Native leaders said they will continue to fight for logging rights despite a Supreme Court of Canada ruling Wednesday.

"It wasn't the outcome we were expecting, but it's not the end of the battle," said Reg Maloney, former chief of the Indian Brook First Nation in Nova Scotia.

In a pair of unanimous decisions, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that aboriginals in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia do not have a treaty claim to log commercially on Crown lands without a permit, as two Mi'kmaq men charged with illegal logging had claimed.

Chief Dwight Dorey, national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.

"I find that I'm very disappointed in the way the Supreme Court has put the burden of proof on us to assert our rights," Maloney said. "I think the burden is an impossible burden.

"We don't have the history or the evidence that is needed in order put a case forward. Unless that changes, it's going to be very difficult for First Nations people to make progress with their rights in this country."

The Supreme Court found that treaties signed in 1760-61 only granted the Mi'kmaq the right to continue trade in items traditionally traded at that time.

The justices said there was no evidence to prove the Mi'kmaq were logging 250 years ago when they signed the treaties with the Crown.

"In order to be protected under those treaties, trade in forest products must be the modern equivalent or a logical evolution of Mi'kmaq use of forest products at the time the treaties were signed," the court wrote.

"Logging is not a logical evolution of the activities traditionally engaged in by Mi'kmaq at the time the treaties were entered into."

The justices also ruled that aboriginals in New Brunswick did not have title to the lands they were trying to log.

'Evidence wasn't there'; natives will keep pressing

If Canada's top court had ruled in favour of native logging rights, the decision could have had a major impact on Atlantic Canada's multibillion-dollar forestry industry.

Private forestry companies that lease Crown lands and employ thousands of people in the region were worried that granting these rights would create chaos in the industry.

But aboriginal leaders had hoped a ruling in their favour would lessen their economic dependence on government and change their lives overnight.

"The court has stated there may be other times and other cases where aboriginal treaty rights will still be upheld, just not in this particular case. The evidence wasn't there," said Chief Dwight Dorey, national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.

"So it's important for us to continue to press the government" to resolve outstanding issues outside the court, he said.

"We do believe we have aboriginal title. This case simply did not have the proper facts to prove it," said George Ginnish, chief of the Eel Ground First Nation in the Miramichi area of New Brunswick.

"As we move ahead, we will take this decision [and] it will guide us on how we choose to proceed."

Cases involved members of 2 First Nations

The first of the two cases before the high court dated back to 1998, when Joshua Bernard of the New Brunswick Eel Ground First Nation was arrested for taking native-harvested logs to a sawmill. He was charged with illegal possession.

In the second case, involving Stephen Marshall of the Millbrook First Nation, 34 Mi'kmaq loggers were charged with illegally logging in Nova Scotia.

The two men argued they had the right to earn a living by logging on Crown lands because of the treaties signed in 1760-1761.

Ottawa and the provinces argued that aboriginals were not conducting commercial logging as it exists today when the treaties were signed.

"Obviously, I'm very disappointed in the outcome," said Bernard.

"I guess the best way to describe how I feel is [that] despite of what was said or what ruling came down, I still feel I have the right to harvest Crown timber.

"I don't know what the next steps I'm going to take are or where to head from here."

The forestry industry creates 19,000 jobs in New Brunswick and 11,000 in Nova Scotia.

New Brunswick's government owns 50 per cent of the province's land base, while Nova Scotia owns about 25 per cent.

Mitch Taylor, representing the federal justice department, said the Wednesday's ruling won't affect how the government handles other negotiations.

"The federal government will continue to look at the big picture and to bring to the negotiations a fair and balanced approach," he said. "It won't be hard-nosed. There are important questions, there are legitimate claims."