Published: Saturday, March 31, 2007 | 6:23 PM ET
Canadian Press
Original Story: www.cbc.ca
VANCOUVER (CP) – The Lheidli Tenneh First Nation in northern B.C. has rejected a proposed land claim settlement by a margin of 53 per cent.
The deal had been touted as the first completed final agreement in the B.C. Treaty Commission process.
The agreement would have awarded the band about $13 million and 4,000 hectares of land in addition to rights on fisheries, governance and natural resources.
If it had won band approval, the treaty would have moved forward to the provincial and federal governments for further approval.
Rejection of the treaty late Friday was the culmination of several days of voting by the 250-member Lheidli Tenneh nation.
Mike de Jon, B.C.’s minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, expressed disappointment at the result.
The Lheidli Tenneh reserve is located just north of Prince George, but the traditional territory claimed by the band in the agreement stretches from east of Vanderhoof to the Alberta border.
However, several other neighbouring first nations claimed the federal and provincial governments ignored requests for consultations with them.
Among them was the Treaty 8 First Nations of the northeastern B.C. Peace region and the central B.C. Shuswap First Nation.
"If this is how the governments respect existing treaty rights, I would really question the promise they are making to other First Nations who don’t have a treaty like us," Saulteau Chief Allan Apsassin said last month.
The top northeast corner of the claimed territory, just south of Tumbler Ridge, overlaps with the Treaty 8 boundary by about 5,700 square kilometres.
The Saulteau, West Moberly, Doig River, Halfway River, Prophet River, and Fort Nelson First Nations had sought a court injunction to prevent the ratification of the treaty.
Also contesting the claim was the Shuswap First Nation whose traditional lands are south of Prince George.
The Shuswap tribal council, which represents 10 bands south of Prince George, says the traditional territory of the Seewepemc people is being encroached by the Lheidli T’enneh in the areas of McBride, Valemount and half way down the Kinbasket reservoir.
The Shuswap bands argue about 10,000 square kilometres of land in the McBride and Valemount area is unjustly being claimed by the Lheidli Tenneh as its traditional territory.