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

Tags: Alberta tar sands, Art Sterritt, BP, British Columbia, British Petroleum, buffalo post, Coatal First Nations, Enbridge, Enbridge Energy Partners LP, First Nations, Gerald Amox, Gulf oil spill, Gwen Florio, Kalamazoo oil spill, Kalamazoo River, Native American news, Northern Gateway

As we move into the summer wildlife season, this story from the Toronto Globe and Mail is not exactly reassuring.

The head of the First Nations Forestry Council says there’s not enough money to clear brush around some remote aboriginal communities, despite the fact that British Columbia has just finished a $400 million commitment to deal with pine beetle-infested trees.

“It is completely frustrating that there is such a lack of resources,” Keith Atkinson tells the paper’s Wendy Stueck. “We were all on the edge of our seats last year as fires burned extremely close to communities. We just snuck through.” As Stueck writes:

Several native communities were among those evacuated or placed on evacuation alert in 2009, when hot, dry conditions created perfect wildfire conditions and helped push the provincial firefighting budget to a record-breaking $403-million.

The FNFC, formed in 2006 in response to a mountain pine beetle outbreak sweeping the province, identified fuel management as one of seven key initiatives for the group. Fuel management involves clearing brush and timber around homes and communities. Such precautions are considered especially important in areas where the pine beetle infestation has resulted in vast stretches of dead or dying trees.

The FNFC estimates less than 5 percent of the necessary fuel-reduction work has been done.

“It’s not a problem that’s going to be fixed overnight. Fuel builds up over many, many years,” says Brent Langlois, special operations co-ordinator for B.C.’s First Nations’ Emergency Services Society.

About half the 201 aboriginal communities in British Columbia have been hit by the pine beetle outbreak, which kills trees, leaving them dry and tindery, perfect fuel for fires.

Gwen Florio

Tags: aboriginal, British Columbia, buffalo post, First Nations, First Nations Forestry Council, First Nations’ Emergency Services Society, Gwen Florio, Native American news, pine beetle, wildfires

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

Tags: Alberta oil sands, Art Sterritt, BP, British Columbia, Coastal First Nations, Enbridge, Gerald Amos, Great Bear Rainforest, Gulf of Mexico, Haida Gwaii, Kitimat, Northern Gateway Pipeline, oil spill

Kyi-Yo powwow at the University of Montana
It’s the longest-running student powwow in the country. The Kyi-Yo Pow Wow is going on this weekend at the University of Montana, and as usual, it’s a cultural and visual feast. “For us, this is life. There is no reconnection to the past for us. You might see it that way, but this is the life that we live,” Billy Wadsworth, lead singer of a Blood drum circle, tells the Missoulian’s Michael Moore, here.

Tobacco giant Philip Morris funds anti-Native cigarette campaign
The huge Philip Morris tobacco company has begun an extensive ad campaign urging New York state to collect taxes on cigarettes sold in Indian reservations. This story by Indian Country Today details those efforts, involving full-page newspaper ads and a website, collectthetaxny.com.

First Nations community kicks out drug, alcohol abusers
The hereditary chiefs of Ahousaht, a First Nations community on Flores Island in British Columbia, have banished a dozen drug and alcohol abusers, the Vancouver Sun reports here. The chiefs said the wrenching decision was made after many warnings, and that the 12 can’t return until they’ve sought help.

Judge halts election of new Navajo Council
Although Navajo Nation voters decided in December to reduce the size of the council from 88 to 24 members, candidates filed for 88 seats. So, according to the Navajo Times, a judge has issued a temporary restraining order to stop the election from going forward until the issue can be resolved.

Group seeks Alaska Native center in downtown Anchorage
A nonprofit called Sobermiut is trying to create an Alaska Native community center in Anchorage, according to the Anchorage Daily News. The idea is to put Native kids in touch with elders, in a setting that mirrors the dynamic found in traditional communities.

Billy Mills back in Kansas with scholarships for Native students
Billy Mills, who won Olympic gold in the 10,000-meter run in 1964, was back in Kansas last week to give out scholarships to Native students. Mills was born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, went to the Haskell Indian School in Kansas after being orphaned, and the rest, as they say, is history. But even after his Olympic glory, he faced discrimination. Read about his talks with students in the Kansas City Star.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Ahousaht, Alaska Native, Alcohol abuse, Anchorage, Billy Mills, British Columbia, buffalo post, drug abuse, First Nations, Flores Island, Gwen Florio, Haskell Indian School, Kyi-Yo Pow Wow, Mohawk, Native American news, Navajo Nation, Philip Morris, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Seneca, Sobermuit, University of Montana

How cool is this?

Steven Point, British Columbia’s first aboriginal lieutenant govdenror, is carving a piece of red cedar into an inland river canoe. He wants to launch it this month, and then donate it back to the people of the province as an example of a First Nations canoe, the Times Colonist of British Columbia reports here:

The launch ceremony will mark the culmination of hundreds of hours of work since Point, 58, found the old block of cedar while walking on Ross Bay beach last November.

The ends of the log had already been shaped into points and it looked like someone had tried to carve it, said Point. His brother, an experienced carver, pegged the wood at between 500 and 800 years old, meaning the work could have started before Christopher Columbus discovered the so-called New World.

He’s being mentored in his work by First Nations master carver Tony Hunt Sr., who carves both totem poles and seafaring canoes.

“What I believe is that you’re guided, and when things come in and out of your life you should pay attention, because something good could happen,” Point tells the paper’s Rob Shaw.

In addition to his provincial post, Point has been chief of the Skowkale First Nation and tribal chairman of the Sto:lo Nation.

He’s named the canoe Shxwtitöstel, which means a safe place to cross the river – a metaphor for between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people.

Gwen Florio

Tags: British Columbia, buffalo post, First Nations, Lt. Gov. Steven Point, Native American news, Native art, Skowkale First Nation, Sto:lo Nation, Tony Hunt