B.C. First Nations leaders gather to push for heritage site on developer’s land – Abbotsford News

Dec 7, 2015

First Nations leaders from across B.C. joined with the Sumas First Nation and a developer to urge the province to grant recognition of a Sumas burial site on land owned by a developer.

The cultural significance of the Sumas Mountain location – understood to be an ancestral cemetery associated with a devastating 1782 smallpox epidemic – caused the City of Abbotsford to reject a commercial development proposed there by Corpus Management Group. But without provincial recognition of the site under the Heritage Conservation Act, there’s no recourse for Corpus to receive compensation for the land that’s now known to be undevelopable.

On Friday, Sumas First Nation Chief Dalton Silver gathered with some of B.C.’s top aboriginal leaders at the site, with all urging provincial action. In attendance were Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, Regional Chief Shane Gottfriedson of the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations, Robert Phillips of the First Nations Leadership Council, Ray Harris of the First Nations Summit and Chief David Jimmie of the Stó:lō Nation.

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