History

Lake Babine Nation Treaty Timeline

January 12, 1994

Lake Babine signs the Statement of Intent to begin Treaty Negotiation with Wilf Adam as Chief of the Nation.

March 04, 1994

The Provincial and Federal government and the British Columbia Treaty Commission come to hear the Lake Babine Nation make their claims for their Aboriginal entitlements and ancestral lands. A Balhats was held at the Margaret Patrick Memorial Center to host this meeting. The opening dance had been no mere display of ethic colour; nor was it simply a welcoming ceremony to herald the beginning of modern day treaty negotiations. The most learned and highly esteemed chiefs had greeted the commissioners according to the protocol and intent of the feather ceremony. The law of the Babine would be honored as carefully and fully as any courts honours the supreme laws of Canada. This was not the first time nor is it the likely to be the last, that the Babine chiefs have struggled to have inter-governmental relations administered in accordance with traditional law. Others failed and mark the black moments of Babine history. In each of these instances, the powers of the federal government overruled, indeed disregarded, the principles of Babine law and justice. Governmental disregard did not arise from a conscious desire to denigrate or dismiss the Babine legal order; rather, it arose from the most profound ignorance of all- the failure to recognize the legal order for what it was and to affirm the dignity and powers it granted to the hereditary chiefs on behalf of their constituents. Aboriginal entitlement lies at the heart of Babine perceptions of justice and, most significantly, at he heart of a history of injustice in White-Aboriginal relations. For eons the hereditary chiefs of the four matrilineal clans have managed the ancestral territories and the social relationships of the Babine through the Balhats. Without ancestral territories the Balhats is demeaned; the knowledge and authority of hereditary chiefs is diminished. Without the esteem and wisdom of the chiefs the land is plundered by powerful outsiders (Fiske and Patrick 2000:4).

July 1995

A resolution is passed at the general assembly to ratify and mandate the executive to negotiate Stage three of the Treaty Process. The Executive is also mandated to prepare for Stages Four to Six. The mandate of the Executive Committee will be reviewed at the 1996 Annual General Assembly. The Ned’u’ten Treaty Executive Committee consists of the Chief Emma Palmantier, Deputy Chief Ted Lowley, Councillors Warner Adam, Sylvester Charlie, John West Jr. and Elder Advisor Gordon Joseph.

December 13, 1995

Lake Babine Treaty readiness document accepted as complete by Lake Babine Nation.

March 06, 1996

Lake Babine Treaty readiness document accepted as complete by Canada.

April 17, 1996

Tripartite Agreements signed – Lake Babine Openness Protocol, Procedures Agreement and Information Sharing Principles.

May 08, 1996

Lake Babine Treaty readiness document accepted as complete by British Columbia.

May 08, 1996

Lake Babine Treaty readiness document is accepted as Tabled Declared Ready.

January 28, 1998

Lake Babine Treaty framework agreement initialed.

2001

The elected Lake Babine Nation Council appoints Chief Betty Patrick as Chief Treaty Negotiator and is responsible for treaty activities including the budget and audit.

May 04, 2001

Lake Babine Treaty framework agreement signed. Hereditary Chiefs of the four Lake Babine clans and Chief Betty Patrick, representing Lake Babine Nation signed the Framework agreement. The four Hereditary Chiefs are Dennis Alec Gilantin Clan, Willie Williams Jilh tsehyu Clan, Peter Dennis Likh c’ibu Clan and Matthew Michell Likh tsa misyu Clan.

August 6, 7, 8 , 2003

Lake Babine Nation Treaty Annual General Assembly a the Margaret Patrick Memorial Hall.