Pawlowska-Mainville, Agnes

The traditional governance system of S̲aik’uz̲ Whut’enne is rooted in a deep relationship with their Keyoh – their homelands that sustain all life, including the waters, rocks, mountains, plants and animals. Based in S̲aik’uz̲’s inherent Rights and Title, as well as the legal and political context of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and evolving Aboriginal case law, this research explores the key institutions and principles of S̲aik’uz̲ traditional governance. Alongside this, it challenges the ways that colonization has disrupted and eroded S̲aik’uz̲ traditional governance through its attempt to remove S̲aik’uz̲ Whut’enne from their Keyoh, impose a colonial Western system of land management, and outlaw their governance system, the Balhats. Informed by decolonizing and Indigenous methodologies, this research has been developed and carried out in collaboration with the S̲aik’uz̲ First Nation and uses qualitative methods including archive and document review, semi-structured interviews, and group review meetings. It offers insights about the persistence of S̲aik’uz̲ Whut’enne against colonial forces, and the ways that S̲aik’uz̲ traditional governance is alive, evolving across time, and of utmost relevance to the present and future.

This thesis examines the 2018 wildfire season in Cheslatta Carrier Nation territory through the lived experiences of community members. It details how sustained wildfire suppression contributed to changes to the social, political and the physical landscape. Using a qualitative methodology and ten semi-structured interviews with community members, it describes how historic events, including flooding and forced relocation, shaped the ways community members felt about wildfires and their management. This research found that the 2018 wildfire season impacted Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in physical, economic, and spiritual ways. The loss of timber and livelihoods as well as displacement due to evacuation orders were challenging. While many individuals felt disempowered by the wildfires and their management, wildfire was also a catalyst for political and social change. This thesis explores the ways that wildfires can unite, divide, and transform individuals and communities.

Wildfires pose a significant economic and social challenge to communities throughout British Columbia. For some Indigenous communities, a large landscape fire has the potential to change their traditional territory and communities permanently. To allocate limited resources to the costly effort of wildfire mitigation, communities need a baseline for the spatial distribution of risk. For the Xáxli’p and their community forest, the wildfire risk is an urgent concern, locally effected by forest fuels, human ignition, and wind. Local knowledge of community members gathered through workshops were used to validate existing forest, wind, and access data. Using existing data and community data, areas of higher risk and other landscape considerations were identified and mapped to support planning by the Xáxli’p Community Forest to create a fire-resilient landscape.

This thesis argues that Indians and White people who were sympathetic to Native issues episodically challenged racial discrimination and segregation during the post-war era by asserting Native people's growing citizenship rights while calling into question the cultural assumptions that underpinned such prejudice. Those participating in this discourse used analogies with global theatres of racial tension, namely the southern United States, to legitimize their protests. Indians articulated their demands for citizenship by leveraging their burgeoning political rights, their wartime contributions to Canada, and their growing economic contribution to post-war northern British Columbia. During this era, Indians, activists, and sympathetic Whites fought for the liberalization of Native drinking laws and the culturally deterministic preconceptions that motivated such legislation. Finally, newspaper reportage and public perceptions influenced, and to some degree shaped, public discourse on issues of racial discrimination as well as on Native political protest and activism.