Taltapin Lake Claim
This Claim involves the loss of an important village that the Lake Babine Indians had long possessed at Taltapin Lake. The Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for British Columbia (and earlier McKenna McBride Commissions) failed to set aside this village in 1916, notwithstanding its mandate to allot Indian Reserves especially where lands were occupied by aboriginal people. Historical, archaeological, and oral evidence related to this village site has been documented and is relied on to substantiate the Claim.
A related part of this claim is that when the McKenna-McBride Commission came through Jimmy Donald requested a 15 acre reserve at Oosley Lake. It was granted, but when the time came to survey it nobody asked where Oosley Lake was actually located. Jimmy Donald may have not known that his request for this land was approved. There were problems of communication issues with interpreters.
