The Indians really have no right to the lands they claim, nor are they of any actual value or utility to them: and I cannot see why they should either retain these lands to the prejudice of the General Interests of the Colony, or be allowed to make a market of them to the Government or to the individual.
Joseph Trutch, Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works, 1864
The Canadian reserve system is similar to the U.S. reservation system with some notable differences. The British Royal Proclamation of 1763 recognized native rights to their lands and proclaimed that, unless First Nations surrendered their lands to the crown, non-natives could not settle it. In the 1850s, James Douglas, the Chief Factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the governor of British Columbia, negotiated a series of treaties with coastal Indians (commonly called the Douglas treaties). However, treaties soon fell out of favor with provincial officials and, after 1859, the government placed aboriginal people on reserves without granting them compensation for their lands.
Reserves in the northwestern interior originally ranged from several miles to mere acres. As with U.S. reservations, non-native encroachment and allotment programs diminished native holdings. Present day Columbia Basin reserves range in size from 33,000 acres to one-half acre. Single bands managed some reserves while others are managed collectively (six bands co-own St. Mary’s Reserve).
Without the fishing clause found in many U.S. treaties, Canadian First Nations have had little recourse to protect their traditional fisheries. According to one historian, British Columbia officials convinced the federal government that native people did not need large reserves as long as they had access to their traditional fisheries. However, increased settlement and non-native competition have curtailed native access. On-reserve fisheries have been the province of native bands but “prior to 1990 [and the Sparrow decision], no special native fishing rights were recognized in British Columbia outside the boundaries of reserves” where many traditional sites are located.
