#10 - Open Choice: Indigenous Concern for the Environment

In an interview, Cherie Dimaline said, "When we are not on our land, when we are not hunting and in ceremony, when there's a lack of traditional land use, it's easier for resource extraction companies to get the permits they need for pipelines" (Hafiz Ramji). From Dimaline's book, Miig says, "And all those pipelines in the ground? They snapped like icicles and spewed bile over forests, into lakes, drowning whole reserves and towns. So much aid to waste from the miscalculations of infallibility in the face of a planet's revolt" (Dimaline, 87).

For my open choice option, I want to talk about how the book relates to current events, particularly the Indigenous concern for the environment. 

Wedzin Kwa (Follett Hosgood)

Right this minute the people of Wet’suwet’en are fighting to stop a pipeline on their unceded land in part of what we call BC. The pipeline is in violation of the law because it’s not officially Canadian land, so the corporations require permission from hereditary chiefs to build on it (Armao). Coastal GasLink (CGL) is building a fracked gas pipeline, which often leaks methane into the air and has been known to poison the groundwater. It’s being built on unceded land and across an important waterway, the Wedzin Kwa, a sacred headwaters (Armao). 

(Stand.earth)

The area of land in question is 1,000 km north of Vancouver. Indigenous government of over 22,000 square kilometres was recognized by the Supreme Court in 1997 as it’s an area of land that has never been signed over through any treaty (Trumpener). The 1997 Delgamuukw decision recognized Aboriginal title allows for some use of the land for industry only if it can be shown to be justified use, which has to be argued in the courts (Wood). Trudeau made promises around pipelines and treatment of the Indigenous that he didn’t keep (Armao). CGL signed deals with some band councils, but “has not won approval of the majority of hereditary chiefs” (Trumpener). The CGL sees their obligation as only to provide access to the territory and doesn't acknowledge that they’re no longer on Canadian land (Armao). 

CBC News

The pipeline 670 km long and owned by TC Energy (Wood). It’s 60% complete already (Trumpener). The project is worth $40 billion to investors (Trumpener), but could destroy the water, land, and air. 

Sunday, November 14, 2021 

On Sunday, Nov. 14, members of the Wet’suwet’en gave subcontractors evacuation orders. The gave them eight hours to leave or threatened to close the road.  The protest group let CGL know they would be seizing control of their equipment (Armao). 

Thursday & Friday, November 18-19, 2021 

Then the RCMP came and used “pain compliance” to try to get the Indigenous to leave. They use sniper rifles and police dogs (Armao). They broke down a door with an axe and chainsaw at Coyote Camp. RCMP arrested 30 Wet’suwet’en members and two journalists (Trumpener). The RCMP was first created to clear the land for the railway, so the Indigenous have a long history of protecting their land from them (Gerster). 

 Protesters spent three nights in jail, then were asked to prove their identity in court. One member said that “she fears the practice of questioning Indigenous identity in a colonial court setting sets a ‘dangerous precedent. . . . It was inappropriate for a private company to openly interrogate their identity and for the company to question how a determination of identity should or should not entitle them to access Wet’suwet’en territory’” (Wood). The industry is finding new ways to defend claims to the land and “always thinking about how they can make the burden higher for the other side,” so they hit sensitive spots like their identity (Wood). As a condition of their release, they had to promise to stay away from the area (Trumpener). 

Sunday, December 19 

A new group of land defenders returned to reoccupy the protest camp and block CGL pipeline drilling (Trumpener). CGL says the protester “are putting people, property, and the environment at risk” (Trumpener). 

I think CGL should look in a mirror. 

(Follett Hosgood)

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Works and Images Cited 

Armao, Mark. “Canada Sides with a Pipeline, Violating Wet’suwet’en Laws--and Its Own.” Grist, November 18, 2021, https://grist.org/indigenous/wetsuweten-land-defenders/ 

CBC News. "Trudeau: 'No Country Would Fin 173 Billion Barrels of Oil in the Ground and Leave Them There.'" CBC News, 2016, https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/894872131944

Dimaline, Cherie. The Marrow Thieves. Manitoba: Cormorant Books Inc., 2018.

Follett Hosgood, Amanda. "Pipeline Standoff: Wet'suwet'en Block Effort to Tunnel under Morice River." The Tyee, October 4, 2021, https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/10/04/Pipeline-Standoff-Wetsuweten-Block-Effort-Tunnel-Morice-River/. 

Gerster, Jane. “The RCMP was Created to Control Indigenous People. Can that Relationship be Reset?” Global News, June 27, 2019, https://globalnews.ca/news/5381480/rcmp-indigenous-relationship/ 

Hafiz Ramji, Shazia. "The Marrow Thieves Author Cherie Dimaline Remains True to Her Role as a Métis 'Storykeeper' Amid International Acclaim." Quill & Quire, June 20, 2018, https//quillanquire.com/omni/the-marrow-thieves-author-cherie-dimaline-remains-true-to-her-role-as-a-metis-storykeeper-amid-international-acclaim/. 

Stand.earth. "A Pipeline without Indigenous Consent." Stand.earth, N.d., https://www.stand.earth/page/pipeline-heart-wetsuweten-land-%E2%80%93-and-whos-funding-it.

Trumpener, Betsy. “Wet’suwet’en Protesters Block Coastal GasLink Site Again, 1 Month after RCMP Crackdown.” CBC News, December 20, 2021, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/wet-suwet-en-protesters-block-pipeline-site-again-1.6293000 

Wood, Stephanie. “‘Dangerous Precedent’: Pipelines, Land Defenders and the Colonial Policing of Indigenous Nationhood.” The Narwhal, December 22, 2021, https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-coastal-gaslink-indigenous-identity/.