When the chiefs and Elijah Smith returned from Ottawa ready to begin negotiations, they were met with opposition from members of the Yukon's public who voiced their opinion that there should be no such thing as Indian land claims. They argued that this would cause inequality, not realizing things were in no way equal to begin with. Ada Haskins described the times.

"Johnny Johns did well with the land claims, he always tried to help any way he could. He tried to tell them to keep some land that belonged to us for years and years. One of them was Scotts meadow. That is where the natives used to come from all over and they would meet there, even coast Indians from Yakutat and Juneau. They would all meet there and have a big pow wow for two months sometimes. A lot of places that Dad tried to tell them to keep in the land claims, and he did tell the girls like Doris and Shirley

and his sisters. Places that they should keep like Tagish and fish camp. Fish camp was just a few miles out of Carcross, down the narrows which the natives used for years and years. In the early spring it always opened up and the people would go down and set a net. Everyone would take their turns and set their nets. And in the summer people would camp out there and stay for a few days and move on because they would all share it... which is a different story than nowadays. They had many places like that where they would

Dora Wedge, Peter Johns, Angela Sidney and Johnny Johns at a family gathering in 1977, with a land claims map in front of them. Each of these elders cared deeply for the progress and betterment of their people. (Geraldine James)