Joseph Gosnell, a key architect and negotiator of the first modern day treaty in Canada – with the Nisga’a Nation -- has died at the age of 84.
A recipient of the Order of BC and Order of Canada, Gosnell, was a chief negotiator of the Nisga’a treaty and was president of the Nisga’a Lisms Government when the treaty was finalized and implemented 20 years ago.
Gosnell passed away August 18 from cancer, according to the Nisga’a Lisims Government.
“Today we have lost a giant,” Nisga’a Nation President Eva Clayton said in a statement. “Through his wisdom, dignity and determination, Dr. Joseph Gosnell helped lead the Nisga’a people out of the Indian Act and into self-government.”
The Nisga’a agreement was officially signed in 1998 and implemented in 2000. It was the first modern-day treaty – one that was more than 100 years in the making.
The treaty acknowledged that "the Nisga'a people have lived in the Nass River Valley since time immemorial,” and provided large tracts of land, cash, and powers of self-government.
Gosnell was a hereditary chief of the Laxsgiik clan, with the hereditary title of Sim’oogit Hleek. A former commercial fisherman, he rose to become a leader of the Nisga’a Tribal council and, later, president of the Nisga'a Nation.
For his work in negotiating the treaty, Gosnell was awarded several honorary doctorate degrees, including from Simon Fraser University.
He was awarded the Order of British Columbia in 1999, made an officer of the Order of Canada in 2001 and then companion in 2006.
