This is 'nation to nation' solidarity, says Haudenosaunee activist returning from B.C. pipeline protest
CBC
Logan Staats and Skyler Williams remember being surrounded by towering pine trees and snow-capped mountains in northern B.C. as they dipped their hands into the Wedzin Kwa (Morice River) and took a drink a week ago.
"You can drink from this river … the actual river we're protecting," said Staats, a singer and songwriter.
"The beauty around you is a constant reminder of what you're fighting for."
The two Haudenosaunee men from Six Nations of the Grand River, near Brantford, Ont., spent 10 days in British Columbia to stand in solidarity with the members of Wet'suwet'en Nation protesting a pipeline project.
They did so after Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council issued a letter on Oct. 9, voicing its support for the Wet'suwet'en demonstration.
Staats and Williams returned earlier this week, tired but inspired.
"When a nation calls our for aid and our hereditary chiefs answer that call and said they would stand behind them, there's an obligation for us to do what we can," said Williams.
Williams is also known as the spokesperson for 1492 Land Back Lane — the year-long occupation of a housing development in Caledonia, Ont., that resulted in the cancellation of the project in July.
In northern B.C., some members of Wet'suwet'en Nation are occupying a Coastal GasLink construction site.
The proposed $6.6-billion, 670-kilometre pipeline will deliver natural gas from the Dawson Creek area in northern B.C., heading west near Vanderhoof to a liquefaction facility in Kitimat. It's part of a $40-billion LNG Canada project.
The province and all 20 elected First Nations councils along the route, including Wet'suwet'en elected council, approved the construction — but Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs said the project needed their consent too.
They said elected councils are responsible for only the territory within their individual reserves, which were created through the Indian Act.
But the hereditary chiefs say they are following Wet'suwet'en law that predates colonization and the Indian Act, meaning they assert authority over the broader 22,000 square kilometres of traditional territory that the pipeline would cross.
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