The trial known simply as Delgamuukw changed the landscape of aboriginal rights in Canada. The testimony of one of the many major witness in the case is being preserved for public access thanks to First Nations Studies professor Antonia Mills. 

 

The star witness was Johnny David, a 90-year old Witsuwit’en Elder. He was the first Witsuwit’en Elder to present his testimony in support of the Gitksan and Witsuwit’en court case against the Crown seeking the rights to their traditional territories. From September 1985 to April 1986, he gave official court testimony in his own home in Moricetown (Kiya Wiget) about the nature of Witsuwit’en society both prior to and after the arrival of non-native settlers. 

 

Antonia Mills was there. A graduate of Harvard University, she had done extensive research with the Beaver Indians of northeastern BC, and had come to do research with the Gitksan in the summer of 1984. The Gitksan–Witsuwit’en hired her to assist with the Delgamuukw case and to write an expert opinion report on the nature of Witsuwit’en feasts and laws. She listened to all of Johnny David’s testimony and provided court reporters with the spellings of Witsuwit’en words.

“Johnny David performed the dance and song that goes with his hereditary chief’s name; he related how the tree was secured for his totem pole; he described how fishing sites were destroyed by the Department of Fisheries; with strength and tenacity, he described how the Indian Agent tried to evict him from his land,” says Dr. Mills. “His testimony filled eight court volumes, comprising nearly 400 pages. Sure, his testimony is there in public court documents but it is my hope that this book will bring his words to a wider audience eager to understand why First Nations people are seeking a nation-to-nation relationship with and within Canada.”

Published by the University of Toronto Press, the 486-page book includes a glossary of Witsuwit’en words and references. Titled ‘Hang Onto These Words’: Johnny David’s Delgamuukw Evidence, it also includes a 66-page summary by Dr. Mills that explains the legal significance of the Delgamuukw case to aboriginal rights in Canada.

In 1991, Johnny David and other Gitksan and Witsuwit’en chiefs wore their button blankets and assembled in Vancouver to hear BC Chief Justice Allan McEachern’s decision that First Nations did not have title to their traditional territories. Undeterred, the Gitksan and Witsuwit’en appealed to the BC Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. In December 1997, the Supreme Court overturned the BC Court’s decision, stating that Aboriginal title does exist as an inherent right. Johnny David never received satisfaction; he died in 1996 after reaching his 100th birthday.

“The Canadian identity is often a reflection of competing notions,” says Dr. Mills. “Issues of east and west, urban and rural, French and English, and Native and non-Native have defined us. But it doesn’t have to be a competition. We’re beginning to understand in this country that Aboriginal perspectives can be part of a renewed vision of Canada. Perhaps more than any other court case, Delgamuukw shaped our modern understanding of aboriginal rights to the land. It started with Johnny David.”

 

 

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