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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005
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| October 4, 2004 |
Vancouver, Canada Fire in the Valley - The Fight for Indigenous Land Rights |
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| A Sutikalh Peace Camp member tending the fire |
Deep in the mountains near Pemberton, in the province of British Columbia, lays a few patchwork buildings of plywood and corrugated iron roofs surrounding a small fire that has burned non-stop for four years. Called Sutikalh, which means "Winter Spirit," this area has been the quiet epicenter of a battle between the indigenous St'at'imc Nation and ski resort developers since May 6th 2000 - when a handful of indigenous people staked out tarps and started the fire in protest. Also known as Melvin's Creek, Sutikalh is scheduled to be turned into a $550 million four-season resort attracting up to 28,000 skiers per day – hated only by this makeshift peace camp. Sitting astride the middle of the Cayoosh Range, conservationists say a resort would interrupt virgin watersheds that produce water so clear it can be drunk straight from the area's creeks. Indigenous people say the resort fragments a natural ecosystem that forms the foundation of their culture and should instead be protected. |
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| Alvin Nelson showing matsutake mushrooms picked from the ground |
Alvin Nelson, a Lil'wat Nation member opposed to the resort, said that Indigenous people learned many lessons from the building of neighboring Whistler Blackcomb ski resort in 1980, which was built on 53 acres of Indigenous territory administrated by the government. "In the early days we thought it would be good to have Whistler with us. But we mostly found they haven't really met our needs." Nelson pointed out that Indigenous people are now employed only in the lowest positions at Whistler as dishwashers and room maids. He fears that Sutikalh will turn into another Whistler – creating an irreversible corridor deep into their territory and setting a precedent for more abuse of Indigenous lands. "When we first heard about Sutikalh we didn't want it because we're still absorbing the impact of Whistler." |
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| A Peace Boat participant drinking water from Melvin's Creek |
The fight became entrenched in August 2000, when the government of British Columbia granted a building permit to developers Al Raine and Nancy Greene-Raine, a former Olympic skier who was instrumental in the early development of Whistler Resort. Chief Bradley Jack, the head of the local tribal council, however, argued that this violates the Canadian constitution by giving away land without consulting the Indian nations involved. "We never gave it or sold it to them. They certainly never got the title to the country from us, neither by agreement or conquest, and none other than us could have any right to give them title." The eleven chiefs of the St'at'imc territory banded together to issue a statement supporting the peace camp. When the Lil’wat Nation held a referendum on the Cayoosh Ski Resort, 85 percent of the population voted “No.” |
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| Rosalin Sam showing a group the area's development plans |
In 2003, Vancouver’s Olympic Bid Committee, of which Greene-Raine was a powerful board member, was awarded the 2010 winter Olympic Games, creating a lucrative incentive for finalizing the development of Sutikalh. Rosalin Sam, a spokesperson for the St'at'imc Nation, said the government is also pouring money into construction projects across British Columbia. In preparation for the Olympic Games, a $660 million highway is being built that will cut 20 minutes off the trip between Vancouver and Whistler. "Sure lots of people from around the world come to ski at Whistler and enjoy it. But that's not what we want for us." Sam said the bid committee picked a few development-friendly leaders to give them legitimacy, rather than consulting with all the people who will be affected by the Games. "It's so hard, because other Indians have this carrot dangling in front of them and that makes our job more difficult." |
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| Hubert Jim standing in front of the proposed area of Cayoosh Ski Resort |
Hubert Jim, a long-time Indigenous land rights advocate, has lived at the peace camp for four years, riding out harsh winters with temperatures sinking below minus 70 Celsius. Jim said the peace camp buildings have been shot at by hunters, set on fire and vandalized, while its members have been arrested and beaten up by the police. "I'm getting guns pointed at me and shot at. It makes me want to fight. But that's what they want, [as well as an] excuse to come in here and break us up."
According to Sam, natives have been coming to Sutikalh for millennia from two weeks to two years for spiritual training as well as to look for natural medicine. She said the planned resort destroys the land and benefits only those who do not live there. "They take everything and leave nothing behind. But we take what we need and then move along. That's why this land means so much to us." Sam said she would rather bring people to see and feel what Sutikalh means to the people living there, then argue with them in court. "As a mother and grandmother, it's my duty to save the land for the next seven generations." |
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| Bones from a salmon dragged into the forest by a black bear |
Other Indigenous nations have supported the camp to stop this trend from spilling into their territories. William Ignace, a Shuswap Nation elder, lives a few hours northeast of Sutikalh and is fighting against the expansion of Sun Peaks, another ski resort that Greene-Raine helped develop and where she currently runs a hotel with her husband. Ignace supports the peace camp, hoping it will send a message." This camp shows we're not sleeping on our rights – that we're living on our land." Because of the money involved, Sam said it was easy to sign off on the development application, which greatly underestimates the damage the planned 76 cut blocks of trees will cause. The application also denies the existence of mountain goats or grizzly bears, despite the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks (MELP) identification of the Cayoosh Range as a "hotspot" of mountain goats. According to MELP, the ski resort may reduce the goat herds by about one third, as well as creating a permanent displacement of grizzly bears.
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| A Peace Boat participant taking a closer look at an estken pit |
Indigenous people in Sutikalh also have to deal with other intrusions into their land, such as motorcycle racers who come up to race in the area, the sound of their roaring engines echoing off the mountain walls. In a forest an hour away from Sutikalh, Nelson weaves between old-growth trees, pointing out a faint depression in the ground ten feet across and filled with moss. "This is all the garbage our people left behind," he said, explaining that the flat area around the local river is filled with the remains of hundreds of such estkens, or pit houses. Until a few decades ago countless numbers of these pits disappeared under logging and development. Nelson said that up until just 40 years ago his people had free range of their land, with his ancestors living semi-nomadic lives, making ingenious use of the environment and seasonal changes to sustain themselves. "It shows that our people needed this land to live a full and healthy life. It's hard to keep your culture when it's compressed down into a small space," said Nelson with wry smile. "The forest was our Safeway supermarket." |
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| A Japanese participant greeting the dawn near Nelson's house |
Nelson sees the resort as pushing further development as progress, blinded by the destruction it does to the land and the area’s culture. "This system is not even sustainable. The earth keeps shrinking and we keep producing garbage." Guiding a group from Peace Boat around the Lil'wat Nation's territory and their traditional fishing camp, Nelson reminded them that outsiders need to be aware of the impact they are having on other people and land. Because Whistler was developed with the backing of a Japanese company called Okubo, Nelson told the group of mostly Japanese participants that they are in a unique position to speak out. Tending the fire back at the peace camp, Jim agreed that many people don't have the chance to see such destructive progress firsthand. "I though we were the smart animals but we're killing our mother. For hundreds of millions of years the dinosaurs were living - coexisting. But humans have been around for only a few million years and the earth is dying," Jim said. "I traveled a lot when I was young. But now I never want to leave this land. Everything I need is here." |
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Resources
Lil'wat Nation –
www.collections.ic.gc.ca/lilwat
SPEC website – www.spec.bc.ca/
Environmental Assessment Office – www.eao.gov.bc.ca
The Olympics Land Grab – www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles7/Klein_Olympics.htm
Nancy Greene Raine Site – www.nancygreene.com
To visit the peace camp or for more information about Sutikalh, please contact
Rosalin Sam:
sutikalh2003[a]telus.net
For more information about Lil'wat Nation please contact
Alvin Nelson:
nelsonam@telus.net
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