Well ,Enbridge is going through despite the First Nations protests along side other people that are not in favour of it. I believe they did their research years ahead before they let us know that it will affect our traditional lands. The government had eyes and plans for it before we ever knew that it will come to pass. We have been put aside for more than 250 year. There was a time when we had self government through the clan system, food from the land were harvested methodically,a time people enjoyed the freedom of who they were, stories of Cheif Kwah mirrored that image. Things began to change when the Northwest Company came and they too had a plan for the precious land more so for the beaver pelts. Too.. add to that in 1842 the first Oblate came to Stuart Lake ,so came the Roman Catholic Religion with it came the Durieu System (change the hereditary men to watchmen, policemen,) They were ordered not to participate or attend any potlatches, take part in any ceremony. Slowly the system of self government deteriorated. Again to enforce more changes an oblate by the name of Father A. G. Morice was sent here he was the missionary priest who did his duties but aside from that he gained the trust of the Carrier natives and learned the language. by being a missionary he was taken to various reserves and villages along the trails and paths he noticed the forest and the lakes and rivers he actually made a map outlining what kind of trees there were etc. He may have not known how important this was to the government because when the Royal Commission came around in 1817 there of they allocated Indian Reserves and put aside the good lands and downsized the traditional lands to the Carrier people. Pre-emption it was called. There were no treaties signed with the Carrier People but the federal government stepped in and allowed us the use of traditional lands to hunt and fish but in the meantime we could not own it. Some fishing stations were delgated as reserves, a neat way for them to control us. Remember that our forefathers did not speak English but they knew what was happening some of the chiefs had travelled to Ottawa. A long story of oppression against First Natiions people there are more to this will write more next time.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 06:05:53 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015