KOW II: Keeping the Peace
Fort St. John, BC, 2007
Resolution
We commit our support to work in solidarity to protect and restore the ecological integrity and environmental health of the Arctic Ocean Drainage Basin watersheds. As stewards of the many diverse and significant tributaries of our great Arctic Ocean Drainage Basin, we acknowledge that water is sacred.
We resolve that:
Clean water is a fundamental human right, and is essential for environmental, community and human health.
The Site C dam is an unacceptable proposal because it would:
Forever negatively impact First Nations residents in the region, and destroy their use of the Peace Valley,
Flood significant portions of the Peace Valley, including rare class 1 and class 2 lands, and threaten the area’s ecological integrity,
Cause downstream impacts to water quality and flow, and
Fragment wildlife habitat, impede wildlife movement and sever a vital link in the Yellowstone to Yukon landscape.
We are concerned about the state of water across our country and around the globe. We support the development of a grassroots watershed plan for the Arctic Ocean Drainage Basin, bringing together First Nations, local citizens and community groups.
Excessive misuse of the Arctic Ocean Drainage Basin - tar sands, oil and gas development, deforestation/ unsustainable logging, nuclear plants, coal and hydroelectricity, etc., among other threats - is resulting in unsustainable industrial development with cumulative impacts. It is time to change this.
We are committed to building a coalition of Keepers of the Water, and creating our own Keepers groups - Keepers of the Peace, Slave, Athabasca, Liard, Hay, and Mackenzie - all the tributaries of the Arctic Ocean Drainage Basin. It is our hope that this will feed into a Canada-wide Keepers of the Water alliance.
Elders’ Resolution
As stewards, we the Elders at the Keepers of the Water II: Keeping the Peace conference, recognize and affirm the resolutions from the Elders at Thebacha (August 20, 2007; see Appendices 2-4). We acknowledge that the United Nations (2003) has recognized that water is sacred and there is a human right to safe drinking water. We are convinced that our Leadership has heard our words in the past, that we are saying again that water is important, and that our resolutions are to be taken seriously. We are going to the people to carry our message about the water, about our rights to clean and safe water.
In some places in our traditional lands, we see animals and fish that are sick. We see this, we report this and the government does not listen to us. The Pine Beetles are killing our forests and there are problems from that (more wind, water runs out without growing forests).
In our communities, there is hardship. When our younger people are not taught our traditions, we are becoming dependent and becoming spoiled, we are no longer disciplined in our lives. Money is taking over our lives, changing our values and undermining our values toward one another.
Chemical water treatment is not the answer. Safe and secure drinking water is an essential human right, and we have the right to ensure treatment measures are natural and meet First Nations standards for being healthy. All water is sacred and has a spirit. We as First Nations know that we share that with all of life and we know how to respect and care for this spirit.
Together we are strong. Chiefs should be chosen with care and work with us as Elders. We stress that our leadership must lead by example. Accountability is to our peoples; to our traditional lands and waters.
Talk to youth about what is going on today, what we see here today. We as elders know that our children and grandchildren are interested and we must talk to them now as we know it is the way we learned as children. We know as Elders that we set examples for our youth, that we must guide our Chiefs to be effective and caring leaders. We need our youth to learn and be well educated in our traditions and in many things for the future to ensure our inherent rights as nations.
First Nations must ensure effective discussions with the governments for the respectful implementation of Treaties, in protection of water. All Provincial governments (Ministers) must be made aware of inherent Treaty and Aboriginal rights. Water was never negotiable. We never gave up those things that we are as a people, including our lands and waters. We will never forget this nor will we abrogate these rights. The Honour of the Crown must be upheld when it comes to water.
Working in unity, we hereby inform our First Nations leadership of Treaty 8 and other treaties working together as Indigenous peoples that we are working for the collective good on water.
We commit here today to go back to our communities and start the process to work on protecting our water as an Elders group, to put this process into action including at our communities. We will commit to ensure BCRs and Tribal Council resolutions are put in place. That these actions will be brought into operations by the Dene Tha Keepers Gathering in 2008.
This resolution was drafted by the Elders on September 27, 2007 in Fort St. John, as gathered at the Keepers of the Water II, accepted by the Elders gathered at the Bear Flats (September 28, 2007) and read to the Conference of the Whole (September 29, 2007).