Land, fish, and law: The legal geography of Indian reserves and Native fisheries in British Columbia, 1850–1927

This is a study of the connections between Indian reserves, Native fisheries, and Anglo-Canadian fisheries law in British Columbia from 1850–1927. This period covers the era of Indian reserve allotments when provincial and Dominion governments inscribed a reserve geography on the province that remains largely intact today. It also includes the emergence of an industrial commercial fishery, the introduction of Canadian fisheries law, and the growth of non-Native settlement on the Pacific coast, and it is this configuration that is the focus of this thesis.

Beginning with the first treaties signed on Vancouver Island in the 1850s, this study describes the development of a Native land policy premised upon the denial of Native title and characterized by small, scattered reserves that were intended to secure village and resource procurement sites. It argues that the reserve geography of British Columbia, imposed upon Native peoples, cannot be understood without recognizing that reserve land was allotted primarily to secure access to the fisheries.

This thesis also describes the legal forms that descended on the Native fisheries, reallocating the resource to other users. It explains the impact of the common law public right to fish, the construction of an Indian food fishery, and the statutory regulation of the commercial fishery. The result was to construct the fishery as an open-access resource, denying Native ownership except to allow a restricted food fishery. The category of food fishing performed the same function as the reserves. It set aside a small portion of the resource, opening the rest to immigrants. In the commercial fishery, although their labour was initially important, the state imposed various laws and implement policies that worked to limit Native peoples opportunities to participate fully. The result was that Native peoples had insufficient access to the one resource from which they might have made built viable reserve-based economies.

The study concludes by suggesting that the process of reserve allotments provides one of the bases for renewed and enhanced Native participation in the fisheries.