Politics, Intergroup Relations, and Group Maintenance

Salish peoples have long been among the most influential among First Nations of Canada in their efforts at political action, although tactics have changed over the years. In 1906 a delegation of Coast Salish chiefs petitioned King Edward VII for recognition and settlement of land claims. Similarly, a delegation of Interior Salish chiefs of the Lillooet met Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier in 1912 concerning their land and resource rights in the absence of a treaty. Coast and Interior Salish joined the Allied Tribes of British Columbia to contest the efforts of a provincial commission, from 1912 to 1916, to reduce land holdings, and were able to delay implementation of the commission’s recommendations. Later, Interior and Coast Salish joined the Native Brotherhood of British Columbia, a group interested in promoting the welfare of native people. New political groups arose in the 1960s, including the Indian Homemakers’ Association and the Confederation of British Columbia Indians. Beginning in the 1970s, tribal councils were formed to press claims at the regional and local, rather than the pan-Indian, level. Salish leaders play an important role in national First Nations politics, and in 1997 Wendy Grant of Musqueam was narrowly defeated in the election for the grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

Political pressure and legal decisions led to the formation of the B.C. Treaty Commission in 1993. The commission requires that overlaps in land claims be resolved before entering the process, a circumstance that has caused tension between communities. The treaty process itself has prompted some bands to form more cohesive tribal organizations and to oversee treaty research and the delivery of social, economic, education, and health services. The number of Sto:lo Nation employees, for example, expanded tenfold between 1990 and 1997, from about 20 to about 200. As tribal governments have grown, leaders have struggled with the issue of honouring aboriginal practices while fulfilling the demands of funding agencies and federal policies. Some bands have instituted new procedures for the selection of band councillors, moving away from voting to the selection of family leaders.

There are serious differences among Salish peoples about what to do in the future. Some oppose the treaty process, believing that treaties will surrender too much of aboriginal rights and title. The Sechelt band went a separate direction in signing the Sechelt Indian Band Self-Government Act in 1986. The Sechelt assumed limited rights of self-government previously reserved under the Indian Act, with federal and provincial laws still in force. Critics argue that the Sechelt band has become the equivalent of a municipal government, rather than an autonomous First Nation.

With the build-up of the infrastructure of band and tribal government has come a greater participation of women as elected members of tribal councils. This is associated with the differential rate of women in tribal employment and in their development of expertise concerning governance and tribal services. Among the Coast Salish, the percentage of women councillors has risen from 11 percent in the 1960s to 28 percent in the 1990s.