Lax Kw'alaams First Nation

Background
Negotiations
Other Activites
Planned Meetings

Background

Negotiating status

: Negotiating a comprehensive treaty settlement within the British Columbia Treaty Commission six-stage treaty process.

Negotiating affiliation

: Negotiating independently with Canada and British Columbia. The Lax Kw'alaams First Nation is not affiliated with any tribal council or treaty group.

Location

: Main community is on Lax Kw'alaams Indian Reserve #1, at Port Simpson, approximately 30 km northwest of Prince Rupert. Reserves are located primarily on the Skeena River, Portland Inlet and Work Channel, on B.C.'s North Coast. (78 reserves on 11,898.7 hectares.)

Total band members

: 3,090 (Source: Registered Indian Population by Sex and Residence May 2007, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada)

Negotiations

The Lax Kw'alaams First Nation is in Stage 2 of the treaty process, determining the readiness of the three parties - Canada, BC and the First Nation - to negotiate a treaty.

The Lax Kw'alaams entered the treaty process in January 1994 with six other bands that were all part of a Tsimshian treaty group. Negotiations with the treaty group were ongoing until April of 2004, when they were suspended to allow the member bands to resolve internal organizational issues. Once these issues were dealt with, a new five-member treaty group emerged which excluded the Lax Kw'alaams and Gitxaala (also known as Kitkatla) First Nations.

Lax Kw'alaams submitted a separate statement of intent (SOI) to negotiate a treaty independently with Canada and BC which was accepted by the BC Treaty Commission in June 2005.

Lax Kw'alaams is the largest of the seven Tsimshian bands, with more than 3,000 of the approximately 7,700 total population. Gitxaala First Nation, which also withdrew from the Tsimshian treaty table, has nearly 1,700 members, while the other five Tsimshian bands total about 3,000 members.

Other Activities

In recent years, Tsimshian First Nations have been working toward land and resource use planning and economic initiatives with the provincial government. Lax Kw'alaams First Nation has been part of these planning and economic initiatives.

In October 2003, the Province and Lax Kw'alaams signed a forestry accommodation agreement giving the First Nations access to 650,000 cubic metres of timber and $6.85 million in shared revenue over five years.

In September of 2005, the Province paid $3.1 million to the Coast Tsimshian Resources Limited Partnership, the Lax Kw'alaams First Nation business entity, for the return of harvesting rights totalling 120,782 cubic metres in Tree Farm Licence #1 in north-western BC.

Lax Kw'alaams was also involved in other initiatives as part of the Tsimshian Accord, specifically, in May of 2003; it received $737,352 in funding from the governments of Canada and British Columbia to support cruise-ship tourism opportunities and the development of a shellfish aquaculture business.

Planned Meetings

As dates are established for public treaty negotiations meetings, they will be publicized through the local media and on the British Columbia Treaty Commission website Negotiations Calendar.