Indian Fishing Rights

Considers (88) S.J. Res. 170, (88) S.J. Res. 171.

Landing Native Fisheries reveals the contradictions and consequences of an Indian land policy premised on access to fish, on one hand, and a program of fisheries management intended to open the resource to newcomers, on the other. Beginning with the first treaties signed on Vancouver Island between 1850 and 1854, Douglas Harris maps the connections between the colonial land policy and the law governing the fisheries. In so doing, Harris rewrites the history of colonial dispossession in British Columbia, offering a new and nuanced examination of the role of law in the consolidation of power within the colonial state. This book received the 2011 Saywell Prize for Constitutional Legal History from The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History as the best new book in Canadian legal history, broadly defined, that makes an important contribution to an understanding of the constitution and/or federalism. It also received Honourable Mention, 2009 Lieutenant-Governor's Medal for Historical Writing, BC Historical Federation.

This book examines the nature of aboriginal fishing rights before and after the Sparrow decision from the perspective of disadvantaged groups and includes interviews with the key players in the fishing industry--the Musqueam Indian Band, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and the commercial industry.

The Northwest Coast people devised ingenious ways of catching the different species of fish, creating a technology vastly different from that of today’s industrial world. With attention to clarity and detail, Hilary Stewart illustrates their hooks, lines, sinkers, lures, floats, clubs, spears, harpoons, nets, traps, rakes and gaffs, showing how these were made and used in over 450 drawings and 75 photographs. One section demonstrates how the catch was butchered, cooked, rendered and preserved. The spiritual aspects of fishing are described as well — prayers and ceremonies in gratitude and honour to the fish, customs and taboos indicating the people’s respect for this life-giving resource. The fish designs on household and ceremonial objects are depicted — images that tell of fishing’s importance to the whole culture.