A lawsuit filed in Yukon Supreme Court by the Ross River Dena Council claims the federal government is continuing to breach its duties to the Kaska Tribal Council by not negotiating its land claim settlement.

'The defendant (the Attorney General) ... has breached and is continuing to breach its constitutional and fiduciary duties,' the court documents state.

Among those breaches is the failure to consider and settle land claims for the first nation, the failure to 'uphold honour and integrity of the Crown and avoid the appearance of sharp dealing'' in negotiations, the failure to negotiate with due diligence and in good faith, and finally the 'unilateral and arbitrary abandonment of negotiations with the plaintiff in June 2002.'

Negotiations ended when the Kaska, which the Ross River Dena Council is part of, failed to ink a deal in 2002 by the set deadline. Since then, it was noted in the court documents, there have been no further negotiations.

Through the lawsuit, the Ross River Dena Council is seeking:

• a declaration the attorney general has a duty to negotiate a settlement with due diligence and in good faith;

• a declaration the attorney general has breached and continues to breach its duty to negotiate with due diligence and in good faith;

• a declaration that debts to the federal government for money loaned to the Ross River Dena Council to negotiate a settlement are void and unenforceable;

• a declaration that other debts to the federal government for money loaned to the Council of Yukon First Nations (CYFN; or its predecessor, the Council for Yukon Indians) for land claim negotiations are void and unenforceable;

• compensation or damages for the breaches;

• costs associated with the lawsuit; and

• other orders the court deems just.

The Ross River Dena Council and the Liard First Nation are the two Kaska members in the Yukon, with other members in northern B.C.

The Kaska's territory in the Yukon is comprised of 110,000 square kilometres, or a total of 23 per cent of the territory, the lawsuit states.

The court documents include maps of the Kaska land and cite numerous government documents. They include the Umbrella Final Agreement, a document setting out the perimeters for land claims in the territory which was negotiated by the CYFN and the territorial and federal governments in 1993.

In bringing forward the claim, the Ross River Dena Council points to information dating back to the late 1800s when the Kaska territory was part of the then-North-Western Territory.

Even before then, it's argued, that equality principles governing the British Crown in dealing with Canada's aboriginal population were expressed by the Crown in a Royal Proclamation of Oct. 7, 1763.

'To date, the claims of the Kaska, including the claims of the (Ross River Dena Council), to compensate for lands required for settlement have not been considered or settled in conformity to the 1870 order or otherwise,' it's noted in the court documents.

The lawsuit then points to the 1970s, when the federal government developed a new policy to negotiate land claims settlements.

New policies reaffirmed the commitment between 1981 and 1986, it's argued.

Representatives on the Kaska claim have been involved in negotiations for a settlement from 1973 until they ended in 2002.

It's further argued that the federal government 'unilaterally and arbitrarily abandoned the negotiations with the (Ross River Dena Council) and other Kaska (members) on the grounds that Canada's mandate for negotiating a comprehensive land claims settlement in the Yukon had expired.'