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HomeNewsTeegee confident in additional opportunities for Lheidli T'enneh after treaty vote

Teegee confident in additional opportunities for Lheidli T’enneh after treaty vote

The Regional Chief of the BC Assembly of First Nations isn’t too concerned about the recent Lheidli T’enneh treaty vote on Saturday.

The Prince George-based First Nation voted against joining a treaty with the province and the federal government for the second time.

Terry Teegee says while the result might seem disappointing to some, there are other opportunities available.

“It has the potential to have other agreements out their, right now we are discussing rights and recognition framework on a federal level as well as provincial level and there are other opportunities for them in the future.”

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Teegee says the first nation already have governance on their own reserve land through their land management board.

The idea of the proposed treaty simply not living up the host First Nation’s standards isn’t that far fetched.

“Negotiations began in 1993 and over the past 25 years, there has been lots of political change with the Haida case that occurred in 2004 and the Chilcotin case in 2014.”

“I believe that a lot of people are just looking at what’s currently being offered as to what is the current opportunity from various levels of government.”

The proposed treaty would have given the Lheidli T’enneh the chance at land and resource rights along with the ability to govern themselves.

Teegee is quick to point out not a lot changes regardless of whether the host First Nation is part of the Indian Act or not.

“I think overall the community or any first nation community out there can assert their jurisdiction and their governance on the land, there is nothing stopping them in terms of asserting traditional governance so regardless of whether you’re under the Indian Act or not I think first nations should just assert their true traditional governance whether its recognized or not.”

One hundred and eighty-five members voted against the treaty while 137 voted in favor.

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