Okanagan Band launches road block to protect their water supply

The Okana­gan Indi­an Band (OIB) launched a “pro­tec­tive block­ade” this morn­ing, Feb­ru­ary 23, at the Okana­gan camp­site near Bouleau Lake in south­ern British Colom­bia.

A mem­ber of the greater Okana­gan Nation, the OIB say they have been left with no choice but to stop the log­ging com­pa­ny Tolko Indus­tries from endan­ger­ing their water sup­ply.

“This is not an action we took light­ly, nor is it one we com­menced with­out exhaust­ing all of our legal options,” states OIB Chief Fabi­an Alex­is, in a recent press state­ment. “How­ev­er giv­en the active col­lu­sion between the Min­istry of Forests and Tolko and the con­tin­ued indif­fer­ence of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment, we had no choice but to act…”

Since at least 2003, the OIB has been seek­ing the legal pro­tec­tion of their water, which is pro­vid­ed by the Browns Creek water­shed. The region has been exten­sive­ly logged for more than forty years; and now, the Okana­gan Peo­ple fear that any fur­ther log­ging will threat­en their health and safe­ty.

“The fact is that when our reserves were first estab­lished it was with the clear under­stand­ing that our water sup­plies would be main­tained for future gen­er­a­tions,” notes Chief Alex­is. “Instead the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment aban­doned its fidu­cia­ry oblig­a­tion and allowed the Province of British Colum­bia to sell off our water rights thus result­ing in a num­ber of fish bear­ing creeks that run through our reserve being reduced to dry gul­lies.”

“Even as these creeks ran dry the province con­tin­ued to autho­rize the indus­tri­al clear cut­ting of the water­sheds that pro­vide our drink­ing water, thus pre­sent­ing a clear threat to the safe­ty and well being of all res­i­dents both indige­nous and non-indige­nous who live on and near our reserve,” he adds.

The OIB is also con­cerned that Tolko will cause irrepara­ble harm to arche­o­log­i­cal sites scat­tered through­out the region. The Okana­gan Nation­al Alliance explains:

“The Brown’s Creek Water­shed is a sacred area of the Okana­gan peo­ple that hous­es archae­o­log­i­cal, eth­no-botan­i­cal and cul­tur­al evi­dence that has been at the heart of lit­i­ga­tion in the Wil­son case since 1999. The lit­i­ga­tion area is sub­ject to a preser­va­tion order issued by Mr. Jus­tice Sig­urd­son, enti­tling the Okana­gan Nation to pre­serve and record evi­dence per­tain­ing to Okana­gan Title. Tolko’s log­ging plans would destroy title evi­dence, dat­ing back as far as 7,500 years and extend­ing into mod­ern times, the Okana­gan Nation have com­mit­ted to ensur­ing that our tra­di­tion­al laws and gov­er­nance sys­tems are upheld for gen­er­a­tions to come. This is our respon­si­bil­i­ty and sacred duty as Syilx (Okana­gan)
Peo­ple.”

Despite the gov­ern­ments aware­ness of this, and the fact that there is ongo­ing lit­i­ga­tion con­cern­ing Abo­rig­i­nal title in the water­shed, on Jan­u­ary 11, the British Colom­bia Supreme Court gave Tolko Indus­tries per­mis­sion to com­mence log­ging in eight sep­a­rate “cutl­bocks”.

Com­ment­ing on the deci­sion, Grand Chief Stew­art Phillip of the Okana­gan Nation Alliance stat­ed that, “the Courts failed to deal with the pro­pri­etary nature of Abo­rig­i­nal Title to the lands and resources with­in the ter­ri­to­ry;” and, that, as a result of the rul­ing, “third par­ty inter­ests are pro­tect­ed at the expense of the community’s drink­ing water, archae­o­log­i­cal his­to­ry and their con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly pro­tect­ed rights.”

Fol­low­ing this, on Feb. 20, the OIB held an emer­gency meet­ing to dis­cuss their options. As a result of the meet­ing, Elders and band mem­bers unan­i­mous­ly agreed to estab­lish check-points on West­side Road, which Tolko has been using with­out the OIB’s per­mis­sion. They also agreed to estab­lish a pro­tec­tive block­ade in the water­shed.

With the block­ade now ongo­ing, Chief Alex­is today declared a full mora­to­ri­um on all log­ging in the water­shed, stat­ing that “no com­mer­cial log­ging will be per­mit­ted in these areas until fur­ther notice.”

“Final­ly, in order to avoid any fur­ther repeat or esca­la­tion of this con­flict we would also advise the Province of British Colum­bia to stop issu­ing cut­ting per­mits in areas where their title to the land is in dis­pute and is still a mat­ter to be resolved by the courts,” Chief Alex­is con­cludes.

What You Can Do

Chief Alex­is is ask­ing peo­ple to call their local MLAs and MPs to express their sup­port for the OIB.

Sup­port­ers are also encour­age to attend the block­ade in per­son. If you’re in the area, a ride can pos­si­bly be arranged by con­tact­ing the Okana­gan Indi­an Band Ter­ri­to­r­i­al Stew­ard­ship Office at (250) 542‑7132.

For more infor­ma­tion please con­tact: Chief Fabi­an Alex­is cell (250) 306‑2838, phone (250) 542‑4328 or Sher­ry Louis, Exec­u­tive Assis­tant Okana­gan Indi­an Band – 12420 West­side Road, Ver­non, BC, V1H 2A4 – okibcouncil@okanagan.org – PH: 250.542.4328 FAX: 250.542.4990