An Indigenous group in Washington state is looking for a cut of the profits made on land in southern B.C.
Driving the news: The Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA), an established First Nations group in B.C., is petitioning governments and businesses to brush off a U.S.-based Indigenous group that has made an ancestral claim to parts of the province, per the Globe and Mail.
- The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (Colville Tribes) want a say in future commercial projects on land that ONA has staked claim to.
- The Colville Tribes also want a cut of the millions of dollars that ONA members are getting from existing infrastructure projects like hydroelectric dams.
- The ONA has called the land claim false and warned that entertaining it would open a “Pandora’s box” of similar claims from other Indigenous groups in the U.S.
Catch-up: A Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 2021 allowed Indigenous groups in the U.S. to be considered Aboriginal Peoples of Canada if they prove their ancestors belonged to land that is within Canadian borders. This is the first major challenge since that decision.
- U.S.-based tribes have since claimed consultation rights on Canadian infrastructure projects including a port expansion, lumber harvesting, new mines, and a B.C. ski resort.
Why it matters: Major infrastructure and resource projects in Canada can’t happen without, at minimum, the consultation of Indigenous groups. Competing land claims from both sides of the border could complicate and stall future projects.—LA