“Our lands, our final say. No pipeline.” –Freda Huson, Unist’ot’en spokeperson to Enbridge.

They’re in Canada and they never ceded their pre-existing rights to their clan territory. But we’re in the U.S. and we never ceded our rights in fee simple to our own land, water, and air, nor did we approve our taxes going to clean up any sinkholes, leaks, or explosions. I can’t necessarily endorse all their tactics, but I can say beaver is tasty and I’ve found seizing equipment that is illegally trespassing to be useful in the past.

AJ+, YouTube, 5 November 2014, How To Stop An Oil And Gas Pipeline: The Unist’ot’en Camp Resistance,

Over the past four years, the Unist’ot’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en nation have literally built a strategy to keep three proposed oil and gas pipelines from crossing their land. Concerned about the environmental damage a leak could cause on land they’ve never given up, they’ve constructed a protection camp to block pipeline companies. As opposition to the development of Alberta’s tar sands and to fracking projects grows across Canada, with First Nations communities on the front lines, the Unist’ot’en camp is an example of resistance that everyone is watching.

You can see by this map that their opposition includes Spectra’s British Columbia pipeline from fracking to an LNG export terminal. That pipeline and others also connect to a Williams Company pipeline through Washington State and Oregon to more LNG export terminals. The Unist’ot’en are fighting at the source fossil fuel companies including the same ones (Williams of the Transco pipeline and Spectra of the Sabal Trail pipeline) that we are fighting here in the southeast. Click here or on the map for enlargement.

Like the Texians at Gonzales, the Georgians at Fort Morris, and the Spartans at Thermopylae, we can stop an invasion, this time by peaceful means. Come and Take It!

-jsq

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