BC Nations could be classified into four groups. The first were the Nations on Vancouver Island and in the Northeast who had had their treaties settled before 1900, and so didn't have any outstanding land claims. The second were the ones who had opted for a treaty similar to that of the St'at'imc Treaty. Most nations of the Southern Interior and North Coast fell into this group, and it was many of these nations which would go on to found the UAN.”
“The third group consisted of the Coast Salish Nations in the Lower Mainland around Vancouver. For them, much of their traditional territory had been converted into suburban residential developments or agricultural land. As the St'at'imc treaty rights over their traditional territory didn't extend to suburban or agricultural areas, the Coast Salish Nations would have received very little compensation if they had opted for the St'at'imc Treaty. Instead, they demanded full ownership of a larger portion of their traditional territory, and forced the government to give up almost all of the remaining Crown land in the Lower Mainland. These Nations then received the rights to act as a municipal government over the land they received and proceeded to develop it. The Coast Salish Nations would go on to become some of the wealthiest landlords of the Lower Mainland.” [9]
“The fourth group consisted of the Nations of the far North whose traditional territories had largely been untouched by settlement. They saw no need to engage in the messy shared-sovereignty arrangements of the St'at'imc treaty, and instead asked for full self-government rights over a larger portion of their traditional lands. The Nisga'a, one of the more successful of these Northern Nations, were able to receive almost 50% of their traditional territory to govern for themselves. While, constitutionally speaking, this land was still part of the Province of British Columbia, BC gave up almost all control over this land, leaving the Northern Nations with almost provincial-level autonomy. Some of these Nations have been successful in securing revenues from the exploitation of this land, while others have succumbed to poverty.”
“Ok,” said Tsil at this point, “my project is supposed to be about the UAN government. You've told me much about the treaties that the various Nations signed, but you haven't told me much about the UAN and how it was formed. You said something about the 1980s constitutional accords?”
“Well, throughout the 1970s, it was common opinion that Canada needed a new constitution. Something less radical than the Winnipeg Charter perhaps, but something to encode the many changes that had taken place within Confederation into a single legal document. The Federal government, anxious to extinguish any remaining Aboriginal land claims and avoid the near-crisis of 1969, promised that any Nation which signed a treaty before January 1st, 1980 would gain recognition within this coming constitution. It was largely because of this promise that the government was able to get as many treaties signed as they were in the 1970s. At the time, of course, they didn't know that the 1980s constitution would be just as difficult to get approved as the Winnipeg Charter. The government didn't want to recognize individual bands within the constitution, as there would be hundreds of bands to recognize, but instead asked the various Native Nations to put forward a proposal for a form of 'higher-level Native government' which could be recognized. The UAN was just the most successful of these proposals.”
“You make it sound like the UAN was the Federal government's idea.” Margaret interrupted.
* * * * *
Dinner had been in the oven, and Margaret had been finished in the kitchen for almost ten minutes now and had been listening to her wife and son carry on the conversation in the living room. As much as she was often in awe of her wife's knowledge of legal history (after all, Eileen came from a long line of Abbott lawyers), she often felt that Eileen often times ignored the social and economic realities which brought about the legal changes which she so loved to talk about.
“I'm sorry,” Eileen responded. “I guess I did make it sound that way. How would you describe its formation?” she asked her wife.
“Well,” Margaret continued, “while the 1970s were a time of many victories for our people, they were also a time of hard lessons. While our Bands had had Band Councils since the 1940s, these councils had not held any real responsibility until after the signing of the treaties of the 1960s and 1970s. The 1970s seemed to show that many of these Bands were not prepared for this responsibility. The amount of money now flowing through the Band Council's hands led to corruption in a number of places. The smaller Bands where a majority of the members were from a single family were often the ones who suffered most from this corruption, as the council could often easily be dominated by this one family.”
“At the same time, there were other bands which were simply unable to raise the revenues necessary to cover the costs that the Federal government had covered before their treaty was signed. This was partially because the Provincial government encouraged logging and mining companies to operate in lands exempt from treaty provisions so that 100% of the resource royalties went to the Provincial government. This deprived many bands of their expected source of revenue. Many were forced to sell off their lands, or to mortgage their lands and go into debt. To encourage the resource companies to return, many Nations started to offer royalty rebates, further reducing their own revenues, and the more corrupt ones even offered kickbacks to company executives.”
“The National Councils, made up of the representatives of the various bands in each Nation, were responsible for distributing these resource revenues. They did their best to ensure that every band got a share. They also tried to discourage corrupt practices by withholding funds until those practices ended. But, as the National Councils were made up of representatives appointed by the Bands, they often let many Band governments get away with too much.”
“The problems were such that the Federal government was soon threatening to take over the management of corrupt bands. It was unclear at the time whether the Federal government had the right to do so, as that right was not mentioned in any of the treaties or in the current Constitution. [10] However, the threat was enough to scare many of our people, and soon there was a movement in place to create an alternative solution. My father was one of the activists who led the 'elected national council' movement, which would have given the National Councils more power, and would have made them elected bodies rather than being appointed by the Band-level Councils. It was partially this activist movement which made the Federal government promise to recognize higher-level Native government in the proposed constitution.”
“Now, if the UAN government had truly been a project by the Federal government to not have to deal with Band-level governments in the constitution, would it have come into being when the 1980s constitution failed?” Margaret looked over to see Eileen shaking her head. “Really, it was clear to everyone involved that Band-level government wasn't capable of handling the responsibilities that had been given to our people in our treaties, and that we needed a higher-level government to take the reigns. It was this need that was recognized by the Federal government in its constitutional proposals, and it was this need that was recognized by the National Councils in 1986 when the Tk'emlups Accord was signed. The Tk'emlups Accord dissolved the National Councils of the St'at'imc, Secwempec, Nlakapamux, Nuxalh and Tsimshian Nations, and their responsibilities were taken over by the newly-created Union of Autonomous Nations.”
“The UAN, unlike the National Councils which preceded it, would be elected directly by the people, and its proportional-representation system would allow it to escape the dominance of local elections by the largest families. Over the decade since then, the UAN has grown is size to encompass new Nations, and its responsibilities have broadened as it has taken on more and more of the functions that used to be managed by the individual Bands. The UAN still doesn't have power to make laws or the ability to collect taxes, and it relies upon the individual Bands to delegate responsibility to it. However, economies of scale and the advantages of a united front have made it worthwhile for the UAN to administer matters such as policing, educational policy, and economic development instead of leaving those matters for each Band to handle on its own. While the UAN still doesn't have a legal status recognized by the Canadian Constitution, it has been the most successful of the higher-level Native governments in Canada.”
Tsil took this opportunity to ask a question. “So, Skicza7, did the UAN succeed at solving the problems that led to its formation? The corruption you were talking about did it go away? I mean, I know I still hear about corrupt Band governments on the news, but they're usually Bands that aren't part of the UAN, right?”
“Well,” Margaret replied, “whether or not the UAN's solved more problems than it's created is still up for debate. My brother certainly would argue that we're much better off with the UAN than we were before, but many in the Band councils would disagree. Especially those Band councils who have been censured by the UAN for corruption. I guess what I should say is that while some problems have been solved, others have been created. Certainly, corruption is now less of an issue amongst UAN Bands than amongst non-UAN Bands. And, many of our fiscal and economic problems have been solved with the UAN's promotion of economic development in our traditional lands. The Native-run mining and logging companies which employ many of my cousins are great examples of this. None would have been able to get started if the UAN hadn't offered them interest-free loans.”
“However,” Margaret continued, “there are also many new issues that have been created by the UAN. Certainly, the accusations that the UAN favours some Bands over others for political reasons are not completely baseless. And, the use of the revenues of richer bands to subsidize poorer ones is controversial to say the least. The lack of a clear formula by which individual voters get represented in the UAN Assembly has also drawn a great deal of criticism. But, probably the issue of Citizenship is the one that has caused the most anger against the UAN.”
“What issue of citizenship?” Tsil asked.
“Well, for example, while they don't say as much to you, my parents are resentful of the fact that Eileen, my wife, who has not a drop of Native blood in her veins, has been able to secure UAN Citizenship. Here in Tk'emlups, we're a little bit more cosmopolitan, but back up in Xaxl'ip, the general opinion is that anyone who isn't a full-status Band member shouldn't be able to vote for representatives to the UAN Assembly.”
“So, why
did the UAN allow Eileen to acquire citizenship?” Tsil asked.
“I think I'll let her answer that one,” Margaret replied.
* * * * *
Eileen, who had been seated on the couch reading the transcript of the court case that she was supposed to write an article on, was now called back into the conversation. She at first had been reluctant to help Tsil out more. After all, she had research of her own to do. However, when she was brought up to speed and found that the conversation had drifted towards the issue of UAN Citizenship, she was happy to have the chance to share her thoughts on the issue she was so passionate about.
“Ok,” Eileen was saying, “to see where the issues started, we need to look back 30 years to when my parents were my age, and I was a little bit younger than you are now. Back in the 60s, just before St'at'imc Treaty was signed, my father got a job teaching with the local Lillooet Native School Board (as it was called at the time). Grandfather Abbott, my mom's dad, who had fought in court against the St'at'imc Treaty, felt betrayed that his daughter would marry a man who would go off to work with 'the enemy'. But my mother was happy to follow my dad where he led, and my dad, well from his point of view, it was my grandfather who was 'the enemy'.”
“Anyways, my dad was as strong a supporter of Native rights as a white man who had little understanding of them could be. He believed in the treaty movement, and wanted to promote greater recognition of Native issues amongst all British Columbians. He openly expressed disappointment with the 'whitewashing of history' that he identified in the mainstream curriculum, and was excited to be able to teach in a Native-run school board. At the time, I was still in elementary school. In the Town of Lillooet there were two schools. There was the mainstream school and the Native-run school. My father, as a proponent of the virtues of the Native approach to eduction, wanted to send me to the Native school. My father had no problem convincing his employers at the School Board that I should be allowed to attend the Native school, but the Provincial Ministry of Education was less accommodating. They refused to increase the funding to the Native School Boards for any non-Native students attending Native schools. The Native School Boards soon took them to court, and won their case in 1975. The ruling held that, just as Ontario residents were able to determine whether their tax dollars should support the Public or Catholic school boards [11], British Columbia residents should be able to determine whether their tax dollars supported the Public or Native school boards. The caveat was that for a non-Native person to choose to support the Native school board, they would have to demonstrate that they 'participated in the Native community'.”
“So already, in the form of School Boards, non-Native people had a degree of participation in Native institutions as early as 1975. Similarly, many non-Band members - people of mixed ancestry - had participated in the Treaty referenda, as voting on each Nation's treaty had been open to all those with at least one grandparent from that Nation. So, there was some precent for the opening up of UAN citizenship.”
“Maybe the best way to understand the openness of UAN citizenship is to contrast it with the exclusiveness of Band membership. In the pre-Treaty era, Band membership was governed by the Federal Indian Act. The Federal government had an interest in reducing the number of people who had Indian status, as so, for example, denied Status to Native women who married White men. [12] When the Bands gained control over their own membership as they signed Treaties, they often times opted to open Band membership to any children of any Band member who lived on Band land. However, many Bands refused to grant membership to children of Band members who were born outside of that Band's territory, especially if the second parent was non-Native.”
“However, the same Treaties which had given the Band governments control over their own membership policies had also given Native people all across BC increased economic independence and mobility. Especially in the 1980s, as Native-owned companies expanded throughout the Province, Native people often found work far from their Band's traditional territory. Thus, when the UAN was founded in 1986, it was estimated that those who able to vote in Band Council elections were now the minority amongst Native people. Thus, while the members of the various Bands of each Nation were able to elect that Nation's Representatives to the UAN Assembly, a number of Assembly seats were reserved for those who were Native but were not Band members. At first, the UAN didn't really have any way of asking for proof that those who voted for the General Representatives were in fact Native, but by 1989 they were issuing their own citizenship cards and had approved their first citizenship policy.”
“The UAN's citizenship policy was shaped by the fact that the UAN, as a body whose primary purpose was oversight, coordination, and pooling of resources, had no need to be exclusive with citizenship. The individual Bands wanted to keep membership small so that they would not have to share their land and revenues amongst too many members. Since UAN citizenship didn't grant much more than the right to vote in UAN elections, the right to apply for economic development grants, and the right to attend UAN University here in Tk'emlups, there wasn't really any need to restrict citizenship. Thus the citizenship policy that was arrived at was fairly open.”
“Under the 1989 citizenship policy, all those who had voted in any Treaty referendum for any of the Nations who had joined the UAN were automatically UAN citizens. Any child of a UAN citizen also automatically gained the right to UAN citizenship, whether or not their second parent was also a citizen. Additionally, there was a provision created that anyone who could prove proficiency in a Native language and knowledge of a Native culture could become a UAN citizen by writing a citizenship test. Originally, this provision was intended to encourage Native people from non-UAN Nations to accept jobs in UAN territory. However, it was because of this provision, and because of the fact that I had learned St'at'imcets as a child at the Native school in Lilloet that I was able to obtain citizenship. I was able to prove my knowledge of the St'at'imcets language and my participation in St'at'imc culture, and, in doing so, was able to obtain citizenship for myself, and, by extension, for you.”
“Wow,” Tsil replied, “everything's so complicated…” he trailed off for a bit. “I think I should probably get started on actually writing this paper, but you an Skicza7 do seem to know a lot about all of this stuff.”
“Well,” Eileen replied, “we'd better know a lot about the formation of our UAN government. After all, if it hadn't been for Native-run school boards, my father would have never moved to Lillooet, and I never would have met your Skicza7.” Eileen winked at Margaret as she said this. She was really glad that things had turned out they way they had. The fact that she and Margaret, neither of whom were members of the Tk'emlups Band, could live here in Tk'emlups, and participate as fully as they could, was certainly a testament to how much things had changed since their grandparent's time. She wondered how much further things would progress by the time Tsil had children of his own. Only time would tell…”
Footnotes to Part 2:
[1] Union of Autonomous Nations. The UAN is the higher-level Native government which handles affairs which concern more than one Native Band.
[2] Certain provisions of the Indian Act, such as that which allows businesses on-reserve to sell tobacco without charging Provincial and Federal tobacco tax, have been very important for the welfare of Native peoples in OTL Canada. Thus, a larger part of Native activism is focused upon amending the more restrictive portions of the Indian Act rather than repealing it entirely.
[3] See post 5944
[4] An allusion was made in post 5944 to the fact that the [constitutional] 'crisis of the 1960s would not be the last'. So, I'm assuming that further attempts at Canadian constitutional reform were made in the 1980s, but also failed. I don't have a detailed idea at what these attempts would have looked liked, but have the idea that they failed in much the way that the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords failed OTL.
[5] University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia. The University was created well after the POD, but I imagine that there would still be a univeristy in Victoria in TTL, and that it would probably bear the same name as OTL.
[6] Politically speaking, you can think of the Dogwood Party as resembling the BC Social Credit Party of OTL's 1960s, or the Federal Reform Party of the 1990s. They're populist and conservative, but definie themselves in opposition to the Conservative Party which they see as too pro-establishment. The Dogwood Party has a separatist streak that the Socreds never had, and that you only really see in Alberta OTL. I chose the name Dogwood Party as a play on the Alberta Wildrose Party (Wild Rose is the Provincial flower of Alberta, Dogwood is the Provincial flower of BC).
[7] In the post-Westphalian world Native Treaty Rights are seen as a form of a limited sovereignty (i.e. part of the realm of International Law) rather than being more akin to Constitutional or Statutory rights (i.e. part of the realm of Canadian Law).
[8] In Canada, Native reserves are still legally owned by the federal government and held in trust for the Bands that administer them. This is why gaining full ownership of their lands is considered a victory.
[9] In OTL too, many of the suburban bands have gotten into the business of real estate. While in OTL they are not able to sell their land, they are able to grant 99-year leases, and sell the buildings themselves. The revenue from these real estate deals has made many of these bands well-off compared to their more rural counterparts.
[10] In OTL, the Canadian government does have the right to take over the management of Band governments. While this power is justified on paper by an attempt to curtail corruption, it has been abused in the past to sideline Band governments who have been politically opposed to the Federal government.
[11] This is one of the quirks of Canada that our constitution guarantees public financial support for religious schools only if they're Catholic schools. The history of this dates back when the English first took control of Québec from the French, and made a promise to support Catholic schools for the Canadiens.
[12] This is what happens when sexism and racism go hand in hand, folks!
