War in the Woods flares up at Elk Creek

The First Nation Cheam Band allowed RAN, ForestEthics, and other groups in Canada to bring 50 plus activists onto their territory so we could teach new activists the strategies and tactics for protecting forests in Canada. Now, weeks later, the Cheam need our help to stop the logging in their own traditional territory. Please take a moment to send a message, send a check, or make a phone call - whatever you can do to help. We're so much stronger together in this movement!

In struggle,

Sharon, RAN
_______________________________________________________

Logging and Ski Resort Development Threaten Pilalt Territory
(see further below for background information)

Efforts to protect the mountains and forests continue here at Cheam. Last
night at a 'consultation' meeting the people from Resorts West were told, in
no uncertain terms, that the people of Cheam will not tolerate any
development on our mountains.


YOUR HELP IS NEEDED

In response to June Quipp's press release regarding the development of Mt.
Cheam, we have been asked what one can do to help. Here are some
suggestions of possible help:

- Financial support is needed, as we are working with a zero balance budget.
Donations will be accepted at Royal Bank #23 6014 Vedder Rd. Chilliwack,
V2R 5M4 transit 1420 Account # 5000971
- People power with any direct action necessary to stop the development of
the mountains and surrounding foothills.
- People power to help build some cabins on the mountains to assist us in
reclaiming our territory.
- Tools and knowledge required to build cabins.
- Non perishable food
- Research and expose Catermole Timber, and Resorts West
- Help to educate and inform yourself and others. Read the background
information below and Check out these web sites:
- http://www.elkcreekrainforest.org
- http://www.wildernesscommittee.org
- http://www.elpmedia.com.offline/resorts


CONACTS:

June Quipp @ 604 794-5715, junequipp [at] hotmail.com from Cheam
Gabrielle Friesen @ 604 823-6454 and Mr. C Marvin 604 794-7454 from Elk
Creek Conservation
Joe Foy - Western Canada Wilderness Committee (604) 880-2580

Letters can be written to:

Resorts West resortswestbc [at] yahoo.com
12473 - 71A Ave. Surrey, B.C. V3W 0T9

Cattermole Timber 420-1055 Hastings St. W
Vancouver BC
(604) 685-7200

Robert Nault Fax No. (819) 953-4941
Minister of Indian Affairs

David Anderson
Minister of the Environment 10 Wellington St., 28th Floor
Hull, Quebec, K1A 0H3
(819) 997-1441
(819) 953-3457 (fax)
david.anderson [at] ec.gc.ca

Hon. Stan Hagen PO Box 9054
Minister Sustainable Stn PROV GOVT
Resource Management Victoria BC V8W 9E2
Fax: 250 356-8273

Mr. Kerry Grozier 46360 Airport Rd.
Ministry of Forests Chilliwack BC V2P 1A5
Chilliwack Forest District Fax: 604 702-5711

Mr. Brian Clark
Regional Manager, 2nd flr, 10470 152nd St.
Environmental Stewardship Surrey, BC V3R 0Y3
Ministry of Water, Land & Fax: 604 582-5380
Air Protection

Mr. Barry Penner #105-8615 Young Road
MLA Chilliwack BC V2P 4P3
Fax: 604 702-5205

Mayor Clint Hames and 8550 Young Road
Councilors Chilliwack BC V2P 8A4
Fax: 604 795-8443

See also http://www.elkcreekconservation.org and http://www.wildernesscommittee.com where
sample letters can be found



SAVE THE MOUNTAINS
Unceded Pilalt Territory Threatened by Development

Aboriginal Title and Self-Determination

For almost 50 years members of the Cheam First Nations have been trying to
convince various levels of government to settle outstanding land claims.
Many people do not realize that prior to that it was illegal for aboriginals
to lay claim to any of our ancestral lands. Our rights and our land were
taken from us. Since 1953 we have been patiently and peacefully trying to
find a solution.

As Indigenous people, we have inherent rights to our traditional
territories, including the whole circle of life, from the trees, to the
water, the fish and the animals. Our rights stem from our use and possession
of the land as warranted in our own legal and social systems since time
immemorial.

After long judicial struggles, the courts recognized our rights to the land
and water. The Supreme Court of Canada recognized Aboriginal Title in the
1997 Delgamuukw Decision as the collective proprietary interest indigenous
peoples hold in their traditional territories. Our rights include control of
resources sufficient to support and direct our lives and communities.

In spite of this, the provincial government of British Columbia continues to
steal our land through legislation and Cabinet decisions. While private
corporations are given privileges to log vast areas of forest, and to
commercially harvest salmon on a massive scale, they continue to ignore any
rights the Cheam people have to the land and resources that have been part
of our lives and our ancestors' long before the arrival of European
settlers. We have never ceded our territory, never signed any treaties,
never diminished our claim to our land.

The United Nations has recognized that indigenous people have the
inalienable right to self-determination, including the right to sustain and
protect their culture. As a central part of our traditional and spiritual
life, water, mountains and forests are elemental in the protection of these
rights. Yet these rights are not a priority for the Canadian government.
They have allowed our title and rights, and the knowledge about
sustainability, to be undermined by poor provincial management that bows to
corporate pressure, and international trade agreements that do not recognize
our claims to resources in the protection of our culture.

Cheam leaders, over the years, have tried in good faith to settle these
differences in a peaceful and reasonable manner, with no success. In the
meantime, the provincial government continues to take as much land as
possible, while delaying meaningful resolution of any land & resource issues
at the table. We have tried negotiations, litigation and written notices,
so far none of these tactics have worked. It does not matter what we say,
governments, and big corporations go ahead and do what they want even if it
means destroying someone else's life. No other Canadian citizen would stand
idly by while land was stolen from them. Why should we?


Over the years we at Cheam have become well know for our struggle to gain
recognition of our rights to fish for salmon on the Fraser. In addition to
this, and other ongoing struggles, we are currently facing an assault on the
Mountains that are sacred for us. Against our strong objection, logging has
already started at Elk Creek and plans for a ski resort on the mountain are
well underway. Because of the strength of our claim to aboriginal title,
our position is that our actual consent is needed for any such projects to
proceed. Our position links directly to the issues of our title to the
land, our unique relationship with the resources on our land, and our right
to determine the use of our land and resources.


Cheam Connection to the Mountains and Forests

The old-growth temperate rainforest of the Elk Creek and adjacent watersheds
is a remnant of an ecosystem that was, until fairly recently, wide-spread
throughout Pilalt Territory. Now the Elk Creek Rainforest is one of the
last remaining mostly intact examples of this forest type in the Lower
Mainland. These areas, their forests, mountains and waters, have been a
part of our Pilalt territory and culture since time immemorial. They
continue to be a source for gathering plants and berries for food and
medicinal purposes, and for hunting mountain goat, deer and elk. Our life,
and everyone else's, depends on the food and materials that come from the
land.

To this day, the mountains (including Elk, Archibald and Cheam) are used as
sacred mountains for vision questing, fasts and other spiritual practices.
Mount Cheam and the surrounding peaks also have Halq'emeylem place names
that correspond to their roles as 'transformer' sites - a key part of our
origin story - where spirits interacted with the physical world, turning
certain people and animals into stone formations. Place names in the
Halq'em