Essay On Aboriginal Land Rights
Aboriginal people have been fairly successful in having their issues addressed after 1980. While there remains many issues that have not been dealt with, a number of the major problems related to Aboriginal rights have been fixed.
Aboriginal land rights saw an improvement after 1980. There are two different types of land claims - comprehensive claims and specific claims. Comprehensive claims give Aboriginal people the right to claim land because their ancestors once owned it. Specific claims give the right to claim land due to the government not fulfilling an obligation under a treaty. An example of a comprehensive land claim case is the Nisga’a group. In 1991, the BC government recognized the Nisga’a right to self-government. In 1996, the Nisga’a gained a portion of their former land, some of the profit from salmon fisheries, their own municipal government and police, and a $196 million reimbursement from the government. Another example of land claims is when the Inuit were given control of Nunavut. While these were considered to be great successes in the progress of Aboriginal land claims, there are still some issues with it. For the Nisga’a in particular, they only got a small fraction of the land that they used to own. Another general problem with Aboriginal land claims is that in order to claim back land, the group must prove that they ever owned it in the first place. This process can be difficult and lengthy, and there are many Aboriginal groups today that are still attempting to prove that they owned land.
Next, Aboriginal self-government rights were made better after 1980. In 1982, the Assembly of First Nations was formed in order to represent dealings made with the federal government. Something that the Assembly helped achieve was Aboriginal rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Bill C-31 gave Aboriginal councils the power to decide who could live on their reserves. In the past, these decisions were made by the Department of Indian Affairs in
Aboriginal land rights saw an improvement after 1980. There are two different types of land claims - comprehensive claims and specific claims. Comprehensive claims give Aboriginal people the right to claim land because their ancestors once owned it. Specific claims give the right to claim land due to the government not fulfilling an obligation under a treaty. An example of a comprehensive land claim case is the Nisga’a group. In 1991, the BC government recognized the Nisga’a right to self-government. In 1996, the Nisga’a gained a portion of their former land, some of the profit from salmon fisheries, their own municipal government and police, and a $196 million reimbursement from the government. Another example of land claims is when the Inuit were given control of Nunavut. While these were considered to be great successes in the progress of Aboriginal land claims, there are still some issues with it. For the Nisga’a in particular, they only got a small fraction of the land that they used to own. Another general problem with Aboriginal land claims is that in order to claim back land, the group must prove that they ever owned it in the first place. This process can be difficult and lengthy, and there are many Aboriginal groups today that are still attempting to prove that they owned land.
Next, Aboriginal self-government rights were made better after 1980. In 1982, the Assembly of First Nations was formed in order to represent dealings made with the federal government. Something that the Assembly helped achieve was Aboriginal rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Bill C-31 gave Aboriginal councils the power to decide who could live on their reserves. In the past, these decisions were made by the Department of Indian Affairs in