by Matt Robesch

The Free Press

When members of the Nuxalk Nation walked out of a British Columbia Supreme Court proceeding on December 5, 1995 (see WFP Issue 20), the issue at stake, in their minds, was not whether the 19 people on trial that day were guilty of blocking logging trucks encroaching upon their land. Nuxalk Hereditary Chiefs and members of the Forest Action Network (FAN) left the courtroom that day in protest of being treated as criminals at all. The Nuxalk have always contended they are a sovereign nation and should be treated diplomatically rather than criminally.

When the Supreme Court Justice was asked to come forth with papers showing when the Nuxalk people had given their land to the Canadian government, he was unable to do so. Despite this, Canadian officials rescheduled court dates and changed bench warrants to criminal warrants when the suspects failed to appear at their new trials. At the same time, Nuxalk Hereditary Chiefs Lawrence Pootlass, Ed Moody and Charlie Nelson traveled through Canada and the United States giving public presentations about their plight.

"Politically, we've been asking for a mediation process to happen. [B.C. and Canadian] officials continually try to make it a law enforcement issue when it's actually a political, environmental and human issue," Hereditary Chief Moody told an audience at the UW's Kane Hall in April. "It's a fight between two cultures, two economies."

Charlie Nelson, at 25, the youngest of the Nuxalk Hereditary Chiefs, compared the two nations by international standards: "Under international law we are recognized as a nation. We meet all of the criteria: We have our own religion, land base, language, governing system, and our own people. The Canadian government does not have its own language, or religion. It does not have its own people. It doesn't even have its own governing system... Canada's still working on its Constitution."

Fourteen of the original nineteen arrestees were apprehended on March 21, 1996, held in jail for eight days and released pending a new trial. The remaining fugitives, including Hereditary Chiefs, were rounded up on May 8. They were not allowed to retrieve their official Nuxalk regalia (headdresses and robes) which they had worn during all other encounters with Canadian officials. All arrests were made on the Nuxalk reserve, a one square mile plot of land the Canadian government does recognize as sovereign.

Nuxalk officials maintain the Hereditary Chiefs were poorly treated, chained at the waist, and transported via back roads, under high security (including several vehicle switches) to Williams Lake where they were held in a tiny cell. At the point of arrest and after, police would not reveal where the chiefs were being taken. Phone calls made by Nuxalk staffers to Canadian officials did not reveal where the Hereditary Chiefs were being held. As no one knew where the arrestees were, it's not surprising no reporters were present to cover the event.

The distinction between Hereditary Chiefs and official tribal leaders is an important one. Hereditary chiefs consider themselves the voice of Nuxalk tradition. The official governing body of the tribe is actually the Nuxalk Tribal Council, which is comprised of 11 members elected by the Nuxalk people. On the current council there is much debate over supporting the Hereditary Chiefs' recent protest actions, with the 6-5 split running barely in their favor.

Some supporters of the protest believe one or more of the five council members who oppose the actions of FAN and the Hereditary Chiefs may have invited the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on to the Nuxalk reserve. Without such an invitation, the RCMP hold no jurisdiction on the reserve.

Arrestees have been released from jail and must turn themselves back in on June 13, to prepare for trial on the 17th of June.

When we last checked in with the Muckleshoot Tribe they were buckling down for what promised to be a very long court battle with the City of Seattle over who should receive the up-for-grabs land at Sand Point Naval Station (see WFP issue 5).

Though the proceedings have been moving at a glacial pace, there has been a small development in the case. The federal government has deliberately limited its involvement in the dispute, backing off and recognizing the Muckleshoot (under jurisdiction of the U.S. Interior Department) vs. City of Seattle land claim as a local dispute. In spite of Public Law 93-638, the federal law which allows federal agencies to have first dibs on the surplus land of other federal agencies, the feds feel this matter is best solved locally and has instructed the two sides to come to an arrangement with each other.

So, no longer are representatives of either party having to fly to Washington, D.C. for extensive and expensive legal wrangling. They are negotiating right here in town, but representatives from either side won't comment on what kind of deal, compromise, or total buy-out is being arranged.

We'll keep you posted on this one.

In a legal suit that went on for almost five years, the McIntyres claimed construction on Microsoft property had diminished water flow in the stream that feeds their commercial trout farm several blocks away (see WFP issue 10). Microsoft has promised to make sure all water entering the creek from their side of the stream is clean. However, an agreement in the settlement would prevent the McIntyres from suing the company should those promises fall through. The suit's second defendant, RREEF, the group that owns an apartment complex across the stream from Microsoft, has no such protection from continued litigation and may be challenged if future stream pollution is proven to come from them.

Neither side would comment on the settlement beyond the prepared statement, "Both parties find the settlement mutually satisfactory."

The McIntyres' trout-fishing business is still open. Microsoft is about to build it's thirty-second and thirty-third buildings on the property upstream. These new buildings will be closer to the McIntyre property than any of the company's previous constructions.

UPDATE: The above article was written in the summer of '96. As of Summer of 1997, the Lil' Bit O' Heaven trout farm is officially closed for business.

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Contents on this page were published in the July/August, 1996 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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