Regional Disparity in Modern First Nations’ Treaty-Making

Abstract

First Nations’ self-government treaties have arisen solely in British Columbia, to the exclusion of every other Canadian province. At first glance, the amount of historical treaties enacted in what is now Ontario prevents new claims from being pursued. Therefore, the assumption exists that because the majority of British Columbia’s land mass was never formally ceded to the Crown, the opportunity to do so has now presented itself. However, identifying the amount of historical treaties as the sole influence over the contemporary process of land claims is an assumption that excludes the importance of regional circumstances in emerging self-government treaties. Therefore, the intention of this paper is to establish that this assumption is inadequate, and that regionalism better explains the historical, political, legal, and geographical reasons why First Nations’ self-government has surfaced exclusively in BC.