Spirit Dance at Meziadin: Chief Joseph Gosnell and the Nisga'a Treaty

John Steckley teaches in the Human Studies Program at Humber College in
Toronto. He is the author of Beyond Their Years: Five Native Women's
Stories.

In Spirit Dance at Meziadin, journalist Alex Rose chronicles the
130-year struggle of the Nisga’a people of northern British Columbia
to obtain a treaty. Rose, the author of two books on the
Nisga’a—Bring Our Ancestors Home and Nisga’a: People of the
Nass—uses his knowledge of the treaty process to explore the
historical and political issues behind the controversial land-claim
agreement.

One critical chapter in the Nisga’a struggle was the Calder case
(named after Nisga’a leader Frank Calder) of the 1970s, which
established the principle of aboriginal rights. In two of the book’s
strongest chapters, Rose profiles some of the more hidden players in the
struggle. “The Consultants” sheds light on two groups: the “Indian
Industry” of consultants working for Native groups, and those in the
“Anti-Indian Industry” working for provincial and federal
governments. “The Opposition” details the political machinations of
powerful media figures (including Conrad Black) who opposed the treaty.

The books has many strengths, the main one being that the text is very
readable and accessible; Rose puts a human face on the issues and events
that led to the signing of the treaty rather than bogging readers down
in legalistic detail. A weakness of the book is how at times Rose seems
too willing to accept at face value the statements of such players,
including the conservative academic Thomas Flanagan and, more
importantly, the British Columbia’s Liberal government, whose claim
that it is not opposed to the treaty “in principle” seems highly
suspect.