Wet’suwet’en Resistance
Amber Bracken
Wet'suwet'en have been living in balanced relationship with this glacial river as well as the salmon, the bear, moose and berries that depend on it, for at least 6000 years. The Canadian courts have recognized the territory as un-ceded—meaning Wet'suwet'en have never given it up and no treaty was ever signed.
But, while Canadian discourse speaks to "reconciliation" for 150 years of colonization, a fracked gas pipeline project, and police enforcement, threatens this ancient Wet'suwet'en relationship.
Hereditary chiefs have not consented to the pipeline, but Canada's national police enforced its construction at gunpoint.
Over 60 people have been arrested from the Wet'wuet'en territory. It is the same police force that arrested and harried modern Wet'suwet'en's ancestors onto reserves and into residential schools to clear the way for logging, mining and historical settlement.