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Gitksan-Wet'suwet'en Education Society
P.O. Box 229
Hazelton B.C.
VOJ 1Y0
August 27, 1991
Ingrid Russell
Planning Forester
Kispiox Forest District
P.O. Box 215
Hazelton B.C.
V0J1Y0
Janet Gagne
Planning Forester
Prince Rupert Forest Region
Bag 5000
Smithers B.C.
V0J 2N0
Dear Ingrid and Janet:
In recent reports on the Babine River LRUP and the Kispiox Resource Management Plan you refer to the lack of participation by "natives", meaning Gitksan, Wet'suwet'en or Natooten people. The draft options report for the Babine River area says, "Native participation on the TAC was invited, but declined." A Kispiox Resource Management plan Update states. "... the process has been unable to involve the natives because of their position on land claims."
Neither statement is true. As the enclosed correspondence shows, the Ministry of Forests excluded Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en participation in the planning process not because of their position on the aboriginal title issue but because of the position of the provincial government and its rigid interpretation by the Ministry of Forests...
This evidence suggests that senior ministry officials deal with proposals from aboriginal people, first, by ignoring them in the hope that they will go away and, if that fails, by resorting to stubborn legalistic responses that block any possible further discussion. If you are permitted to, I suggest you abandon the party line that the Gitksan refuse to participate in forest service planning processes and more truthfully recount the history of the interaction between their representatives and your ministry.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Overstall
Researcher
encl.
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