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NEWS RELEASE about SolidarityIndigenousEnvironment posted on December 3, 2010 by SandraCuffe
Save the Fraser Declaration
Dozens of First Nations declare they will not allow Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines to cross their territories
Text of Save the Fraser Declaration. Source: http://savethefraser.ca
Signatures to the Save the Fraser Declaration. Source: http//savethefraser.ca
WE THE UNDERSIGNED INDIGENOUS NATIONS OF THE FRASER RIVER WATERSHED DECLARE:
We have inhabited and governed our territories within the Fraser watershed, according to our laws and traditions, since time immemorial. Our relationship with the watershed is ancient and profound, and our inherent Title and Rights and legal authority over these lands and waters have never been relinquished through treaty or war.
Water is life for our peoples and for all living things that depend on it. The Fraser River and its tributaries are our lifeline.
A threat to the Fraser and its headwaters is a threat to all who depend on its health. We will not allow our fish, animals, plants, people and ways of life to be placed at risk.
We have come together to protect these lands and waters from a grave threat: the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines project. This project which would link the Tar Sands to Asia through our territories and the headwaters of this great river, and the federal process to approve it, violate our laws, traditions, values and our inherent rights as Indigenous Peoples under international law. We are united to exercise our inherent Title, Rights and responsibility to ourselves, our ancestors, our descendants and to the people of the world, to defend these lands and waters. Our laws require that we do this.
Therefore, in upholding our ancestral laws, Title, Rights and responsibilities, we declare:
We will not allow the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines, or similar Tar Sands projects, to cross our lands, territories and watersheds, or the ocean migration routes of Fraser River salmon.
We are adament and resolved in this declaration, made according to our Indigenous laws and authority. We call on all who would place our lands and waters at risk - we have suffered enough, we will protect our watersheds, and we will not tolerate this great threat to us all and to all future generations.
Declared at T'exelc (Williams Lake), Secwepemc Territory, and Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories, and affirmed by the following Indigenous nations:
(To see the 55 signatures and the Indigenous Nations they represent, see the original Declaration online here. To view the newspaper ad based on the Declaration, or to download Press Materials, see the Save the Fraser website.)
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Comments
Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines' response to the Declaration
Enbridge was pretty quick to respond to the Save the Fraser Gathering of Nations' publication of a full page ad in the Globe and Mail and other papers with this response posted on the company blog on December 2nd.
I have heard that Enbridge also published their response in the Globe and Mail today, but haven't seen it myself.
This phrase is particularly awesome: "Yesterday and today some groups have spoken out against the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project. The Northern Gateway team wants to assure you that these people do not speak for everybody."
Everybody? No. Dozens of sovereign First Nations? Yes.