West Moberly First Nations

The West Moberly First Nations is a First Nation located in the Peace River Country in northern British Columbia. They are part of the Dunne-za and Cree cultural and language groups. The West Moberly First Nations used to be part of the Hudson Hope Band, but in 1977 the band split becoming the modern-day Halfway River First Nation and West Moberly First Nations.[5]

West Moberly First Nations
Band No. 545
Three generations of Dunne-za women at Moberly Lake c. 1899
PeopleDane-zaa and Cree
TreatyTreaty 8
ProvinceBritish Columbia
Land[1]
Main reserveWest Moberly Lake 168A
Land area20.336 km2
Population (2020)[2]
On reserve122
On other land9
Off reserve217
Total population348
Government[3]
ChiefRoland Willson
Council
  • Theresa Davis
  • Asher Atchiqua
  • Robyn Fuller
  • Clarence Willson
Tribal Council[4]
Treaty 8 Tribal Association
Website
http://www.westmo.org/

The Nation is located on the West Moberly Lake 168A reserve, at the west end of Moberly Lake, about 90 kilometres southwest of Fort St. John, British Columbia, within territory covered by Treaty 8. Facilities on the reserve include the band administration office, the leadership offices, the lands management building, a community health centre, the Dakii Yadze childcare centre and the Dunne-za Lodge.[6]

West Moberly is affiliated with the Treaty 8 Tribal Association, which is registered under the B.C. Societies Act.

Governance

West Moberly First Nations Chief and Council consists of a generally elected Chief and four family Councillors that are elected according to the preference of each of the main families (Brown, Dokkie, Desjarlais, and Miller).[7] West Moberly used to operate under a governance model set forward by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), but a custom governance system was established in 2000. Under the custom governance system, every member over the age of 19 has a vote, and council may not proceed on any action without support from 50% + 1 of its membership.[8]

Council composition history
Chief

(term of office)

 Ref Brown Family Councillor

(term of office)

 Ref Dokkie Family Councillor

(term of office)

 Ref Desjarlais Family Councillor

(term of office)

 Ref Miller Family Councillor

(term of office)

 Ref
Roland Willson

(August 2000 - present)

 [9] Theresa Davis

(December 2019 - present)

 [10][11] Asher Atchiqua

(July 8, 2020 - present)

 [11] Robyn Fuller

(September 20, 2016 - present)

 [12][11] Clarence Willson

(June 3, 2002 - present)

 [11]
Brad Dokkie

(December 2019 - July 2020)

 [10]
Patricia Brown

(February 2016 - November 2019)

 [13][14] Dean Dokkie

(at least October 2008 - November 2019)

 [15][14]
Laura Webb

(at least October 2008 - September 19, 2016)

 [15][16][5]
Tim Davis

(at least March 2015 - February 2016)

 [5][17]
Kyle Brown

(at least October 2008 - at latest March 2015)

 [15][18]

Treaty Process

The West Moberly First Nation is a signatory of the Treaty 8 but are now in discussions outside the BC Treaty Process, along with five other First Nations who have joined together as the Treaty 8 Tribal Association.[19]

History

Prior to 1977,[5] the people of West Moberly were part of the Hudson Hope Band, also referred to as the Hudson's Hope Indigenous Band, after the nearby region of Hudson's Hope, where a North West Company outpost had been established in 1805.

Some Crees and Saulteaux arrived in the area in the late nineteenth century, fleeing the North-West Rebellion of 1885.[20]

In 1914, the Nation was admitted to Treaty 8 as part of the Hudson Hope Band, referred to in the 1914-1915 Indian Affairs Annual Report as "Hudson’s Hope (Beaver) 116". The West Moberly Reserve 168A was established at the same time, the same size as it is today. They had not been admitted to the treaty earlier (as other nearby nations had) because the day the Treaty Commission arrived in 1899 "conflicted with the annual hunt."[20] The Chief at the time was Chief Dokkie.[21]

In 1977, the Hudson Hope Band split and became the modern West Moberly First Nations and Halfway River First Nation.[5]

In the 1980s, West Moberly First Nations began hosting an annual celebration known as West Mo Days.[7]

In 1996, West Moberly submitted its Treaty Land Entitlement claim, by which they hoped to receive the full extent of the land they were promised as signatories to Treaty 8. The claim was accepted for negotiation in 1998, but Canada did not appoint its first negotiation team until 2002.[5]

Around 1999, during a full audit, West Moberly was found to have misspent, and was entered into a repayment program to the federal government. The community removed the council of the time, and appointed an interim council with a mandate to fix the Nation's financial troubles. The 1999 interim council included Roland Willson as a councillor, before he was acclaimed chief in 2000.[8]

On September 5, 2002, members of the Kelly Lake First Nation (KLFN), set up a blockade at the Rat Lake entrance of the Wapiti River to demand their recognition as an independent first nation, separate from the West Moberly and Saulteau First Nations.[22] Up until that point, members of KLFN had been members of the other two bands, despite KLFN having gained status in 1994.[23] A few weeks after the blockade went up, Saulteau First Nations agreed to allow KLFN to separate from them.[24]

Treaty Land Entitlement claim negotiations were suspended by Canada in 2004, then resumed in 2006 with a second negotiation team, and the team changed again in 2008. In 2015, the Nation described negotiations as "effectively stalled".[5]

In 2004, the Nation headed up a study on petroleum contaminants after hunters noticed abnormalities in game. This study contributed to a change in how the BC Oil and Gas Commission dealt with reclamation fines.[5]

In 2005, West Moberly, along with several other Nations under Treaty 8, began litigation around the definition of the western boundary of the treaty, which was defined in the original document as "due west to the central range of the Rocky Mountains, thence northwesterly along the said range to the point where it intersects the 60th parallel of north latitude," but defined differently in the map attached to Order in Council 2749 (1898). On September 27, 2017, the Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled in West Moberly First Nations v. British Columbia that the western boundary was "the height of land along the continental divide between the Arctic and Pacific watersheds," rather than an interpretation proposed by the Province and the Kaska Dena Council (and, on appeal, the McLeod Lake First Nation) of a boundary of the height of the Rocky Mountains. The British Columbia Court of Appeal upheld the ruling in May 2020.[25][26]

Demographics

Population History
Date Number of band members Ref
July 2009 207 [27]
May 2016 140 (on-reserve) [28]
August 2020 348 [29]

Social, educational and cultural programs and facilities

Klinse-Za Caribou Maternity Pen

In 2014, the West Moberly First Nations and Saulteau First Nations jointly began a caribou penning project to stabilize and regrow the Klinse-Za caribou herd. The caribou populations had been devastated by industrial development in the region, including the severing of a major migration route by the construction of the W. A. C. Bennett Dam in the 1960s. The project is primarily run by members of the two founding nations, and involves the capture and transportation of pregnant caribou cows every March to the 15-hectare pen on a mountaintop in the Misinchinka Ranges, where they are tagged, protected, and cared for while their calves are young, and then released in mid-summer, once the calves are old enough to survive in the wild.[30] From an initial population of 36 animals in 2014 (including some taken from the Scott herd), the herd had grown to 95 as of July 2020. The project has received funding from crowdfunding, provincial and federal government organizations, and some resource extraction companies including TransCanada, Teck Resources, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Spectra Energy. The project also receives technical assistance from Wildlife Infometrics Inc and West Fraser Timber.[31][32][33]

Dakii Yadze Out Of School Care Centre

As of October 2019[34] and since at least September 2011,[35] the Dakii Yadze Centre has operated a licensed child care program on weekdays to serve the families of West Moberly. The centre emphasizes holistic programming and play-based learning in its mission statement.[36]

Dunne-za Lodge

The Dunne-za Lodge is a year-round retreat destination located on the northwest shore of Moberly Lake, with 30 acres of land, cabins that are available for rent, and a meeting space. The First Nations' website states that the lodge "is used to showcase our culture, traditions, host community events, cultural healing camps and other special events hosted by West Moberly First Nations".[37]

See also

References
  1. "First Nation Detail". Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  2. "First Nation Detail". Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  3. "First Nation Detail". Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  4. "First Nation Detail". Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  5. Willson, Roland (March 27, 2015). "Re: Assembly of First Nations Expert Panel on the Specific Claims process" (PDF). Assembly of First Nations Expert Panel on the Specific Claims Process. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 6, 2015.
  6. "Affiliated First Nations". Treaty 8 Tribal Association. Archived from the original on January 24, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  7. "West Moberly First Nations celebrate 100 years". NorthEast News. NorthEast News. July 30, 2014. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  8. Anselmi, Elaine (September 19, 2014). "Roland Willson takes the lead". Alaska Highway News. Archived from the original on March 21, 2019. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  9. "Roland Willson". West Moberly First Nations. Archived from the original on June 29, 2017. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  10. "Affiliated First Nations". Treaty 8 Tribal Association. Archived from the original on December 25, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2020.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  11. "Governance". Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  12. "Affiliated First Nations". Treaty 8 Tribal Association. Archived from the original on October 16, 2016. Retrieved August 6, 2020.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  13. "Affiliated First Nations". Treaty 8 Tribal Association. Archived from the original on February 13, 2016. Retrieved August 6, 2020.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  14. "Affiliated First Nations". Treaty 8 Tribal Association. Archived from the original on November 25, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2020.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  15. "WMFN Finance Policy" (PDF). West Moberly First Nations: 23. October 28, 2008.
  16. "Affiliated First Nations". Treaty 8 Tribal Association. Archived from the original on September 19, 2016. Retrieved August 6, 2020.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  17. "Appendix O - PMTPP Communication Log" (PDF). Preliminary NGTL Plans, Bores #1 - Regulatory Document Index. NOVA Gas Transmission, Ltd.: 69 November 13, 2015. "May 27, 2015 ... NGTL met with WMFN ... In regards to the Project, the following was discussed: ... Councillor Tim Davis replaced Councillor Kyle Brown
  18. "Chief & Council". West Moberly First Nations. Archived from the original on December 9, 2013. Retrieved August 6, 2020.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  19. "West Moberly First Nations". Executive Council of British Columbia. 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
  20. Calverley, Dorthea. "01-119: The First Treaty Payment Day in Hudson's Hope". South Peace Historical Society. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  21. Phillips, Lee J. (April 6, 1973). "18-020: John Dokkie". South Peace Historical Society. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  22. Nielsen, Mark (September 9, 2002). "BN01-15: Kelly Lake First Nation Sets Up Blockade". South Peace Historical Society. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  23. Nielsen, Mark (September 12, 2002). "BN01-16: Kelly Lake First Nation at an Impasse". South Peace Historical Society. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  24. Nielsen, Mark (September 20, 2002). "BN01-17: Kelly Lake Settles with Saulteau". South Peace Historical Society. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  25. Gilbride, Bridget; Rand, Niall (June 5, 2020). "BC Court Of Appeal Affirms The Western Boundary Of Treaty 8 Is The Arctic-Pacific Divide". Fasken. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
  26. West Moberly First Nations v. British Columbia (Court of Appeal for British Columbia May 19, 2020).Text
  27. "West Moberly". Government of Canada. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
  28. "West Moberly Lake 168A, IRI [Census subdivision], British Columbia". Statistics Canada (Table). Aboriginal Population Profile, 2016 Census. Statistics Canad. 2018. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  29. "First Nation Detail". Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  30. Cox, Sarah (September 13, 2018). "The caribou guardians". The Narwhal. Archived from the original on August 4, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  31. "THE KLINSE-ZA CARIBOU MATERNITY PEN". Wildlife Infometrics. 2017. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  32. Cox, Sarah (July 25, 2020). "Up close with B.C.'s endangered baby caribou — and the First Nations trying to save them". The Narwhal. Archived from the original on July 31, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  33. "Klinse-Za Caribou Maternal Release". West Moberly First Nations. Archived from the original on November 5, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  34. "Dakii Yadze Out of School Care Centre - Inspection Report". Northern Health Public Health Protection. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  35. "Dakii Yadze Out of School Care Centre - Inspection Report". Northern Health Public Health Protection. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  36. "Dakii Yadze Child Care Centre". West Moberly First Nations. Archived from the original on August 17, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  37. "Dunne-Za Lodge". West Moberly First Nations. Archived from the original on September 11, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
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