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En août 1998, après un siècle de lutte, les Nisga’a du nord-ouest de la ColombieBritannique signaient un traité. Les gouvernements fédéral et provincial reconnaissaient ainsi le droit inhérent à l’autonomie gouvernementale des Nisga’a. À travers une analyse des termes du traité et du discours autour de cette question tel que développé par les leaders autochtones depuis Charlottetown en 1992, Claude Denis révèle que les pressions gouvernementales fédérales et provinciales ont altéré le sens même de cette notion dans le cas des Nisga’a. Il s’interroge pour déterminer si un tel système d’autonomie gouvernementale accomplit réellement les buts que se sont fixés les leaders autochtones. Il termine en soulignant que le colonialisme est encore très ancré dans la mentalité et les institutions canadiennes.
This paper presents an analysis of the treaty signed in August 1998 by the Nisga’a indigenous nation, the government of Canada and the government of British Columbia. Widely seen and hailed as the model for dozens of unresolved treaty and self-government negotiations, the Nisga’a Final Agreement is the outcome of a century-long quest for recognition and autonomy by the Nisga’a people, who live in the northwest of present-day British Columbia. The Nisga’a treaty ostensibly recognizes the inherent right to Aboriginal self-government which, in the last several years of constitutional debate in Canada, has appeared as a key item on First Nations’ lists of claims. After outlining the treaty’s contents regarding in particular the proposed Nisga’a legal capacity, justice system and relation to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the analysis compares the treaty’s terms with the discourse of inherent right, as it has developed in particular in the context of the Charlottetown Accord of 1992. It finds that the constraints imposed on the Nisga’a negotiators by the Canadian and B.C. governments alter beyond recognition the meaning of “inherent right.” As well, it questions the extent to which such a system of self-government is likely to accomplish the stated goals of the First Nations’ leadership, of re-establishing indigenous ways of life in Canada.
