Native tribe will petition Ottawa to remove its Indian status

Author:
ICT Staff
Updated:
Sep 12, 2018
Original:
Nov 9, 2009

A delegation of the Gitxsan people from northwest British Columbia is set to meet with Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl next month with a groundbreaking proposal: That the 13,000 members of their tribe be allowed to abandon their status as "Indians." The group is willing to relinquish reserves, tax exemptions, Indian Act housing and financial supports in exchange for a share of resources.

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Dr. Joseph Bull, citizen of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, is Dean of the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science. He gave a speech about the importance of Indigenous knowledge and representation during the opening of the Vernier Science Center at PSU on Sept. 27, 2024. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News/ICT)

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland smiles after signing Public Land Order 7940, which protects more than 4,200 acres of Bureau of Land Management-managed public lands that is sacred to Tribes in the Placitas area, during a community event at El Zócalo Plaza in Bernalillo, N.M., Thursday, April 18, 2024. For the next 50 years, the lands will be closed to new mining claims, mineral sales, and oil and gas leases. (Chancey Bush/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

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