Representatives of the Haida Nation, a 7,000-member native group living on the Queen Charlotte Islands off Canada’s Northwest Coast, have sued to secure “exclusive right to make decisions about their land” and the surrounding waters. If the high court of British Columbia rules in their favor, the Haida will be able to prevent the government from issuing offshore drilling permits in the oil- and gas-rich region. The case may represent the first time a Canadian aboriginal group has claimed offshore resources in court, and it marks a shift toward heavier-hitting tactics, such as litigation, in government-aboriginal relations. Guujaaw, president of the Haida Nation, said that his people, who have lived on the islands for thousands of years, are paying the price for rampant materialism: “The measure of those excesses is seen in the forests and in the natural parts of the Earth. And the people who live there, as we do, are the ones who live with the consequence of supplying the raw material for those excesses.”
