By Rochelle Baker Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The federal government and the Pacheedaht First Nation celebrated an agreement Wednesday to return stewardship control over territory taken without permission to create B.C.’s world-renowned Pacific Rim National Park. Parks Canada and the Pacheedaht signed a deal returning land use and stewardship rights for a 2.6-hectare stretch of shoreline known as ?A:?b?e:?s, or Middle Beach, as a step in the treaty settlement process. In 1988, Canada took the key coastal tract connecting the Pacheedaht’s two main reserves near Port Renfrew without formal consultation or recognition of the First Nation’s rights to govern its traditional territory for the national park _ 50,000 hectares of land and ocean along western Vancouver Island in the traditional territories of nine Nuu-chah-nulth Nations. Park regulations also prohibited the…
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