Posts from encampment monitoring Mt. Polley spill.

Crossposted from : https://www.facebook.com/yuctnesenxiymetkwecamp?fref=nf

Yuct ne Senxiymetkwe Camp monitors the Imperial Metals Mine tailings spill. These are their updates:

Secwepemc women light the sacred fire at Yuct Ne Senxiymetkwe on August 18th 2014, 5pm. 

August 23rd: 2014:
On the 18th day after the Imperial Metals Mount Polley disaster and the 5th day of the sacred fire, camp members were visited by women from the Northern Secwepemc Xat’sull tribe the women brought supplies and warm company to the fire. They sang songs, shared stories and language and reinvigorated all those around them with a renewed sense of purpose and strength. Visitors from Nuxalk nation also stopped by and loaded up the encampment with fresh vegetables and fruit and much needed blankets for our overnight fire keepers. The day passed quickly as several local Likely residents kept camp members company, chopping wood, putting up tarps and tents and sharing stories.

At the encampment, there are now 3 tents set up and visitors and camp members grow in number very day. Camp members are in high spirits with bellies full of food and warm blankets. We welcome all visitors and donations.
August 24th, 2014:
On the 19th day after the Imperial Metals Mount Polley disaster and the 6th day of the sacred fire, camp members are busy all day. We get more and more visitors, more and more food, more and more information on what is happening here. We are building momentum, we are building solidarity, we are building a better world for our children.

The day started with a young family joining camp members at the fire, who brought wood, fresh vegetables from their garden and material to make banners for the encampment. We learn so much from these kinds of visits and are starting to get a fuller and more detailed picture of the disaster, the mine and Imperial Metals’ plan or lack thereof for cleanup.

Two Secwepemc men were on their way home from fishing and drove by the camp, and after seeing us, turned right around, came back and offered 2 large salmon for the camp.

We see more and more of our neighbours every day, local Likely residents and surrounding Secwepemc residents, who stay longer and longer and find it harder and harder to leave. Today the Thompson River University language immersion class from Xatsull (Soda Creek) made a field trip up to the camp and talked about learning the language and making drums. They shared a song they had composed in their class about the singing loons we hear at the camp every night. Several Likely residents spent the entire day at the camp, doing work and sharing food.

Chief Ann Louie from the Williams Lake Indian Band had visited two days ago and promised to resupply the sacred fire and camp with fire wood, today she sent a counselor from the band with a truckload of wood. We also had a visit from the local chapter of the Council of Canadians and a friend and organizer from the city. They brought groceries, strategized with camp members and visited Likely to see about the sediment plumes being found in Quesnel Lake.

The day ended with Doreen Manuel who will be joining the camp for a few days, delivering 30 fish sent by Elder June Quipp from Cheam and more groceries from Capilano University.

The sacred fire is calling people together, we see it happening every day. We have made arrangements for elders and children to be housed in a cabin nearby with heat and showers. We have so much food and information to share and we can’t wait to see you here.

August 25th, 2014:

On the 20th day after the Imperial Metals Mount Polley disaster and the 7th day of the sacred fire, camp members are treated to a very special feast. The day was spent preparing, feasting and reuniting with family and loved ones. Secwepemc Elder Jean Williams from T’exelc brought a spring salmon from Nuxalk, potatoes and corn and proceeded to instruct camp members on the traditional way of  cooking salmon. The food was cooked over a newly finished food pit and was more than enough for camp members and visitors.

Evelyn  Camille, Gary Billy, Stewart Dick arrived in time to eat with us from  Kamloops and Neskonlith. The meal was delicious and filled our bellies  full. While we ate, we discussed with our new arrivals the information  we had collected and made plans with them to move forward. We decided to  announce a community feast for this Thursday and invite Likely  residents as well as Secwepemc to gather around the fire to do the same  thing we did today. We have fish and food to share.

We are  gathering our data on the spill and after speaking with, among others,  an environmental technician working at the lake, are anxious to release a  report this week on all that we’ve learned.

August 26th, 2014:

On  the 21st day after the Imperial Metals Mount Polley disaster and the  8th day of the sacred fire, camp members welcome visitors from all over.  On the way back home from hunting and fishing, a Secwepemc family from  Williams Lake donated a deer heart and a spring salmon as well as some treats for children at the camp.

Celia Nord, wild salmon advocate, also visited the camp from Chase and brought with her a large donation from Discovery Organic foods, peaches, oranges, apples, rice, beans, carrots and so much more.

We heard from a videographer who reached Polley Lake and was chased away by security that has been hired and tightened up since the spill happened. This heightened security along with a lack of answers from Imperial Metals Mount Polley Mine about what they’re doing or not doing is  confusing and seems to camp members and locals who have also bumped up against heightened security, incriminating in and of itself.

The re-issued water ban and advisory was a topic of concern and conversation at the camp today with local residents expressing anger, frustration and confusion. Can they drink the water? Are they being lied to? Who can they trust?

A Secwepemc woman who has done extensive research on other Imperial Metals mines, Ruddock Creek and Red Chris, made it to our camp today and is staying the week to help us write our report and connect all three mines and the issues and impacts they have on our communities.

The camp is actively deploying and surveying the surrounding area, teams of people were sent out today to gather information and confirm reports and concerns brought to the camp by locals in the area.

We finished off our evening with a feast and serenade by the famous Secwepemc Wally Churchill. We ate the deer heart, salmon, rice, corn and greens while reviewing our week and strategizing for the days ahead.

August 28th, 2014:
On  the 23nd day after the Imperial Metals Mount Polley disaster and the  10th day of the sacred fire, camp members woke up early to prepare for  tomorrow’s community feast and meeting. Our fire keeper had been charged  by his elders to plant a prayer stick  as close to the devastated land and water as possible. And so, a  delegation was sent from the camp to Hazeltine Creek a kilometre from  the tailings storage facility and Polley Lake. Upon arriving, the stench  of chemicals was overwhelming and caused instant nausea, the  devastation was overwhelming. Plant life had been seared into the  ground, burnt by the metals and chemicals in the tailings. Most  upsetting of all was the sheer amount of animal tracks in and around the  impacted area. Cougars, bears, moose, deer, birds, all had come  searching for water, for the small creek they’d always known to be here.  What they had found was death. It was with heavy hearts that the  delegation planted the prayer stick and left the area, making their way  back to the camp.

While the delegation was away, back at the  campsite, camp members were busy with making banners, organizing and  reorganizing food and supplies and cooking. We were also very busy with  writing our initial assessment report, the first independent report to  come out of this disaster, compiling all of the information we’ve  learned from workers, residents, Imperial Metals and the government.

The magnitude of the devastation and the intensity of the impact zone  is something that does not and cannot translate via film or video. The  scope of the long term impact to the land and life of this territory is  nothing short of fatal. This cannot be forgotten, this cannot be  overlooked, this cannot be allowed to happen again.
August 29th:
On the 24th day after the Imperial Metals  Mount Polley disaster and the 11th day of the sacred fire, we celebrate.  Today was our community meeting and feast day and it was also the day  we released our 20 page Initial Assessment Report on the Imperial Metals Mount Polley Tailings Storage Facility Breach. Today was a day of victories.

We started cooking late yesterday and woke up to continue filleting  fish, cooking up potatoes, squash, carrots, quinoa and so much more. A  Secwepemc man from Williams Lake even set up his mobile bannock stand to  cook up enough bannock to feed an army. Time passed quickly and people  from all over, Secwepemc, St’at’imc, Tsilhqot’in, Nuu Chah Nulth,  Likely, Clayoquot Sound, Green Party members and media began arriving  early in the afternoon. As the day went by, more tents went up,  including a wall tent purchased through the generous donations on our  fundraiser site that we’re so excited to use!

The camp filled  up quickly with people and the extra tables filled up even quicker with  food. As dinner was being prepared, people sat and gathered around the  fire, singing, drumming and sharing. It felt like magic. We must have  had about 100 or so visitors, 5 Chiefs attended, Grandmothers, mothers,  medicine women spoke and sang at the fire, Chief Darrell Bob and Chief  Michelle Edwards from St’at’imc, Chief Francis Alec from Pavilion, Chief  Mike Archie Secwepemc from Canim Lake and Chief Roger Williams from  Tsilhqot’in.

Chief Roger Williams, instrumental in bringing  about the Supreme Court Tsilhqot’in decision was presented with our 20  page Initial Assessment report and so were all the other Chiefs present.  This report will be posted on this page tomorrow morning and can be  emailed to you by request at imperialnomore@gmail.com.

We are  very quickly assembling our own independent panel of experts to assess  and bring their knowledge to the site and situation. It’s an exciting  time.

All said and done, it was a very special and very  powerful night. We danced, we sang, we feasted, we met, we loved, we  grieved and we were all gifted with a great sense of hope and strength.  Today was a victory, tomorrow will be a victory and so will the day  after that, the day after that and the day after that. To everyone that  attended, thank you, to everyone that couldn’t, we missed you.

August 30th:
On  Day 25 of the disaster and the 12th day of the sacred fire, the camp is  strategizing. Today the salmon are running and there are still no clean  up efforts, no clean drinking water in Likely and the Department of  Fisheries and Ocean is still nowhere to be seen.

Camp members spend all day on the phone calling doctors, biologists and  mining watch experts. The camp is already gearing up to release a  second report, collecting evidence and opinion from experts not  connected to Imperial Metals or the provincial government so that the  resulting information is independent and less likely to be influenced by  corporate or political/economic interests. While we collect information  for our second report, the report released by the camp yesterday is  disseminating information that the provincial government and Imperial  Metals do not want disclosed.

To date there is no clean, fresh,  safe drinking water for the town of Likely and so today we send  delegations out to Likely and up Spanish Mountain to investigate the  water situation and what we find is infuriating. Neither Imperial Metals  nor the provincial government has made any plans for residents here to  have access to clean water and today Spanish Mountain, where people are  being advised to get their water from, was closed due to high levels of  arsenic in their water.

We are almost a month out of the  Imperial Metals Mount Polley disaster and there are still no plans for  clean up, no tailings containment efforts, but truck traffic has only  increased in and out of the mine. Imperial Metals is selling off their  stockpiles and assets and none of the money is going to any kind of  clean up efforts.

By the end of the night, we are joined  around the fire by journalists, filmmakers, lawyers and family today and  we spend time eating, sharing and working late into the night on legal  strategy.

August 31st 2014:
On  Day 26 of the disaster and the 13th day of the sacred fire, the camp  sends out a delegation to Cariboo River. The salmon have started to run  and some local residents were eager to take members of the encampment  out to see them jump up the falls on  their way to their spawning grounds. Camp members came back with tears  and with laughter. Tears for the utter destruction and loss Imperial  Metals has reeked on this community, on our relatives. Laughter to see  the fish strong and swimming up a waterfall that roars like a jet plane.

Nicole Schabus and Arthur Manuel make breakfast and provide  new energy and powerful new perspectives to the work the camp and the  fire is doing. A new friend from Salmon Arm, Secwepemc territory, visits  today bringing with him two boxes of fruits and vegetables he’s grown.  We’re so grateful to have him with us. A Secwepemc/Tsilhqot’in family  stops by on their way back from picking berries, leaving some for camp  members and feeding some to the fire.

Winter’s coming and the  rain comes with it. Camp members are working hard and sacrificing so  much to keep the fire lit and strong all day, all night. It’s been  almost two weeks since we came up here with little more than firewood  and hope. We now have a full encampment, kitchen, storage tent, food for  days and days and days, a community of nations and love. So much love.  It’s possible, with faith and prayers and strength, it’s possible for  all of us to build something better, cleaner and free from these  shackles of greed and individualism.

It’s an exciting time for  us here. People from all nations are regular visitors, supporters, camp  residents and camp followers, and so the camp is building a wide and far  reaching strategy, bringing together all of us with the common goal of  protection and defence of water and of this territory.

September 1st, 2014:

On  Day 27 of the disaster and the 14th day of the sacred fire, the camp is  busy. We are visited by our Secwepemc Elders who had gone to the high  mountains, where the most powerful medicines and berries grow, to survey  the disaster from a new vantage point.  They spoke to us about the devastation they saw, the grey sludge that is  coating what once was Hazeltine Creek, that was quickly moving into the  waterways and visible in the lake. They harvested one of our most  powerful Secwepemc medicines and brought it to us to open our minds and  guide our hearts.

We spend our day connecting to the fire,  cooking and eating together. One of our camp members cooked a  traditional Indian meal from her ancestral home, roti from scratch and a  curry with all of the home grown tomatoes and onions we were gifted  from Salmon Arm. She is in the process of decolonization, reclaiming her  language and her food. While we eat, we talk about colonialism,  displacement and dispossession, we talk about the destruction of our  lands and our water, we talk about how our struggles are all connected  and that if we don’t empower ourselves to take action, if we don’t do  it, nobody is going to.

We also spend time assembling our  expert advisory panel and are gearing up for our attack. The work this  camp has done is the first step, the work we are all going to do is the  next one.

There’s so much to do, we have a responsibility to  each other and to our future generations. We have a responsibility to  the land, the water, the salmon and all of our relatives. Let’s live up  to it.

September 1st:

On Day 28 of the disaster the sacred fire has  spread. We celebrate the two weeks we’ve spent in the Northern part of  Secwepemc territory at Yuct Ne Senxiymetkwe. On direction of our elders,  we are continuing our struggle, we are breaking camp,  we are coming down from the mountain. We have spent time learning and  sharpening our focus while we built a busy and beautiful encampment  stocked with fresh fruits, vegetables, salmon and deer.

We are  ready to take all of the information we’ve gathered to the Nation, the  People. We are ready to send runners to each Secwepemc community to  listen, learn and speak, to share all of the things we’ve learned in  these last two weeks.

If we want to be true stewards, true  caretakers of our land, we must be good watchers, monitors and  protectors, we must be actively on the land. Only we can do this, we’ve  learned that the government, the corporations, those “in charge” are not  true stewards or true caretakers.

We’ve learned that a small  number of people supported by communities and Nations can do big things.  Can reach hundreds of thousands of people, can gather nations and  strength, can expose truth in lies and most importantly find answers  where once there were only questions. Now imagine what a unified Nation  of People could do, will do.

We honor all of the People that  responded to the call of the fire, there were so many of you. The elders  that came to show us how to cook salmon over a fire, the berry pickers  who dropped off buckets full of huckleberries, the local residents who  took shifts watching the fire at night, moved in with us and opened  their hearts and their minds, the women who came to sing, the fishermen  and the hunters with fresh meat for the camp, and everyone else who gave  prayers, thought of us and sent us strength and courage. There’s so  much to do and we’re going to keep needing all of you.

We’re  building everyday, each of us has a part of a solution, a piece of a  bigger puzzle. When we come together we can see so much, do so much, be  so much. The time is now, the place is here. Although we broke camp,  this fire continues. It burns in everybody. It spreads quickly. It can  do great things.

For the women, a special message from our  elders. This fire was started by women. You are powerful. You must take  your role and responsibility seriously. Men have had their time, it’s  women’s time now, we’re coming in to the positive. We are rebuilding,  reclaiming, reknowing, rewilding.

Learn from the past, prepare in the present to defend the future.

The Yuct Ne Senxiymetkwe camp Facebook page continues as we count days from the disaster and share the work we are all doing.

Secwepemculecw wel me7 yews, wel me7 yews

September 3rd, 2014:

On  Day 29 of the disaster, the fire in our hearts is burning strong. Late  last night, on our way back to Neskonlith, we stop at Adams Lake, a part  of the water system that would be effected if we allow Imperial Metals  to go through with their plans for a  lead and zinc mine at Ruddock Creek. After seeing the utter destruction  the Imperial Metals Mount Polley Mine wrought on Northern Secwepemc  territory, we vowed to protect our waters. This is a responsibility we  all hold, and only when we stand together will we fulfill it.

This morning, we were listening to CBC radio and heard Imperial Metals  publicly admitting they are taking no action to meaningfully clean up  the mess they’ve made and are focusing on emptying Polley Lake. This  would take at least 100 days, which means clean up of the toxic sludge  coating what once was Hazeltine Creek will not occur until at least the  spring. They went on to say they had raised millions of dollars, through  an unsecured debt instrument, that would not be going to clean up  efforts but would be spent instead on their Red Chris mine project  further North in Tahltan territory. The provincial or the federal  government sit quietly by, protecting the corporation and themselves in  the process. This cannot and will not be allowed. The people are  grieving, the people are full of dignified anger and outrage and the  people will not allow this to happen again.

And so we bring  the urgency and the first hand accounts to all of you who are reading  and to the elders and people in our communities. Today camp members  visit Elder Wolverine and Elder Flo, Ts’peten (Gustafson Lake 1995)  defenders, on the Adams Lake reserve. We present what we’ve learned, we  present pictures and maps and video from the site. We plan our community  meeting and strategize on where the government is weakest and how to  expose these weaknesses.

We also spend time on the phone,  calling nationally and internationally and are quickly building a strong  and independent team of experts, scientists, lawyers, elders,  engineers, who will guide us and help us build a broad and powerful  truth and movement.

The place is here and the time is now. The  corporations and government destroy without any impunity. A special  message from Elder and warrior Wolverine: As people, we are the true  decision makers on the land and once we let go of structures of  destruction and oppression, we will make better decisions, we will build  a better world.

September 5th 2014:

On  Day 30 of the disaster, we move. Some of us take off to the Island to  reunite with friends and family, to share our rage and our stories. Some  of us are in Williams Lake and Soda Creek, spreading the things we have  learnt and continue learning. Some of  us are in Kamloops with Secwepemc and Okanagan friends and family,  presenting, plotting and planning. Some of us are in Vancouver,  organizing.

The fire is spreading, quicker and quicker every  day, we’re all feeling the anger, the outrage that the media, the  government and Imperial Metals are trying to dismiss. This week, there  were no meetings held in Likely. Since the spill happened, the  provincial government and Imperial Metals held town hall meetings with  the community, this week, nothing. This, immediately following the  corporation’s public admittance on CBC radio that there are no plans for  clean up at least until Spring. It’s obvious that the corporation, hand  in hand with the government, is making a quick and dirty getaway.

Two days after the Imperial Metals Mount Polley mine tailings damn  breach, in Mexico, the Grupo Mexico Buenavista Copper Mine tailings  storage facility also breached. Grupo Mexico has been fined millions of  dollars and criminal charges have been laid. Meanwhile, Imperial Metals  is opening up more mines and mountains, destroying more rivers and  lakes. The government and the RCMP will not hold them accountable and so  the responsibility falls to us, collectively. If Imperial Metals is  allowed to continue, the blame falls to us, collectively. So do  something, do anything, get angry, get acting.

Today, we  spend time talking to independent film makers, biologists and lawyers.  We talk conferences and class actions. We talk meetings and direct  actions. We are all fighting and soon, we will all be winning. Our water  is precious, our salmon are precious and all that depends on that  salmon is precious. We will all protect it in the ways we can and the  ways we must.

Today, we are making alliances within and  between our Nations. The Secwepemc will be doing presentations and  holding meetings through the fall and the winter at home and in  surrounding impacted communities. We suggest all should start doing the  same. There is power in our families and our communities. We are more  determined than ever to stop Imperial Metals from opening another mine  in Ruddock Creek. We are more determined than ever to stop the Ajax  mines from going through. We are more determined than ever to stop the  pipelines, the fish farms, the tar sands, the logging. Any and all means  necessary.
September 5th, 2014:
On  Day 31 of the disaster, Imperial Metals is not cleaning up, Imperial  Metals is not being charged, fined or held to account for what they have  done and will continue doing, Imperial Metals is continuing operations  at their Mount Polley Mine, moving  assets and shuffling cards to continue to push to open Red Chris mine in  Tahltan territory and Ruddock Creek Mine in Secwepemc territory.  Imperial Metals does not have and has not had consent to open any of  these mines. Not from the Indigenous nations, unceded and unsurrendered,  they operate in, or from residents in the area, who are directly  effected when these mines destroy and pollute the environment around  them. Have any of us consented to unchecked and unregulated mining? Have  any of us consented to arsenic, mercury, lead, copper and selenium in  the water we drink, the salmon we eat, the territories we exist in? Have  any of us consented to being subject to heavy metals poisoning, for our  children to be subjected to heavy metals poisoning? We have not. We  have never been asked for consent, we will never be asked for consent  and so we will not wait to be asked for consent. We will act, we will  act in unity, we will act in our communities and we will act for us, our  families, our salmon, and our future generations. For if we do not, we  will look back and we will regret, we will wish we had acted and acted  strongly, acted without hesitation, we will wish we had protected our  water, we will wish we had stood with the Secwepemc, the Tahltan, the  Wetsuweten, the Gixtsan, the Nuu Cha Nulth, the St’at’imc, we will wish  we stood with the true protectors and stewards of the land.

So  now we must organize. We must gather our friends, communities and our  families. We must talk about effective actions and outcomes worth  achieving. We must go beyond protest signs and street side rallies. We  must drop banners. We must stop the boardroom meetings. We must occupy  corporate spaces and buildings. We must not allow this false economy to  keep “operating”. We must stand in the way of the destroying machine. We  must put our bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the  levers, upon all the apparatus, and we must make it stop.

Today  we are in the process of what will be bigger things. Today we are  assembling our armies. Today we are making ourselves free, finding our  allies, those we will act with independently. Today we know the meaning  of solidarity. Today we are applying all of these things. Today we are  starting the fires of victory. Tomorrow we are burning.

Don't be shellfish...

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