History of Original People

What is this First Law of the Land and what documents do you have to back this up that we are the First of the Land?

The historic orientation of the Original People on this land goes back 40,000 years, as was stated in the provincial court, by one of our historians and Tribunal people, Henry Green. He has his status within the Shimshin people. He also has the history to most of the matriarchs and clan people in this region. That is his forte.

He has presented some of his documents on our website at times. However, no one would understand them, because they can’t even understand the words he uses on paper. When he and Maathlaatlaa speak and write in our language, that is the First Law of the Land. There is no controversy. It goes back 5,000 years minimum, and then on.

So, when we speak about the First Law of the Land, we speak about where the laws come from, where the land comes from, and who were the stewards of the pieces and the parcels that we speak of. It wasn’t a Corporation when we started it. It was made up of Nations of people and the hereditary people who were the stewards of those regions.

So, I think we have about ninety Nations in the Peoples of the Salmon and we have the First Law of the Land in all of them. It may look the same in different Nations and different regions, and it also may change and be a different speak and history to another culture. However, it is still the First Law of the Land, and the Tribunal differentiates it and speaks to each Nation’s Title and Rights. When we speak of Title and Rights, the rights come from title. So, as the people speak of the title, which is the First Law of the Land, then those rights are associated to those people.

If it’s a grease trail, with oolichan (candle fish) grease, then the people of that region expand the First Law of the Land from the oolichan, and the resources on their land. That is what you call the First of the Land. And the second will be that nothing jeopardizes that trade, and that it goes on in history, as where they traded and who they traded with, becomes their First Law of the Land. That goes exponentially out.

People must understand, there was always trade here. Medicine was traded, new techniques of health and welfare were always brought forward. I asked for when the Sovereign met, and I think you could refer to the Clan of the Cave Bears, when Kala Ela went to meet the gathering. I asked where that was being held in BC, and it was in Sepincton, which was a bowl outside Penticton. That is where the Sovereign met in this province. They came from all over the province to trade and exchange ideas about science… and laws.

The Original People know this. But the non-Original People don’t. Do you have any diagrams or documents that can make a case for this, that the First Law of the Land exists and why should we care that it exists?

The idea of the First Law of the Land is also that there is nothing written. However, if you say that the history of the people exists, and that Natural Law exists, then the culture speaks to the First Law of the Land about what they use and how they use it. When people reference some pieces on the history of our people, then the documented history is what becomes the First Law of the Land. It is not a court case of a corporation, trying to buy land off the people. That comes after the fact and it is corporation documents. We are the precedent, prior to the common law of the English. They only rely on the written word.

So, when people want to know what happened in an area where we used to harvest the sockeye and the spring salmon, or the oolichan or the halibut, the prawns or the fish on the coast, it is determined by the history of the Culchenn people first, and then secondly, in the written word of the English afterwards. That becomes “Corpus Jurus Secundi”, which is the second body of law that sits beside ours. It doesn’t sit in front, it sits beside us, or behind.

Historic Resources

Science, Industry and Salmon

Science, Industry, and Salmon