The Lheidli T'enneh First Nation is opposing a plan by the Idle No More movement to hold a Canada Day protest in Fort George Park.
"The Lheidli T'enneh Nation chief and council outright disapprove this action," said a letter issued Monday by chief Dominic Frederick. "There will not be any protests or protesters on our sacred burial lands at Lheidli T'enneh Indian Reserve No.1, adjacent to Fort George Park."
The letter goes on to state that "the RCMP has already been advised, and will use any force necessary to remove any protesters at our burial lands. Please respect our wishes and our traditional territory."
Several attempts to reach Frederick were unsuccessful.
Lheidli T'enneh ouncillor Jennifer Pighin said the issue was discussed among the council and she is in agreement with Frederick that an event resembling a protest is not appropriate near the burial grounds or without a prior community discussion.
She stressed, however, that no opposition action was planned by council.
"I applaud people for standing up for what they believe in, and being active," she said. "This process has shown a lack of respect. They asked us for our blessing and were told no, and they are choosing to go ahead and do it anyway, which is their right. We are simply expressing that they do not have our blessing. They certainly have the right to be in the park."
An email exchange between Frederick and principal Idle No More organizer Steven Kakinoosit clearly shows the chief's disdain for the event at the park, but also makes it clear the refusal applied only to obtaining no sanctioned support from him or council.
Kakinoosit called the email exchange disrespectful to him personally because Frederick outright dismissed his family lineage, a provocative act in First Nations culture (Kakinoosit is a Woodland Cree descendent who grew up in Prince George). He also took issue with Frederick's view that the event was a protest, and that it would compromise the burial site. Kakinoosit pledged to keep the Idle No More activities not only far from the historic graves, but also out of conflict with the thousands of people attending Canada Day celebrations in the park.
"He did not want to understand what this was about. This is a cultural gathering. This is indigenous people celebrating indigenous people and the history of that place," he said, and promised that no laws would be broken or anyone inconvenienced by the protest
"That is the single stupidest thing I have ever heard," Kakinoosit added. "You [chief and council] will let the colonizers have an event at your burial ground, but you won't let other indigenous cultures have their events at your burial ground."
The idea came first from a Lheidli T'enneh member at a previous Idle No More rally, said Kakinoosit, who simply wanted to set up his smokehouse back at the place his ancestors used to have theirs.
He dismissed the authority of the chief and council as a betrayal of First Nations traditions.
"The true leadership is elders and spiritual leaders," he said. "Everything Lheidli T'enneh is doing right now is a direct result of colonial forces who came to exploit these lands...Everything being done by this chief is contrary to our cultural teachings, our ways of governance. It is going against his higher, spiritual protocol."
