In 1878, an agent for the province of British Columbia predicted the legal battle that surrounds the declaration of Aboriginal title for the Cowichan Nation today.
Gilbert Sproat, a commissioner in charge of establishing reservations for Indigenous communities, sent a letter to his superiors urging them not to rush the business of handing out land grants to the province’s new settlers, who were eager to snatch up the best lands the province offered.
“It is extremely inconvenient to the province to have lands locked up from preemption or sale in fine districts, owing to the non-settlement of the Indian claims, but this is a necessity,” Mr. Sproat wrote in a letter that became a key part of evidence in the B.C. Supreme Court record in the Cowichan case.
