The Sliammon First Nation is located just outside of the town of Powell River, BC 130 km northwest from Vancouver.

Treaty is about re-establishing Tla’amin people’s relationship and connection with the traditional land and resource base to practice and clarify aboriginal and treaty rights and take back our stewardship role. Authority over lands will no longer be restricted to small reserves held in trust by the Department of Indian Affairs. Treaty Settlement Lands will belong to the Nation to look after for future generations. This map shows the Tla’amin Lands package that will be owned if a treaty is approved by our membership:

• Tla’amin Reserve Lands (1,917 hectares / 4,217 acres) – 6 Locations: Sliammon, Harwood Island, Cortes Island, Theodosia, Okeover, Grace Harbour
• Tla’amin Treaty Settlement Lands (6,360 hectares / 13,992 acres) – 9 Locations: Theodosia/Thor Hill, Okeover Inlet North and South including the Mermaid Oyster Plant, Lund Parcels, Hurtado Point, Sliammon Lake North, Schmarge Bay, Wilde Creek, Westview, Wharf Street Parcel, Pocahontas Bay
• Tla’amin Community Forest Tenure (over 50,000 cubic metres annual allowable cut) – located in Bunster Range and north of Haslam Lake
• Tla’amin Woodlot Tenure (over 3,000 cubic metres annual allowable cut) – located south of Sliammon Lake
• Tla’amin Aquaculture Tenures (8 foreshore tenures + 3 deepwater tenures) – located in Okeover, Lancelot and Theodosia Inlets
• Tla’amin Freshwater Licenses (over 11,000 cubic decametres annually) – volumes from creeks at Sliammon/Appleton, Okeover, Bern, Whiskey Still, Theodosia and Grace Harbour.

There are several other parts of the treaty that will protect our cultural connection to place and resources so that future generations can continue the seasonal harvest round. These include:

• Tla’amin Shellfish Beaches – 10 locations mostly in the Malaspina Complex area set aside for food, social and ceremonial harvesting
• Shared Harvest Areas – an expanded harvest area for fish, shellfish, plants, wildlife, migratory birds and cultural areas through shared harvest agreements with neighbouring FIrst Nations
• Parks – Collaborative Management Agreement with BC Parks for all parks in the territory and a separate Protocol Agreement for the Sunshine Coast Trail and Monumental Cedar.
• Future Acquisitions (over 670 hectares set aside to be purchased within 5 years of effective date of treaty and added to treaty settlement lands) – 5 locations: Cranberry Lake Area, Powell and Townley Islets, Thulin Passage and Pocahontas Bay area

Many levels of analysis, planning, consultation and research have gone into the choice of lands for the Nation to take their rightful place as the largest, self governing land owners in the territory. Much of the land in the treaty settlement lands package is: contiguous (next to each other); contains many kilometres of prime waterfront; holds subsurface rights; and represents a good cross-section of traditional use areas, future growth and development options. This is something that some other Treaties have not been able to accomplish because their territory is already heavily developed.

In order to accommodate future land use needs and balance the cultural, environmental and economic values – 6 types of land use zones will be implemented including: Community Use Zones, Economic Development Zones, Forest Management Zones, Marine Management Zones, Watershed Management Zones, and Conservation Zones for Cultural and ecologically sensitive areas.

One of the benefits gained by Sliammon participating in the BC Treaty process has been the protection of selected land so that it could not be “claimed” or sold for other use. If the Treaty is not ratified, the time limited protections come off these parcels in 2011 and the land can and will be tenured and sold as the rest of the territory has been over the years.