[Haa Aani, our land, Tlingit & Haida land rights & use]

Abstract

Maps and reports in Haa Aani concern the traditional territories of the Klukwan, the Chilkat (Haines), Taku, Hoonah, Sitka, Angoon, Kake, Klawock, Wrangell or Stickine, Ketchikan, Saxman, Tongas, Cape Hox or Sanya, and the Haida on Prince of Wales Archipelago. It is a precious document not only for aboriginal descendants of the Tlingit and Haida of Alaska, but for all who want to have knowledge of the past beyond the thin lens of time represented by Russian and American occupation.

It was only in 1999 that the first land claim treaty in BC, negotiated with the Nisga'a of the Nass Valley by the Provincial Government went to the House of Commons in Ottawa for ratification. The claim by the Nisga'a represents the longest ongoing fight for a treaty by any band in BC history. It was in recent years bolstered by a legal decision of the Supreme Court that "equal weight shall be given to oral traditions" in determining claims to aboriginal territory. (Delgamuukw decision). Of the 200 bands in BC, some 70 percent have engaged in TUS (Traditional Use Study) mapping their own territories on the evidence of their elders. This technique has been usefully employed all over the world, and the computer has become an indispensable tool.

This work is a republication of a traditional land use study (TUS) by anthropologist Walter Goldschmidt and his associate Theodore H. Haas in 1947. Walter Goldschmidt is one of the greats of twentieth-century anthropology and professor emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles. The quality of documentation contained in this cultural land use and occupancy study made it an important resource in settling the land claims of the Tlingit and Haida of southeastern Alaska in 1971.

At that time, American policy was moving from assimilation and missionary endeavour toward preservation and revitalization of traditions of First Peoples. Natives in southeast Alaska though threatened by white intrusion, spoke their own language and were able to give place names, and indicate how their parents and grandparents moved through their territories from the winter villages to hunt and fish, build traps and caches, and gather bark, roots, and berries. They were aware of historic sites and gravesites, and awesome places where spirit power was sought. They were still part of a tradition that had been underway for thousands of years.

Maps and reports in Haa Aani concern the traditional territories of the Klukwan, the Chilkat (Haines), Taku, Hoonah, Sitka, Angoon, Kake, Klawock, Wrangell or Stickine, Ketchikan, Saxman, Tongas, Cape Hox or Sanya, and the Haida on Prince of Wales Archipelago. It is a precious document not only for aboriginal descendants of the Tlingit and Haida of Alaska, but for all who want to have knowledge of the past beyond the thin lens of time represented by Russian and American occupation.

An excellent introduction by Thomas F. Thornton, "Who owned southeast Alaska?" sets the scene for the struggle to compensate the Native people of southeastern Alaska for the intrusion of their lands for non-Native settlement, road building, communication networks, and national and international giant projects. In 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement based on a court case, in which Dr. Goldschmidt was called to testify, was hailed in the press as the most generous of any settlements with aboriginal peoples anywhere in the world. It was not a record hard to beat. Like similar treaties signed by the United States with Native tribes in the lower forty-eight states, which were cast in language of self-determination, it was a treaty designed to accomplish assimilation and termination.

This is the rub in treaty negotiations today with the bands of British Columbia. While negotiators for the government are focused upon positive economic development, reconciliation, certainty, and finality, the bands are concerned with protection of their status as First Nations, compensation and Aboriginal title to their land, and a continuing open process.

It was only in 1999 that the first land claim treaty in BC, negotiated with the Nisga'a of the Nass Valley by the Provincial Government went to the House of Commons in Ottawa for ratification. The claim by the Nisga'a represents the longest ongoing fight for a treaty by any band in BC history. It was in recent years bolstered by a legal decision of the Supreme Court that "equal weight shall be given to oral traditions" in determining claims to aboriginal territory. (Delgamuukw decision). Of the 200 bands in BC, some 70 percent have engaged in TUS (Traditional Use Study) mapping their own territories on the evidence of their elders. This technique has been usefully employed all over the world, and the computer has become an indispensable tool.

Some reasons for difficulties in data collection here: coastal bands have a young population compared to the general population. Most are educated and acculturated, and have been engaged in business in the fishing industry that has been the focus of family life for over fifty years. There is a reluctance to give information outside the lineage, and persons with knowledge are generally high-ranking and their position requires discretion with regard to guarding traditional knowledge. The information and mapping are considered absolutely confidential.

Will the TUS reports of BC bands become public property in fifty years, to the benefit of descendants and all who are interested in history? Will access to the maps and dreams of the Native people of BC be a consequence of all the intense work that has gone into preparation for treaties, as is the case in the southeastern Alaska report in Haa Aani?

The maps in Haa Aani are disappointing, especially for one unfamiliar with the landscape of southeastern Alaska. For examples of marvellous map-making in TUS studies, see Sami Potatoes. Living with Reindeer and Perestroika (1998) by Michael Robinson and Karim-Aly S. Kassam, based on a Russian-Sami co-management project, initiated in 1955 by the Arctic Institute of North America, University of Calgary, and published by Bayeux Arts Inc. Calgary.