Beyond Rights: The Nisga?a Final Agreement and the Challenges of Modern Treaty Relationships

An analysis of the potential of treaty-making as a way to address historical injustice.
 
After more than one hundred years of protest, petitions, litigation, and negotiation, the Canadian and British Columbian governments signed a treaty with the Nisga’a Nation in 2000, formally recognizing the unextinguished land rights of the Nisga’a people. The unprecedented agreement, providing both self-rule and a perpetual land title, marked a turning point in the relationship between First Nations and settler states across the globe. Using the Nisga’a Final Agreement as a case study, Beyond Rights explores the possibilities and limitations of treaty-making in the ongoing fight for Indigenous sovereignty and legal recognition throughout the world. 

Carole Blackburn is associate professor of anthropology at the University of British Columbia and the author of Harvest of Souls: Jesuit Missions and Colonialism in North America, 1632–1650.