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Hundreds of First Nations and Metis people staged a 13-kilometer walk this weekend in what they called the first annual such event protesting development of the tar sands by Alberta.

An area the size of Florida, surrounding Fort McMurray, is being developed by several multinational oil companies in an effort to extract oil from the sands.

As Jessica Earle of CTV-Edmonton reports here:

The event, which organizers say is not a protest, was put on by Keepers of the Athabasca. Participants say the region currently occupied by Suncor and Syncrude plants used to be their prime berry-picking and hunting ground.

“Mother earth needs our help to protect and heal the land and water that is being decimated by tar sands,” said Cleo Reece, co-organizer of the walk, in a press release.

The marchers said nearby First Nations communities are suffering ill effects from the tar sands development, including high cancer rates and water pollution.

Gwen Florio

An oil spill in Michigan that’s sending oil into the Kalamazoo River has raised alarm among aboriginal leaders in Canada.

Those leaders say the 840,000-galllon spill is further evidence that British Columbia should nix a proposed pipeline from the Alberta tar sands to British Columbia, according this Canadian Press report.

Enbridge, based in Calgary, wants to build the pipeline that would end in the coastal community of Kitimat. But as Canadian Press reports:

But Enbridge’s affiliate, Enbridge Energy Partners LP of Houston, is responsible for the Michigan spill and a B.C. First Nations coalition says it’s further proof why the proposed Northern Gateway project should be scrapped.

Coastal First Nations executive director Art Sterritt says despite Enbridge’s claim that the Northern Gateway project will be a model of safety, such a spill could happen in B.C.

Sterritt is recently returned from visiting scene of the disastrous British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

And Coastal First Nations president Gerald Amos tells Canadian Press that such a spill in British Columbia would be devastating to First Nations peoples heavily dependent upon marine resources.

Gwen Florio

Members of First Nations whose reserves are in British Columbia returned from a visit to the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico more determined than ever to keep supertankers off their coast.

“Everywhere we went people told us the same thing: if you have a choice when it comes to big oil development, don’t do it. And if you do, prepare for the worst,” says Gerald Amos, a Haisla Nation counselor, in this report posted on Marketwire:

Coastal and inland First Nations in B.C. are fighting Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline, which would carry tar sands crude oil from Alberta to a tanker port at Kitimat, B.C. and bring 225 crude oil tankers per year to B.C.’s northern coastal waters.

The delegation learned of the BP spill’s impact on the Gulf Coast’s fishing economy from the president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association.

“Shrimp are to Louisiana what wild salmon are to B.C.,” said Art Sterritt, executive director of Coastal First Nations, an alliance of nine Nations from B.C.’s central and north coast. “The shrimp fishermen told us that their economy is gone, but worse than that they risk losing a huge part of their fishing culture. That’s a message that hits close to home for our people who depend so heavily on fish and seafood.”

Members of the delegation met with the United Houma Nation, whose people live on the Louisiana coast and are directly affected by the spill

“It was powerful to meet the Houma and share our experiences as indigenous people,” says Amos. “The oil spill just adds to a whole lot of other impacts on their territories. They fear this oil spill could be the straw that breaks their culture’s back.”

First Nations across Canada have been uniting to oppose more development of the tar sands. (See video above.)

Gwen Florio

Complaint filed against Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge
The Rapid City (S.D.) Journal writes here that a formal complaint has been filed against the founders of the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge after participants questioned the event’s credibility. The Journal’s Ruth Brown writes that “Some participants were upset by the fact that Red Cloud said that the riders would be warriors as part of the vision that he had. The vision claimed that 1,000 warriors would travel to seven of the sites of the biggest massacres of Native Americans in the United States and collect their dead souls.” Organizer Jim Durham of Hot Springs, S.D., also goes by the name of Jim Red Cloud.

Native American groups challenge Plains pipeline plan
Also from the Rapid City Journal, we’ve got this story about Native and environmental groups joining to fight TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, that would run from the tar sands near Hardisty, Alberta, to oil refineries in Oklahoma and Texas. Along the way, it would cross Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.

Navajo photographer documents his nation
It’s called “One Nation, One Year,” and it’s the culmination of Navajo photographer Don James’ quest to document his own nation. He spent an entire year photographing his people, driving 10,000 miles and taking more than 100,0000 photographs, according to this Associated Press story. He hopes his book will dispel stereotypes.

Lawsuit: City manager disparaged Native employees
The Commerce City, Colo., manager called Navajos “lazy” and said that keeping up “clean” appearances was not a priority for Navajo people, according to a lawsuit filed against city officials. Stephanie Salazar, who was the director of economic development in the city, told 9News, here, that City Manager Gerald Flannery made the comment to her during a meeting in November 2007. She said that when she complained, she was fired.

Have a safe and happy holiday weekend, everyone, and check back later for stories and images from the Arlee Powwow.

Gwen Florio

Here’s the story from John Miller of the Associated Press:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – The Nez Perce Tribe in north-central Idaho said Friday it doesn’t want 200 oversized loads of oilfield equipment traveling a reservation highway en route to an oil sands project in Canada.

The tribal government passed a resolution concluding the giant shipments, scheduled to move at night starting this fall along U.S. Highway 12, “would establish a dangerous and unacceptable precedent in one of the most beautiful and pristine federally protected corridors in the U.S.”

The Nez Perce also wrote that extracting petroleum from the Kearl Oil Sands in Alberta was an “environmentally destructive method … that will have profound negative impacts on the First Nations communities of Canada.”

The shipment route, starting from the Snake River port of Lewiston, follows the Lochsa and Clearwater rivers through 70 miles of the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho. The oversized loads will come over Lolo Pass and through Missoula en route to Canada.

With its resolution, the tribe joins others who fear potential environmental and safety risks from loads that could weigh up to 140 tons and be 170- to 210-feet long.

“The tribe will explore all options in terms of achieving our policy goals,” tribal attorney Mike Lopez said Friday, adding the Nez Perce haven’t considered a blockade to thwart the shipments.

“The tribe is aware that the state has a right of way though the Nez Perce Reservation,” Lopez said. “The tribe hasn’t considered pursuing that possible avenue yet.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Some of the people most affected by the massive oil sands project in Alberta are coming to Montana to help organize protests against an Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil plan that would send massive trucks through that state on their way to those oil sands.

As Marty Cobenais, an activist for the Indigenous Environmental Network tells Missoulian (Mont.) reporter Kim Briggeman here, it’s like war.

“You know the old military strategy of cutting off the supply chain?” says Cobenais:

He’s one of three people who’ll be in Missoula on Wednesday evening to present the ugly side of bitumen mining in Alberta as the “big rig” flap in western Montana shifts to a higher gear and a broader realm.

A free screening of the 75-minute documentary “H2Oil” is set for 6 p.m. at the Roxy Theater to kick off what organizers have titled “A Walk Through the Tar Sands.”

It’ll be, according to the group, “a night of firsthand accounts regarding the most destructive industrial project on the face of the planet.” Presentations will follow the film by Cobenais, of Minnesota; George Poitras, former chief of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, which is downstream from the oil fields in Alberta; and Simon Reece, a youth from Fort McMurray, Alberta, with the Fort McKay First Nation.

Other events include Saturday’s presentation on the Flathead Indian Reservation by the Grammy Award-winning Indigo Girls. They’ll be part of a panel discussion, moderated by Native American activist Winona LaDuke, that will focus on Native environmental issues. And, Eriel Deranger, who is Athabasca Chipewyan from northern Alberta, will talk about the impact of the tar sands.

The discussion, “Environmental Justice in Montana: Protecting the Land for Future Generations” starts at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Johnny Arlee/Victor Charlo Theatre at the Salish Kootenai College.

The focus on Montana comes because “Montana is considering collaborating to some degree in terms of tar sands production here … whether it’s heavy-truck hauling in Montana or pipelines that are running through their traditional lands that are coming from the tar sands,” says George Poitras.

Poitras is a former chief of the Mikisew Cree, the largest of five First Nations directly affected by tar/oil sands mining, and is traveling the world talking about the vast mining project and its effect on his people, who he says suffer unusually high rates of cancer.

Gwen Florio

Members of Canada’s First Nations put questions about Shell Oil’s involvement in the Alberta oil sands to company executives at Shell’s annual meeting, according to Rebecca Sommer’s report, here, in the Huntington News.

The Indigenous Environmental Network and Friends of the Earth Europe sponsored representatives from the Lubicon Cree First Nation, Mikisew Cree First Nation, Duncan Lake First Nation and the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation at the meeting.

“Local communities are continually bearing the brunt of the detrimental effects of Shell’s tar sands projects whether it be from toxic emissions and water contamination to the complete fragmenting and decimation of the boreal forest,” said Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a member of the Lubicon Cree First Nation and a Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner. “Tar sands development is completely altering our homelands and destroying the very foundation of who we are as Indigenous peoples.”

George Poitras, former Chief of the Mikisew Cree Nation, talked of concerns about the effect of the tar sands development on the Mikisew Nation 250 km downstream.

“Our people have inhabited Canada’s Athabasca region for thousands of years. In a short 40 years we have seen unfathomable environmental degradation coinciding with the onset of tar sands development,” he said. “We have seen the waters of the Athabasca River polluted by heavy trace metals with cancer-causing carcinogens which according to prominent scientists are up to five times worse than what is being reported.”

And, he went on to say, “Our waters and our lands are all intrinsically linked to our ability to survive, are all intrinsically linked to our ability to pass on our cultural and traditional ways of our lives. When you remove the land and pollute our waterways you are in effect causing the extinction of my people’s way of life, you are in effect causing cultural genocide of my people.”

Some First Nations have filed suit seeking to delay or stop Shell’s development in the area.

Gwen Florio

Art Sterritt, executive director of Canada’s Coastal First Nations, an alliance of 10 first nations groups on British Columbia’s North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii, and Gerald Amos, of the Coastal First Nations board of directors, penned this strongly worded opinion piece for the Vancouver Sun:

Images of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico oil carry a grim message for Canadians. The message is simple: if Enbridge brings oil tankers to British Columbia’s coast, we will wake up one day to the same kind of disaster on our own shores.

It’s a future Coastal First Nations cannot imagine. It’s a future we won’t allow to become reality.

Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline would carry the world’s dirtiest oil from the Alberta oilsands to Kitimat on the B.C. coast, to be loaded onto foreign-bound supertankers. Some 225 tankers per year would attempt to navigate the waters where a passenger ferry sank in 2006, and where last year a freighter ran aground.

Enbridge is trying to convince Canadians oil tankers are safe at a time when the oil industry has zero credibility. One has only to see photos of BP’s burning oil platform to realize the ridiculous nature of such assurances. Oil platforms are safer than oil tankers – and look what can happen to them.

As Sterritt and Amos remind readers, the Coastal First Nations are fishing people, still relying on traditional foods – wild salmon, halibut and shellfish – as a way of coping with high unemployement. “Lose this, and we lose our way of life,” they write.

Besides, they write, First Nations aren’t the only ones who’d suffer in the event of a disaster, pointing to the damage that a spill could cause British Columbia and Haida Gwaii – the Great Bear Rainforest – considered one of Canada’s greatest treasures.

Finally, they reminds readers that Coastal First Nations declared a ban on the transport of oilsands crude oil through their territories.

“It is a declaration,” they write, “we will defend by whatever means necessary.”

Enbridge? Are you listening?

Gwen Florio