Totem represents fight against further oil sands development

“Our actions are for everybody, unlike this government of Canada,” said Rueben George, to a small but passionate crowd gathered on the steps of the Alberta Legislature on Sept. 5.

George, of the Tsleil Waututh Nation, is head of the Kinder Morgan Sacred Trust, which is leading the battle against the oil company’s proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

Members of the Tsleil Waututh Nation accompanied Lummi Nation Elder and master carver Jewell James on his trip from Washington State to Beaver Lake Cree Nation, where a totem pole carved by James was erected as a symbol of solidarity in the community’s struggle against oil sands development.

The group’s stop in Edmonton came one day after the National Energy Board concluded its first Aboriginal oral traditional evidence gathering in its hearings to make recommendations on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

Oral presentations were made between Aug. 27 and Sept. 4 by the Samson Cree, O’Chiese, Sunchild, and Michel First Nations, along with the Gunn Metis Settlement. NEB heard that the proposed pipeline construction in the Alberta portion would occur close to Aboriginal homes, as well as cross waterways, ceremonial grounds, and possible burial sites.

Presenters also made it clear that boundaries, which marked their lands and reserves, were artificial. They talked about how they once gathered medicines, hunted, fished, and camped in areas that are no longer available to them because the lands have been impacted by industry or now sit as private property.

They talked about how their people were buried where they died and there was concern that construction could unearth graves. They talked about their spiritual connection to the land and about advocating for the fish and the wildlife, about leaving something good to pass on to the next generation.

The $5.4-billion Trans Mountain Expansion project would roughly triple the capacity of an existing oil pipeline between Strathcona County in Alberta, and a Burnaby, B.C., marine terminal to 890,000 barrels per day.

Approximately 994 km of new pipeline will be built and 193 km of pipeline reactivated. Twenty new tanks will be added to existing storage terminals. The proposed new pipeline will carry heavier oils. The Trans Mountain pipeline first began operating in 1953 and since then has seen a number of expansions.

The protest on the steps of the Legislature also singled out Enbridge and Keystone. Enbridge’s $6.5 million Northern Gateway Pipeline, which will see crude oil transported from Bruderheim, in Alberta, to an expanded terminal in Kitimat, BC, was approved but subject to over 200 conditions.

TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline will cover a 1,897 km route from Hardisty, AB, west and south to the Gulf Coast and is awaiting U.S. approval. TransCanada is also seeking regulatory approval for its $12 billion Energy East oil pipeline, which is expected to transport 1.1 million barrels a day of crude oil from Alberta to the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John.

“These owners of the pipelines and this government are too dysfunctional, something is wrong with their mind. They can’t even see the spirit … that we’re carrying in the totem pole or in the water or in the land. They can’t see it. They’re too dysfunctional because what they see is money, what they see is greed, what they see is power … they can’t even make good choices for their own children, for their own baby,” said George. “Because they’re too dysfunctional to do it for (their own children), we will. We will stand up. We will do it together. We will commit together.”

The totem pole, which has travelled nearly 8,000 km, is a symbol of that commitment. The pole was hauled by flatbed truck through northwestern Washington to Alberta via Idaho, Montana, South Dakota and BC.

“The people here, how we all come here together, is a reminder that the work that we do has never been about the environment or the economy. When people make it about that then they too are part of the problem,” said Crystal Lameman of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation. “It has and always will be about the health and longevity of Mother Earth, the integrity of our people, our right to a sovereign nation, our right to free, prior and informed consent.”

The NEB is scheduled to hear more Aboriginal oral traditional evidence in BC, with hearings scheduled in Chilliwack (Oct. 16 to Oct. 24), Kamloops (Nov. 13 to Nov. 20), and Victoria (Nov. 24 to Nov. 28).