Still Strong

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BC should keep Shell’s gas drills out of the Sacred Headwaters for good: Skeena Swimmer

One year after the BC government put a moratorium on Shell’s coalbed methane drilling project in northern BC’s Sacred Headwaters, support for permanently protecting the area remains strong.

That’s what southern British Columbians are hearing this week from Ali Howard, the 33-year-old who in August became the first person to swim the length of the 610-kilometre Skeena River. Howard is in Vancouver and Victoria presenting a multimedia show of her trip.

“Our communities applauded the government’s move to put a drilling moratorium in place last year,” said Howard. “Now, with our province in the global spotlight, the BC government has the perfect opportunity to implement permanent safeguards for this remarkable area.”

The Sacred Headwaters is the shared birthplace of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers – three of British Columbia’s most important wild salmon rivers. Shell wants to drill over 1,000 coalbed methane gas wells in the Headwaters’ sensitive subalpine ecosystem, which residents fear will harm wildlife and salmon spawning habitat.

“Northwest residents have clearly demonstrated that they will not allow a project such as Shell’s to proceed under any circumstances,” said Shannon McPhail, executive director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition. “Permanent safeguards for the Headwaters would be welcomed by a broad cross section of our communities.”

This is a message Howard heard many times over the course of her historic swim.

Read More: Here
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Iskut-Stikine Watershed in Crisis

Overview of the Iskut-Stikine Watershed

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The transboundary Iskut-Stikine watershed is one of North America’s largest and most intact wild salmon watersheds. The Stikine, meaning ‘The Great River’ in Tlingit language, covers a diverse range of climates and geography from alpine tundra to ancient coastal rainforests. John Muir described part of the Stikine as a “Yosemite 100 miles long”. It is 52,000km2/20,000 square miles, making it larger than Switzerland.

It is the traditional territory of the Tahltan First Nation, and supports thriving sport, commercial and subsistence fisheries, guided and subsistence hunting, and a variety of other cultural, recreational and economic activities.

The Stikine River is 640km/400 miles long from its headwaters in BC’s Spatsizi Plateau to its estuary near Wrangell, Alaska. The Iskut River, the largest tributary of the Stikine, flows for 236km/145 miles from Kluachon Lake near Iskut, BC to its confluence with the lower Stikine River near the US/Canada border.

Despite substantial protected areas, the Iskut-Stikine is one of the continent’s most threatened watersheds. Several mining and energy projects are in development while about a dozen companies are negotiating with the Tahltan First Nation for other projects to begin. The scope and pace of development proposed in the Stikine is unprecedented. In 2006, 50% of all mining exploration activity in Northwest BC was taking place on Tahltan territory. Alaska continues planning the transboundary Bradfield Road and an electrical intertie with Canada, both of which would go through important roadless areas and drive resource exploitation to unsustainable levels.

Read More: Here

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Tahltan Central Council Resource Development Policy Statement

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Tahltan Central Council, Resource Development Policy, April, 1987

In history as well as in mythology, The Tahltan first Nation people have always been acknowledged as the original inhabitants of the Stikine River watershed in northern British Columbia. Archaeological evidence has determined that the Tahltan people have continuously occupied this area for thousands of years, perhaps as many as 10,000. This is what is often referred to in poetic terms as “since time immemorial”.

The first white person to come into Tahltan country was Samuel Black who arrived in 1821 exploring for the Northwest Trading Company, Our people never met Black and so it wasn’t until 1838 when the second white person, Robert Campbell of the Hudson Bay Company, entered our territory that European contact with our people was first made.

Tahltan had an elaborate trading economy already established when the HBC encountered our tribe. Although the HBC was very interested in immediately setting up a competing trading operation in Tahltan country, our people blocked them for approximately forty years so as to protect our own established trading economy. At that time Tahltans had an active commercial network based on our position as middlemen between the coastal tribes and the tribes living north and east of the Stikine country.

We also traded our own fish and furs and other natural resources such as obsidian to all peoples who came into our country.

Tahltan people are very proud of our tradition of commercial enterprise and equally proud that we were able to protect our interests against the mighty HBC Empire for those many years. It wasn’t until the 1870’s, when the Cassiar gold rush was in full swing, that the HBC was able to open its first trading post in Tahltan traditional territory.

Even though our people have lost the monopoly position of business in our own country, we are still active on many business fronts. Our present tribal objective is to increase our participation in all business that develops within the borders of our tribal territory so that we can again enjoy a self-sustaining, healthy and enterprising economy.

We wish to make it very clear that Tahltan people and the Tahltan Central Council are not inherently opposed to any development within our country. However, we do feel strongly that any development within our tribal territory must adhere to some basic principles that the Tahltan Central Council has developed.

We appreciate that most private developers “just want to conduct their business”. They do not want to have any discussions or participate in any actions that have overtones of aboriginal rights or native politics. We in one sense sympathize with that wish of developers because we, as businessmen, also experience frustration when politics begin to directly affect our business endeavours, However, the reality is that if our tribal objective of achieving substantial participation in business development within our country is to be realized within a reasonable time, we must combine politics and business when dealing with developers wishing to establish themselves within Tahltan country. Developers will have to come to terms with this reality if they expect to function successfully within our territory.

Before a resource development project can commence within Tahltan tribal territory, it will be necessary for the developer and the Tahltan Central Council to enter into a project participation agreement that encompasses the following elements and basic principles;

1. Assurance that the development will not pose a threat of irreparable environmental damage;

2. Assurance that the development will not jeopardize, prejudice or otherwise compromise the outstanding Tahltan aboriginal rights claim;

3. Assurance that the project will provide more positive than negative social impact on Tahltan people;

4. Provisions for the widest possible opportunity for education and direct employment-related training for Tahltan people in connection with the project;

5. Provisions for the widest possible employment opportunities for Tahltan people with respect to all phases of the development;

6. Provision for substantial equity participation by Tahltans in the total project;

7. Provisions for the widest possible development of Tahltan business opportunities over which the developer may have control or influence;

8. Provisions for the developer to assist the Tahltans to accomplish the objectives stated above by providing financial and managerial assistance and advice where deemed necessary.

If resource developers and the Tahltan Central Council can reach agreement embracing the points noted above, then we believe that Tahltans, the developers and all other Canadians will enjoy equitable benefits from each resource development undertaken and there will be business harmony within Tahltan traditional tribal territory.

Curtis Rattray
Chairman, Tahltan Central Council

SOURCE: http://www.tahltan.org/RDC.doc
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Tahltan Elders Declare a Moratorium on Resource Development

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Tahltan Elders Statement—Issued in Spring 2005:

"Dena nenn Sogga neh 'ine"

We, the Tahltan People, historically a sovereign nation have occupied our traditional territories since time immemorial. Our culture is organized through a matrilineal clan system. This has always been and remains our broad governing structure. Tahltan Elders held the responsibility to uphold Tahltan beliefs, customs, values and laws for future generations.

Our inherent rights are given by Creator and cannot be diminished or removed by any law including discriminatory government legislation such as the Indian Act. The clan, elders, families and Tahltan People have been marginalized and fragmented by settler society and the genocidal practices of church and state. Tahltan land remains Unceded territory, which has never been surrendered or taken in war or conquest. We will defend in any way necessary our rights and freedoms, to be self-determining.

Today, we Tahltan People face numerous massive development projects. Agreements have been negotiated in secret between Indian Act chiefs, the Tahltan Central Council and government and industry. The promise of jobs does not compensate for loss of land, resources and impacts on the environment and people. This is not only a violation of Tahltan law; it is a fundamental violation of our rights under the Canadian Constitution. No indigenous culture could survive the combined impact of the proposed projects. Our land, and the creatures that depend on that land, would be devastated. Our Tahltan People would be devastated.

Therefore, it is both our right and our responsibility, as Tahltan Elders, to reclaim our legitimate place within Tahltan law and custom. The actions of chiefs and councils, Tahltan Central Council, and others who purport to represent Tahltan interest, have forced us to occupy the Band offices in Telegraph Creek. These non-represented individuals and bodies have exceeded their authority and no longer have the confidence or trust of the Tahltan People and therefore can no longer represent us.

Our responsibilities as Tahltan Elders require us to inform all those who would come to this land and desecrate it for their own financial gain that you can no longer negotiate agreements in secret. Tahltan Elders are the true, legitimate governing body. We will apply Tahltan laws to stabilize, build, and strengthen our nation. We will protect our way of life and Mother Earth from further harmful assaults.

We, the Tahltan Elders are the stewards of our homeland, which we have continued to sustain and hold in trust for future generations make this solemn declaration:

We assert our aboriginal title and inherent rights to the land and resources within our traditional territory.

We declare a complete moratorium on resource development in our territory until

a. the leadership dispute has been resolved,

b. a fair, just, and legitimate process is developed which honours Tahltan custom and law;

c. all Tahltan members are consulted, informed and give final approval of development

Prior to any future development in Tahltan Territory, legal agreements must be negotiated with Tahltan Elders that ensure Tahltan People equitable share in revenues generated and are involved in all aspects of decision-making.

All agreements negotiated with industry and government to date, because of the absence of the participation and consent of the Tahltan Elders and Families, are hereby declared void

Medu

Tahltan Elders

Read More: Here

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Deep North
By Wade Davis

It took more than an hour to find the old grave, now hidden beneath a spruce sapling, its wooden headstone no longer legible, its picket fence a mere shadow on the soil. "Love Old Man Antoine Died 1926" was the simple inscription. I knew it from memory, having stumbled upon the site as a young park ranger, part of the first team hired in 1978 to explore and map the newly created Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Park. Often described as the Serengeti of Canada, the Spatsizi is British Columbia's largest roadless preserve, more than 1.6 million acres (650,000 hectares) encompassing the headwaters of the mighty Stikine, the river known to the native Tlingit as simply the Great River. The mist and rain that swirled about Antoine's grave would in time swell the headwater lake of Laslui, giving rise to a wild mountain stream that flows first east and north before turning west and finally south on its 400-mile (650-kilometer) run for the sea.

Along the way the river plunges into the depths of the Grand Canyon of the Stikine, a raging torrent that flows more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) beneath cliffs of basalt and sedimentary rock rising a thousand feet (300 meters) straight up from the water's edge. Below the canyon the river runs wide, cutting through the glaciers and jagged peaks of the coast mountains before finally reaching a pristine estuary where each spring bald eagles gather by the thousands to feast on sparkling runs of smelt. When John Muir traveled the lower third of the Stikine in 1879, he called it a Yosemite a hundred miles (160 kilometers) long, and he counted some 300 glaciers along its tortuous course. It's a land where Canada could hide England, and the English would never find it.

My job description had been vague: wilderness assessment and public relations. In two seasons I saw a handful of visitors. My partner and I explored the park freely, mapping the trails used by outfitters and by caribou and sheep.

In these wanderings we had come upon Antoine's grave, perched on a bench above the willow and birch thickets that hugged the shore of Laslui Lake. Curious about the history of the grave, I had crossed the lake to the mouth of Hotlesklwa Creek, where Ray and Reg Collingwood, outfitters for the Spatsizi, had established a hunting camp. There I found Alex Jack, a legendary native guide, whose birth name means He Who Walks Leaving No Tracks. Alex knew of the grave, and he knew who had laid the body to rest: his own brother-in-law. Old Man Antoine, Alex told me, was a shaman, crippled from birth but filled with the power of clairvoyance.

Intrigued by this link between a living elder like Alex and a shaman born in a previous century, I left my job with the government and went to work for the Collingwoods. As Alex and I cut wood and fixed fence and led the odd hunter after moose or goat, I would ask him to tell me the old stories of the land and his people. He talked of his youth, of hunting trips and winter trading runs by dogsled to the coast. But of the myths of his people he appeared to recall nothing. He spoke often of survival, of winter winds so strong the caribou froze, of times when his people ate nothing but spruce bark. I remember passing an encampment on a sunny afternoon, and Alex acknowledged that his people had settled there for several years, but he didn't describe it as a place they had lived. "Here," he said simply, "is where we survived."

Read More: Here
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Iskut First Nations Website

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http://www.iskutfn.ca/

‘Sacred Headwaters’ Endangered

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The headwaters of the Skeena, Nass, and Stikine Rivers – so important in Tahltan history and culture - have made the annual list of endangered rivers, compiled by The Outdoor Recreation Council of BC. The Council lists the headwaters at #6 due to the possibility of coal-bed methane mining.

Source: Tad McIlwraith
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The Tahltan Highlands:

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Elders Oral Survey

Elders survey traditional Cultural Property along the Hok'azi (Klappan) river on Tahltan Territory.

Shell Go Home

On Aug 21, 2007 the Tahltan elders of Iskut and Telegraph creek blockaded Shell from resuming their destructive Coalbed Methane operations in the Sacred Headwaters.

This is the latest in an ongoing battle over resource development at the birthplace of three of Canada's great salmon rivers, a place aboriginal groups consider sacred.

Iskut:

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Youth Resistance

Shell plans to drill in the most pristine environment in Northern British Columbia, called, the sacred headwaters. This film was made by youth from that area.

Special thanks to Dogwood Initiative.

Tahltan EthnoBlography Project

The purpose of this blog is twofold:

1. To express solidarity with the Tahltan people in their (and our) battle with imperial, colonial and corporate encroachments on vital natural ecosystems.

2. To collect and organize available Tahltan-related material and relevant anthropological literature - as part of an ongoing ethnographic research project.

* PLEASE NOTE: this project is in a very early state, and revisions and extensions will be frequent.

If you have any questions, thoughts or concerns please leave me a message here, and I will respond as soon as possible.

Thank you.
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