blockades, court, and burning our bridges oh my!

NO ON SPEAKS FOR US!
IF YOU ARE IN RESISTANCE TO IMPERIAL METALS, AND ENRAGED OVER MT POLLEY YOU NEED TO READ THIS: TOFINO GROUP visit Mt Polley. I was reading in the westerly newspaper today that a local couple (non indigenous environmentalists) Dan Lewis and Bonny Glambeck who run Clayoquot Action say that they don’t think anyone is opposed to mining and that he is not opposed to mining at all if done right! On their web page it states that they should have mining “no go zones” which implies that where they live is one but anywhere else in so called canaduh is fair game, totally promoting a “NOT IN MY BACK YARD” mentality!

The Mt Polley tailings ponds disaster and Imperial Metals refusing to clean it up while the prov and fed illegal govts refuse to hold them accountable is despicable and beyond heinous, they are however an impersonal capitalist mining company and mining companies the world over have been known to destroy and kill indiscriminately for profit and to keep their pockets overflowing, we expect this from them! Our concern is with Clayoquot Action who are people and not a corporation people who call themselves environmentalists, how can you have worked and spoken with Crow, myself, and other Kuus about stopping Imperial Metals and go on to make settler privilege entitled statements about the whole of the west coast and indigenous! They don’t speak for many settlers we know out here, they most definately do not speak for Ancestral Pride, Ahousaht or Tlaoquiaht! The Tlaoquiaht are opposed to mining and have evicted workers and refuse to allow Imperial Metals any mining in their territory, read the full STATEMENT. It is an act of white settler privilege to make yourself the only and last authority of the matter, completely disregarding indigenous people in the area, the peoples who’s lands has never been surrendered or ceded to crown or canaduh. We have written a blog/zine on this and will release asap!

We believe that any mining is unsafe and absolutely must not happen! We believe that all mining must stop not just in our territory but in all of Turtle Island! The mentality that there is a right way to mining and the implication that the Mt Polley disaster was going to change the ways Imperial Metals and mining approached new tailings ponds is beyond disgusting and makes me wonder why they even bother being environmentalists with an attitude like that and why any indigenous person would work with people who presume to make blanket statements without coming into indigenous communities and asking, we definitely never heard of them coming and surveying the Ahousaht Nation on wether or not we are opposed or what we think about mining! Not cool, very disrespectful and shows their lack of shits about what the indigenous people on who’s land they squat on actually want. If you are opposed to mining and opposed to Imperial Metals and are shocked at this please drop them a LINE and let them know!

Here on our territory of the Ahousaht First Nation we have dedicated our lives to stopping imperial metals and to capacity building, we have hosted a village forum, traveled to many meetings, protests, and spoke at many gatherings and rallies, the Secwepemc Womens Warrior society and Ancestral Pride even had an altercation with police over this matter you can view photos of the run in HERE. In our village we have also spread as much awareness as we could about the dangers of an open pit mine on our sacred mountain known as catface to settlers, Chiitapi to us. This mountain is 3 km from our village of Maaqtusiis and we are concerned with tailings ponds specifically, even before the Mt Polley toxic spill. A tailings pond in a rain forest is a recipe for disaster and we will not allow this to happen. When Imperial Metals comes a knocking they will be sent packing!

The tailings pond spill mobilized the Klabona Keepers into setting up a blockade at the Imperial Meals owned Red Chris mine site after the Yuct Ne Senxiymetkwe Camp came to visit on their updates from their “Indigenous Resistance to Mt Polley” tour, we blogged about this previously HERE. After blockading and many call outs for support people to come help, donations, and an court injunction, they decided to end the blockade without arrests and are proceeding with court process. Going another route to resistance the Secwepemc Ts’ka7 Warriors burned down the access bridge to the Ruddock Creek mine site also owned by Imperial Metals in move to protect all lands and waters! We are encouraged and supportive of both actions for more info on the bridge burning read up on it HERE.

The act of burning down the bridge that gives Imperial Metals access to Ruddock Creek mine site was a good thing. The blockade at Red Chris was a good thing and we respect both nations to their right to act as they see fit to protect themselves! Who can say truly what will happen our hope is they both prevail and the mines will not go through!

As for our territory we have been working solidly on this for years, and are at a place now where we are being heard, the people are mostly in agreement that we should not mine and we are slowly but surely in the process of getting our hereditary leaders and our Chief and Council on board as well. This has been a slow process with bursts of action and yet we are happy with the progress we have made, slow steady building of resistance in our village and beyond. We look forward to being more supportive on the ground, and to contributing in our humble way with our writings and other actions!

Kleco and Chuu, In the spirit of indigenous resistance Xhopakelxhit ~ Gwaiina ~ Ancestral Pride