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■lur me CAU111.11UI1 ui iucji tiauua yua.'scaanjii, imithese claims have been held to have been fully satisfied by securing1 to each tribe, as the progress of the settlement of the country seemed to require, the use of sufficient tracts of land for their wants for agricultural and pastoral purposes.’Passing now to the time of Confederation, we find that by Article 13 of the Terms of Union the following was provided: ‘The charge of the Indians and the trusteeship and management of the lands reserved for their use and benefit shall be assumed by the Dominion Government and-a nolicy as liberal as that hitherto pursued by the British Columbia Government shall be continued by the Dominion Government after the union* To carry out such policy tracts of land of such extent as it has hitherto been the practice of the British Columbia Government to appropriate for that purpose shall from time to time be conveyed from the local to the Dominion Government*in trust for the usfc and benefit of the Indians on application of the Dominion Government; and in case of disagreement between the two Governments respecting the quantity of such tracts of land to be so granted the matter shall be referred for the decision of the Secretary of. State for the Colonies.'That closes the quotation from the Terms of Union. It is only necessary for me to mention two important f^cts:; the first is that the Indian tribes were not in any way-parties to the agreement represented by the Terms of Union, and the second is that those stipulations have never been carried out. For example, to this day no tracts of land have been conveyed by the Provincial Government to the Dominion Government.After Confederation there were negotiations between the Provincial/ and Dominion Governments, and in a, memorandum dated the second day of November, 1874, and approved by His Excellency the Governor-General on the 4th of November, 1874, the Minister of the Interior says: . ‘The undersigned would respectfully recom-meind that the Government of the Dominion should make an earnest appeal to the Government of British Columbia if they value the peace and prosperity of their provinceagreea upon ana paia our stipulated price—oftentimes arrived at after a great deal of 'haggling and difficulty— we enter into possession, but not until then do we consider that we are entitled to deal with an acre. The result has been that in Canada our Indians are contented, well affected to the white men and amenable to the laws and government’ . Lord Dufferm, in the same address, also said: T would venture to put the Government ofBritish Columbia on its guard against the fatal eventualities which might arise should a sense of injustice drive the Indian population to violence or into a collision with our scattered settlers.’ ..... • yPassing now to say a word about the reserves which have been set apart for the Indians, let me say that what has been done under the agreement of 1876 by the Provincial Government has not been very different from what was done previously by the Government of the Colony./ Without treaty or negotiation certain tracts of'land were surveyed, and these the Government reserved from settlement No new title, however, was created. The lands were not conveyed to the Indians, to the Dominion Government, or to any one. They were held still by the Provincial Government; On the other hand, the Indians did not surrender any title claimed by them in the reserved lands or any of the other lands in the district. Everything remained as to thej title where it stood before.^ * . ; * *9 fNow, in that connection it is of the’* utmost importance, in order that we may get really to the bottom of the Indian land situation in British Columbia, that we should endeavor to apply the historical principle. What I mean is that we should endeavor to set before our minds just what were the circumstances in which all that has been done was done. It is a very material fact that when during some, years following 1876 reserves were being set apart, the Canadian Pacific Railway hadnot been built, settlers throughout this part of Canada were few and scattered, and they Indian Itribes were just • (Continued on, Page 5).
Newspaper Details
Vancouver BC Saturday Sunset
Vancouver, British Columbia, CA
Sat, Mar 25, 1911
Page 18
Full Page
Clipped by
Richa B.
CA 21 Jan 2024
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