By Thomas Doucet

Indigenous Rights

Lheidli T’enneh release declaration affirming rights and title

Jun 21, 2022 | 2:02 PM

PRINCE GEORGE—The Lheidli T’enneh First Nation (LTFN) made a public declaration today affirming its rights and title to its territory.

The declaration makes clear to all levels of government that their assertions of sovereignty over their territory without their consent is in breach of their inherent rights.

The declaration is as follows:

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“We declare that both Canada and British Columbia in their assertions of sovereignty over our unceded territory and resources, and all those persons residing in, developing and extracting resources from our unceded territory without formal consent, territory and resources, are engaged in an ongoing breach of our inherent and inalienable rights as indigenous people, unless they have been provided the free, prior and informed consent from Lheidli T’enneh for their actions.

“We feel it was important that our Chief and Council approve a declaration affirming that we are the Rights and Titleholders to our unceded territory. It is important for governments and industry to understand that we have always had these inherent and inalienable rights and that we have never signed them away. Part of the journey to truth and reconciliation is for everyone to understand our truth. An important part of our truth is that we are the rights and title holders for our territory.

“The Reconciliation part of the journey is the government and industry following the laws of the land of Canada, which requires that our rights and title be properly and reasonably factored into the business calculus of natural resource development and extraction in our territory.”

Chief Logan also said that it was important to make this declaration on National Indigenous People’s Day to help people understand LTFN’s history, culture and governance.