Are indigenous People Giving Up Too Much of Their Land?

Written by: Sasha Ball

Photo credit: Jake Flatley

        When it comes to small indigenous groups, battles to keep their land from construction and the government are never very few and far between. For many of these groups, construction, oil pipelines and logging have threatened a large portion of these bio diverse lands that have been protected by the indigenous peoples for years. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the world is losing 18 million acres of these forests, equating to 27 soccer fields every minute. Indigenous peoples rights to their land continue to be an uphill battle even in recent news.
        The Wet’suwet’en people are a first nations indigenous people living on the Bulkley River in the northwestern Central Interior of British Columbia. Their name, Wet'suwet'en, means "People of the Wa Dzun Kwuh River”, otherwise known as the Bulkley River.
         As of friday, January 11th of 2020, 14 indiounous peoples were arrested for protesting pipeline construction through their land. The past few months have been filled with tension as large scale energy companies have been constructing on indigenous lands fueling outrage for the British Columbia government.
        While some chiefs along the TransCanada line have signed agreements, a portion of chiefs as well as the people oppose the plan refusing to give up their land to construction.
        As of March, protests continue to stay strong. In a recent protest inside and outside of the TC Energy/old Columbia Gas building in Charleston, the Wet’suwet’en people and Appalachians Against Pipelines, of otherwise known as the APP, stood in protest for more than three hours where over 100 people blocked elevators and the main entrance, ceasing production inside the building. Dozens of law enforcement from Charleston, Nitro, West Virginia State Police, St. Albans, and the Kanawha County Sheriff’s office came but no arrests were made.
        As protests continue and compromises are made, we keep seeing these same issues repeat through history.
        In recent news Hawian people are fighting to keep a dormant volcano from being constructed into a telescope. In 2017, the Dakota Access pipeline was protested and made headlines around the world. Indigenous peoples in Alaska are fighting everyday to save their land as well as the largest United States national forests.
        Though the Native American and indigenous peoples continue to face these issues and compromise their land, the government continues to take advantage and look past these oppressed people.
        On the other side of the argument we have companies and economic growth that is being negatively impacted due to historical lands and peoples. According to Gordon Christie, a scholar of indigenous law at the University of British Columbia, very few groups of indigenous people ever signed treaties or deals for land with colonial authorities. This means that the federal government is still in authority of their land, this being the Wet’suwet’en people.
        In Hawaii the TMT telescope would be a huge accomplishment as well as a step towards more knowledge about space, planets, other galaxies and astronomy that scientists have been hoping and striving to learn about.
        At this point what is more important, preserving the indigenous peoples history, their sacred land and the environment or making improvements to the energy plants and modern societal accomplishments? The answers lie in the people that you ask. Debats have been sparked and conversations are being made.

Sources:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/new-front-emerges-battle-build-giant-telesco pe-hawaii

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet%CA%BCsuwet%CA%BCen

https://www.businessinsider.com/native-americans-fight-for-environment-and-their-cultu re-2019-9

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/11/canada-pipeline-indigenous-trudeau-tre aty

http://wvmetronews.com/2020/03/09/pipeline-protestors-try-to-stop-work-at-transcanadabuilding-in-charleston/