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The James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement of 1975 was the first major agreement between the Crown and the native people in Canada since the numbered TREATIES of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This agreement was negotiated from 1973 to 1975 following the Judge Malouf, and one week later, Court of Appeals, decisions. The agreement was signed on 11 November 1975, after 4 weeks of politics, court cases and bargaining following the 1971 announcement of plans to build a system of hydroelectric dams in northern Québec (see JAMES BAY PROJECT). The CREE whose lands were at the centre of the proposed project and the INUIT further north agreed to a regime for joint management of wildlife with Québec and Canada.
They also insisted on special membership criteria (redefining Inuit and Cree status), control over local and regional governments, the creation of their own health and school boards, measures for economic and community development, special regimes for police and justice and environmental protection. They obtained technical definition of the La Grande Project including relocation of the first dam, limitations on water levels and a remedial works corporation for social and environmental damages. Compensation of $225 million was divided between the Cree and Inuit according to population and paid over 25 years.
Land Divisions
The lands were divided into 3 categories: category I of 13 700 km2 in and around native communities to be controlled solely by residents; category II with the Cree to have 70 000 km2 and the Inuit 81 600 km2 of exclusive hunting, fishing and trapping territories; and in the remaining category III, natives to have exclusive rights to 22 important species of game and freedom to continue their use of traditional family hunting territories. For the Cree, provision was made for a minimum family-income plan for those in wildlife harvesting. The right to teach in native languages and in English and French was secured, and with Québec a James Bay Native Development Corporation was set up to encourage Cree economic development. The dynamic and complex nature of the agreement is evidenced by 7 amending agreements, 4 additional spinoff agreements and 22 pieces of related legislation. The rights of the native peoples in the agreement have been protected by the Canadian Constitution. In 1984 the promise of SELF-GOVERNMENT for the Cree was realized when Parliament enacted the Cree-Naskapi (of Québec) Act, the first of its kind in Canada Controversial Character The agreement continues to be a source of controversy between the native peoples and the federal and provincial governments. In particular the native groups claim that even though there are basic breaches in the agreement it guarantees a permanent Canadian status of the whole James Bay Territory against any attempt of Québec to separate from Canada.
Author
JOHN A. PRICE Revised: BRIAN CRAIK
Suggested Reading
Grand Council of the Crees, Sovereign Injustice (1995); Sean McCutcheon, Electric Rivers: The Story of the James Bay Project (1991); John A. Price, Native Studies: American and Canadian Indians (1978); R.F. Salisbury, A Homeland for the Cree: Regional Development in James Bay, 1971-1981 (1986).
Links to Other Sites
James Bay Project and the Cree
A CBC feature about the political, social, and economic issues concerning the James Bay hydroelectric project and the James Bay Cree.
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