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Under ‘Anuc niwh’it’en (Wet’suwet’en law and system of

government) all five hereditary chiefs of the five clans of the
Wet’suwet’en nation are openly opposed to the TransCanada
liquefied natural gas pipeline that will be built through their
territory.

The Wet’suwet’en, which is made up of five clans,
never signed a treaty ceding their land to the government of
Canada and they retain control of who enters it.

The structure of the Wet’suwet’en traditional
system of government is built around the decisions of their
hereditary chiefs who were never consulted, rather than
their elected municipal leaders who were consulted instead.
In the 1997 landmark case, the Delgamuukw v British
Columbia case, which covers part of the Wet’suwet’en territory,
previously found that the We’suwet’en people as represented
by their hereditary leaders retained indigenous rights to their

historical territory, and these were not to be “extinguished”

by lack of a treaty.

However, in a reversal of precedent the RCMP have
obtained a court injunction to forcibly clear an access point
for construction crews to move into the territory. Currently
police have set up an “exclusionary zone” to prevent access
to the area — and have told those trying to access the roads
they face arrest if they attempt to enter. With residents being
barred from entering their traditional homes.

The RCMP’s actions granted by this court injunction is
a siege on violation of the United Nations Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, is an extension of the
genocide that the Wet’suwet’en and have survived since
contact, and a siege on a peaceful demonstration of free
speech regarding resource projects they say they never con-
sented to.

The past two years have been a turbulent time

for indigenous rights. Last year, in February, a

farmer named Gerald Stanley was acquitted by an

all-white jury in the murder of Colten Boushie, a young Cree

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