Defending the Sacred, Saving the Headwaters: Tahltan Occupation and Eviction

First Nations Occupy Mining Equipment in Sacred Headwaters

by Damien Gillis - The Canadian.org

Watch this video from Beyond Boarding – a group of adventure filmmakers who have been following Tahltan Nation opposition to a proposed open pit coal mine in their territory, referred to as the Sacred Headwaters.

The Common Sense Canadian has been reporting on the growing standoff between Tahltan members and Fortune Minerals, over the company’s mining exploration activities, some 400 km northeast of Prince Rupert.

At issue is Fortune’s plan to blow the top off of Mt. Klappan – a sacred place for Tahltans – for mining anthracite coal. On August 14, a group of elders and their supporters issued the company an eviction notice, ordering it to cease its exploratory drilling operations. They proceeded to set up a resistance camp near the proposed mine site.

An emergency meeting a few days later, with Fortune Minerals CEO Robin Goad, only appears to have inflamed the situation.

On September 10, a group of a dozen or so Tahltans occupied the vicinity of Fortune’s drill rig with a peaceful picnic.

The above video includes a fascinating interchange between Tahltan language scholar Oscar Dennis and the RCMP officers who flew into the Sacred Headwaters to ask the Tahltan to abandon the drill. Dennis challenges the RCMP’s assumptions and basis for confronting the traditional title holders to the land:

Who has the right? We have the right. Our land has never been treatied – it’s been occupied…We’re not protesting – we’re resisting the colonial situation and we get confronted, while the colonizers from Ontario could sit on that drill and destroy our land, and they get no confrontation.

At the video’s conclusion, the voice of an RCMP officer can be heard saying, “We’ll maybe we’ll join you picnic.” Replies Dennis, “Join in.”

Damien Gillis is a Vancouver-based documentary filmmaker with a focus on environmental and social justice issues - especially relating to water, energy, and saving Canada's wild salmon - working with many environmental organizations in BC and around the world. He is the co-founder, along with Rafe Mair, of The Common Sense Canadian, and a board member of both the BC Environmental Network and the Haig-Brown Institute.

More articles by Damien Gillis