>> SEATTLE TIMES, SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 1993, PAGE A6, COL 1 <<
World page.
Vancouver, B. C., Canada.
British Coulmbia's highest court ruled yesterday
that native Indians still have some traditional rights to
a large peice of northern Canadian territory, but do not
have outright ownership of it.
The British Columbia Court of Appeal overturned
portions of a lower court ruling that aboriginal title to
the remote territory ended in the 19th century with British
colonial rule -- before the province joined Canada in 1871.
However, the five-member court dissmissed the Indians'
claim that they owned the territory, about the size of the
provence of Nova Scotia, and could govern as they saw fit.
"The claim is dissmissed without costs," the court said in a
lengthy judgement.
Chiefs of the Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en people had said
that, if they succeeded in their claim, the 25,000 whites in
the area could keep the land they own privately. The rest was
theirs, they said.
-end.