Five Vancouver Island First Nations celebrate signing treaty agreements

ESQUIMALT — Chief Ron Sam smiled as he held a thick treaty document in both hands and raised it above his head in triumph, sparking a rousing cheer from hundreds of people who gathered in a community hall minutes from downtown Victoria.

After two decades of negotiations, five southern Vancouver Island First Nations signed an agreement-in-principle Thursday on a modern-day treaty that includes land, cash and a route away from the Indian Act and toward self-government.

Sam said his triumphant gesture was meant to honour past First Nations leaders who believed that negotiating selfgovernment and land ownership rights leads to a prosperous and independent future.

“The signing of this agreement will finally give us the opportunity to talk about some serious land,” he told reporters immediately following the ceremony. “This will give us the opportunity to really sit down and put some land on the table.”

Sam, the elected chief of the Victoria-area Songhees First Nation — one of the few bands to have signed the so-called Douglas Treaties in the mid-1800s — said he expected it would take at least one year to reach a final treaty with the federal and B.C. governments.

There are more than 200 B.C. First Nations and only about two dozen have treaties, some of which date to the mid-1800s when B.C. was a British colony.

The agreement-in-principle between the Te’mexw Treaty Association, which represents the Vancouver Island First Nations, and the federal and B.C. governments includes provisions to provide the First Nations with 1,565 hectares of Crown land and about $142 million once a final agreement is reached.