Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Feb 05/99) - As Beaufort Delta self-government chief negotiators revel in consensus on a significant sub-agreement, others are speaking out to ensure treaty rights stay intact through the process.

The sub-agreement covers the costly area of kindergarten to Grade 12 education and essentially accepts two main territorial standards.

The evolving self-government system must "pay attention" to the curriculum framework, or learning objectives, as set by the GNWT from kindergarten to Grade 12, according to Beaufort Delta self-government chief negotiator Bob Simpson.

The second part of the agreement is on certification of teachers.

"With these two things people here can be somewhat assured that their system of education is keeping to the standards of the rest of the NWT," Simpson says.

The agreement now only needs legal drafting and legal review.

But as ink is drying on that deal, Inuvik Native Band Chief James Firth is lobbying to guarantee existing treaty rights do not get frittered away.

His concern is two-fold -- first, that the federal government stops eroding current programs outlined in the Indian Act, and second, that evolving self-government does not mean signing away rights interpreted by the Gwich'in as being part of Treaty 11.

"All we've been saying is that whatever we've been given since 1921 is a treaty right. (Treaty 11) is a very confusing document," Firth says.

"Ever since 1921 we've always been given free education. These are things we thought were our rights."

Though Treaty 11 clearly spells out, "His Majesty agrees to pay the salaries of teachers to instruct the children of said Indians in such manner as His Majesty's Government may deem advisable," it does not specify other education costs, such as the cost of bussing which Firth stresses is in the Indian Act.

"A good example is bussing. They had bussing in Inuvik here and then they cut it out. We applied and because it's right in the Indian Act to get bussing, we got some money for a couple months and then they took it back," Firth says of the compensation they received for no school bussing this year, only to have it clawed back.

Changes to the non-insured health benefits plan is another example of government restraint to a program outlined in the Indian Act.

Implicit understanding

But when Firth discusses a connection to treaty rights, he means that programs operated under the Indian Act are interpreted by Gwich'in as being implicitly part of Treaty 11 -- a position Simpson, as a lawyer, accepts as possible.

"The government of Canada never admitted that it was a treaty obligation for an undertaking under their fiduciary responsibilities as a treaty responsibility," he says.

"They've never admitted it and they refuse to admit it, especially now because that would mean that it's entrenched in the constitution and they would have to provide it forever and a day."

Still, Simpson says some recent cases have meant the federal government has agreed to negotiate on the basis that the treaty was not fully implemented -- that no reserves were formed this far north is an example of how parts of the treaty never came into effect.

When the Gwich'in signed their land claim, they honed some areas covered in the treaty.

Under harvesting, for example, Treaty 11 held the Gwich'in to harvest according to government regulations. The 1991 Gwich'in Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement fleshed out harvesting rights -- what Gwich'in can do in the area of harvesting as well as how Gwich'in have a say in harvesting regulations through the Gwich'in Renewable Resources Board.

The debate is now over areas not covered in the land claim.

"Now it's coming to the point in self-government where they're starting to talk about health, education and housing -- that kind of thing," Firth says.

"So they're talking and that, but my people are saying, 'Don't give anything less than we have now.'"