"Government Apology For Abuses A Welcome Step, Says Tribal Council"

VANCOUVER (CP) _ The B.C. treaty process will be given a kick-start Monday as federal and provincial officials exchange offers of terms with leaders of the largest band on Vancouver Island.

But first, the Nuu-Chah-nulth needed to hear an apology from Ottawa for abuses of native children at residential schools. Shelley Serafini, deputy minister of Indian Affairs, was flanked by 19 other federal representatives as she presented the written apology on the Tseshaht reserve near Port Alberni.

"Sadly, our history with respect to the treatment of aboriginal people, including Nuu-chah-nulth, is not something in which we can take pride." Serafini said, reading from a prepared statement.

"We acknowledge that the results of these actions were the political, historical and cultural erosion of the Nuu-chah-nulth people."

The band welcom ed the gesture.

"We absolutely needed an apology in order that we may properly start healing," Nelson Keitlah, co-chair of the Nuu-chah-nulth tribal council, said in a telephone interview Saturday.

"It is an apology that has been long in coming an important piece of our recovery was missing. Somewhat of a healing will now properly take place for of the Nuu-chah-nulth." The apology is "a step in the right direction" in the treaty process, said Keitlah.

B.C. Aboriginal Affairs Minister Dave Zirnhelt has said the provincial government's offer to the Nuu-chah-nulth will be larger than the controversial deal reached with the Nisga'a of northern B.C.

Under their treaty, the Nisga'a received control over almost 2,000 square kilometres of land in the Nass Valley near Terrace, B.C., 400 square kilometres west of Prince George, and more than $500 million in cash, grants and program funds, as well as a form of self-government.

The Nuu-chah-nulth will table a counter-offer on Tuesday, said Keitlah. "We're not going to start jumping to the microphone and saying this is exactly what we wanted," he said. "We'll have to analyse the (government) offer quite carefully. "It'll be bigger (than the Nisga'a) treaty because of the mere fact that we have more members," said Keitlah.

There are about 6,600 Nuu-chah-nulth compared with about 5,500 Nisga'a.

Monday's land claim offer is aimed at establishing an agreement in principle, the last step before formal treaty negotiations.

While the tribal council waits for the government's treaty offer, members of the Nuu-chah-nulth who were abused in residential schools are grappling with the past. "They're lining up to read the apology and it's a personal matter for each individual (whether or not to accept it)," said Keitlah.

"The tribal council itself has not said that we can accept an apology on behalf of all Nuu-chah-nulth. That would be very wrong. It is absolutely a personal matter.