Esk’etemc First Nation celebrates $147M federal settlement for broken water promises

Esk’etemc First Nation is celebrating a victory more than two decades in the making, after receiving a $147-million settlement from “Canada” for the loss of water rights in Tsqewt more than a century ago.

The Secwépemc community — located about 50 km south of Williams Lake — held an event Aug. 6 to mark the success of its specific claim.

Tsqewt is a 1,100-acre parcel of land located above the “Fraser River,” one of Esk’etemc’s 19 reserves that make up a total of approximately 3,800 hectares in Esk’etemculucw.

“After the celebration … I really get a sense that we’re coming back together,” Kúkwpi7 Fred Robbins told IndigiNews after the event.

He said the community has spent many years proving its rights were violated in order to get this settlement. His father — a former band councillor for more than 20 years — did not live to see his community’s victory.

“I wish he could be here to witness this, along with all the other Elders,” Robbins said in a statement. 

“They have all passed on, but they all contributed significantly to this specific claim.” 

The community launched its claim in 2003. It argued that, after creating the IR #6 reserve in 1881, “Canada” broke its promise that Esk’etemc would keep its rights to the waters of Vert Lake for crop irrigation.

Instead, in 1925, the federal government abandoned its vow and granted the water rights to settlers, according to Esk’etemc.

“The settlement amount for the loss of water rights is substantial,” Robbins continued, “but the impacts on generations of Esk’etemc who lived in poverty because of the loss of water rights is also substantial.

“This settlement will allow us to plan for a better future for our community, our children, our Elders, and generations to come.”

‘Tenacity and resilience’

At a community celebration and pipe ceremony held earlier this month, the crowd was so large it overflowed from a packed gymnasium into a hallway.

The event included a grand entry with singing, drumming and the use of Sekani7 sticks — filling the air with powerful music.

Charlene Belleau, a former Kúkwpi7, opened the event by explaining that one of the songs came from an Elder who had passed on. The song, she said, had brought the ancestors into the gathering, too.

The event was filled with songs and honouring of the Elders, as well as current and previous Kúkwpi7, council and staff who spent decades committed to the First Nation’s specific claims process.

Elders, visiting dignitaries, community members and past leaders who worked toward a settlement over the decades were blanketed throughout the day as a sign of respect.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, attended the event, and later told IndigiNews such celebrations are particularly important for Youth in the community to see.

He said he was pleased to see so many young people marking their community’s win, including drumming, singing and saying a prayer in their language.

“It reminds us the fight for justice for Indigenous people is an endless, ongoing battle that was handed to us by our ancestors and leaders that came before us,” he said. “We will continue to fight these battles — and when our time is up, we’ll hand it off to the incoming generations of leaders.

“The electricity in the gymnasium was absolutely fantastic. It was a celebration in every sense of the word.”

The event also included a look back over two decades of negotiations.

“What jumped out at me was the tenacity and the resilience of the community at Esk’etemc,” Phillip said, adding that the victory came about thanks to the community’s Elders, ceremonies, language and culture — and will “resonate right across Turtle Island and will inspire other communities.”

“We thank the people at Esk’etemc for their incredible leadership and for role modelling an approach that is infallible when you’re dealing with intransigent government,” he said.

The federal minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, who did not attend the event marking the specific claims settlement, instead sent a video admitting the government did a “disservice” to the First Nation by not protecting Esk’etemc’s rights to water.

“This injustice is a source of shame for the Government of Canada, one that we are determined to correct starting with this settlement,” said Minister Gary Anandasangaree in the video, adding that reconciliation depends on collaboration, communication and negotiations.

“By reaching negotiated settlements, we address past injustices, fulfill our treaty and legal obligations, and rebuild relationships with First Nations, benefiting everyone in Canada.”

Anandasangaree said he looks forward to the Esk’etemc using the funds to invest in future generations.

After the conclusion of Esk’etemc’s federal settlement agreement, the First Nation released a video to showcase the land of Tsqewt and explain the issues at stake in the decades-long specific claim battle.

In the video, Robbins recounted that some archived maps of their reserves from Indian Agents bore inscriptions such as “poor worthless land” because of their location on dry, rocky cliffs.

Beth Bedard, an anthropologist at Thompson Rivers University who supported the community’s specific claim, also spoke in the video.

She said the reserve land near Vert Lake “still is prime land.”

“When the reserve was laid out, all the water from Vert Lake — which lies to the southeast of the reserve — was set aside for the use of the Esk’etemc, so they could irrigate the reserve,” she explained.

But after waiting in vain for the federal government to build its promised irrigation systems, community members took it upon themselves to dig a ditch using picks, shovels and horse-drawn plows. 

With less than one kilometre to go, “Canada” blocked their efforts, and the ditch sits abandoned today — a reminder on how close the community was to providing for themselves. 

Without water irrigation, the land was only used to pasture horses in winter. 

“If the community would have had irrigated land, they could have grown crops,” she said. “It could have made such a tremendous difference in the quality of life for the Esk’etemc.”

‘We could grow anything we want … had we gotten water’

Even when “Canada” rejected the First Nation’s initial claim in 2011 — arguing the government never breached its obligations under the law — Esk’etemc did not give up. 

Instead, they later filed their case with the country’s specific claims tribunal, and in 2018 “Canada” opened the door to negotiations. 

Robbins said the First Nation was forced to bring in outside experts to prove their case about the violation of rights. 

Stan Ashcroft, the specific claims lawyer for Esk’etemc worked with the community on their claim for decades. 

He said the specific claims team had to demonstrate what the land would have been worth if it had been irrigated, compared to without. And secondly, it had to argue what value any crops grown on that land would have had.

“Tsqewt is beautiful land, and there was a report that had shown it was capable of growing anything if it had access to water,” Ashcroft said in the video about Tsqewt. “But it did not.”

Robbins said that in 2003, a specialist collected soil samples in the area – concluding the ground of Tsqewt was rich in agricultural potential.

“What they found was we could grow anything we want … had we gotten water down there,” he said. “We could have been growing wheat; we could have grown fruit; we could have grown basically anything that we wanted for the community.”

Those research findings became the basis of Esk’etemc’s claim.

But throughout the claims process, the negotiating team faced challenges making headway, Robbins recalled – including what he described as the government’s reluctance to let the nation supply its own experts to prove the land’s value.

The federal government ended up providing only partial funding for the First Nation’s experts.

Robbins said relying on experts hired by his First Nation helped their cause, because they had more local knowledge of the land than government professionals coming from other provinces.

‘Make sure that our children have a future’

After facing delays due to the pandemic, the nation’s Elders met with government officials, as well as visiting the lands that made up the specific claim area.

In 2023, Esk’etemc community members voted on a settlement offer from the government, and the majority voted to accept it.

With their hard-won agreement now in place, the First Nation formed a Tsqewt Community Planning Committee, beginning the process of allocating the settlement funds.

That process currently includes community member surveys and in-person events, including some for urban, off-reserve members to offer their input.

One group that have had their voices heard in deciding how to spend the money is a youth program called “The Future Generations of Esk’etemc,” said Robbins. Long-term investments, he believes, are the key.

“We can provide some monetary supports for all community members,” he said. “But we want to make sure that our children have a future in this community.”

He said one possible use of the settlement could be to help some community members return to their lands after leaving for school. Since there is no available land on-reserve, though, funding could help buy more land for them to live on.

Many options are on the table, Robbins said, and his community’s victory is just the beginning — noting that there are more claims still in the works for Esk’etemc First Nation.

“We still have a lot of other victories that we have to push,” he said, adding he believes the negotiations showed the government that giving Indigenous communities decision-making power is essential for reconciliation. 

“We want our authority back.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Grand Chief Phillip, who encouraged communities facing similar battles for land and water rights to “never, ever give up.”

“Never give up on the land,” Phillip said “Never give up on the people.”

Robbins agreed that perseverance was key to his community’s successful efforts to redress historical wrongs.

“For any other nation that’s going to pursue specific claims, stay the course,” Robbins advised. “Be patient — but at the same time, be vigilant.”