An article written in the Terrace Standard sixteen years ago. How have the Gitxsan Nation advanced under the present Treaty Society?

I can tell you this, the majority of Gitxsan people are still very much in a state of hopelessness. The Chiefs Office is once again shut down by the people. The Leaders; Chiefs, board of Directors and fired executives/negotiators continue to ignore the cries of the people and continue on, business as usual!

 

Gitxsan Unity Movement call on the Gitxsan Treaty Society, who is in charge here? Step up and consult with the people! To the board oDirectors... do your job! To the Hereditary Chiefs, show some leadership, resolve this crises. Why is it that you would rather send our High Chiefs to jail in a non traditional court?

If the Government had their way, they would be happy, keeping all First Nations in the country divided. They would benefit from the extraction of the resouces on traditional territories while the Nations are infighting.

The Gitxsan Unity Movement continues to build solidarity against the Gitxsan Treaty Society (GTS), a government sanctioned entity that is undermining and subverting Gitxsan Authority on Gitxsan Territories.

Refer to this map of the Gitxsan territories. The yellow shaded areas are the territories whose Chiefs have signed the Declaration stating that the GTS does not represent them in any negotiations regarding resources or territory management issues.

Please note that Geel and Skiimlaxha also, are not represented by the GTS.

This puts a lot, into perspective. That GTS is currently being allowed to represent the majority of Gitxsan West and a few dissident Chiefs from Gitxsan North who are against Unity.

 

The day of separation is fastly approaching us if the leadership of the Gitxsan Nation does not realize what the Governments are doing to us throught the GTS!

From: yvonnelattie@hotmail.com
To: awilson@gitxsan.com
CC: info@aptn.ca
Subject: March 14, 2012 article on Three Rivers Report
Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 18:14:24 -0700

Hi Art / Three Rivers Report.
 
I am quite appauled at all the misinformation you have been giving our people over the many months, even years.
 
In Gitsegukla, I attended a headstone Feast for the late Cathleen Marsden. I sat at the visitors table for the wolves
from the East and Rod sat directly across from me on the visitors wolf table, and proceeded to make many comments
that were not true. One comment was that the Spook litigation was taking the chief's to court. I asked him if he had seen  
any of the Spook Documents and I asked him to check the front cover and see who were the plaintiffs and who were the
defendents. This would clarifiey for him who was in court.                      
 
Approximjately a few weeks later, I invited Rod Sampare, Francis and Ivan Sampson, and Alice Jeffrey for a meeting at "Ksan."
The intention of this meeting was to sit down, share a meal, have a few laughs to open the door for communication to begin.
I attended the meeting as a Spook Plaintiff looking for an opportunity for all to voice their concerns. To agree to disagree,
find common ground and arrange for another meeting. Minutes were taken and all  people who attended were listed,
as is our custom to have witnesses of the proceedings.
 
Rod Sampare spoke and thanked me for inviting him. Again he brought up the fact that, an audit should be done of GTS.
He wanted to know where all of the Short Term Forestry Dollars had gone. He also stated that a huge amount went to the
board. These facts are no where to be found in Rod Sampare's sworn affadavit, for GTS. The affadavit is a legal document.
 
Another affadavit done by Wii Eelast has information in it that is wrong.  Wi Eelast claimed that my father-in-law, Wilfred Gawa
was in an old folks home and was not doing well. I believe as an individual,it is his responsibility to ensure the information he is
swearing is the truth and nothing but the truth. Wilfred Gawa lives next door to Wii Eelast and if he thought Wilfred was not doing
well, as a Gitxsan person he should have went next door, too see if the family needed assistance, ie: taking him to the hospital, contact
family members, it is our unspoken responsibilities that we assist the Elders wherever possible.
 
It is the responsibility of Wii Elast to make  sure, when he is swearing an afadavit that it is the truth and nothing but the truth, and
backup it up with proof. Speaking the truth shows the strength and power of a chief.
It is  our law/ Ayook that we take care of the elderly, check in on them especially if you live right next door.
 
As a hereditary chief, it is my responsibility to speak when our laws are being broken. I have been a witness to the majority of
things that have happened on our Territories. With the power of holding the name Gwininitxw, I am saying that we must follow
the law of the land our "Ayook"
 
Gwininitxw, Yvonne Lattie

 

Or Why the Gitxsan Indians Are Broken Along with Everything Else

When did purchasing a yes vote with money and benefits become legal? Apparently it has been completely legal for years as all businesses, governments and reserve villages have been doing it for years without sanction.

It was blatant and in full public view in June of 2006 when the BC government of Gordon Campbell offered the Teachers a $3700 signing bonus each if they accepted the contract. Since then signing bonuses have become regular visitors to negotiation tables, ‘forgo what is right and just, just say yes and we’ll give you cash.’

It has been this way for centuries as public company board members are delivered cash rewards for their vote of support. These men in the past were called “yes men”; people selected to be on the Board of Directors who could be counted on to say “Yes” to anything the Executive Board wanted. Very few directors ever challenge a decision and those who do so unsuccessfully find they are not promoted to more boards and lose their current board positions. The cash reward comes in many terms, but the most common term is a ‘per diem stipend’. This amount is usually substantial and some ‘yes men belong to enough boards their yes vote is in the significant 6 digit salary. Depending on which boards and how many, a real supportive director who keeps his or her mouth shut for years could be making many millions.

Some boards select specific individuals for their professional degrees or training, others for their status or position. Indians are selected because they are Indian. Some boards want to be able to claim they have a high ranking Indian on board. This allows them to claim they are listening to all perspectives. The truth is anything but.

Like Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointing Patrick Brazeau, the Indian involved in sexual harassment allegations, to be a Senator. He is selected not for his brains but for his willingness to take money for his compliance. And this is the foundation of the Gitxsan crises.

The GTS, Gitxsan Treaty Society, has as their two high ranking men, Gordon Sebastian and Elmer Derrick. Both have been accepting money on these terms from various Boards for years. It is no surprise then how they employed what they learned in their own society, the GTS. Even though the Constitution clearly states members and directors not to be paid anything, Sebastian and Derrick, along with co-conspirator, Bev Percival Clifton, have been taking vast sums of money for their work.

To be able to continue the charade without having others question their work or decisions they pay ‘per diem’ funds to Gitxsan Chiefs who show up and say yes. Those who say no or challenge them are asked not to return. Last Christmas every chief who was a ‘Yes Man/Woman’ received bonus cheques in the amount of thousands of dollars.

Vote buying used to be illegal. It was affront to proper democratic principals. But no more. Every executive member of every business or organization does it with impunity. It is fully public and a game many men and women happily play along with. Indians are the easiest.

When one has lived in poverty all their lives, watched their grandparents and parents starve in a drunken stupor of filth and despair or even one raised as an orphan, it is easy to draw one into accepting vast sums of money simply for saying yes.

The Gixsan crises in the Village of Old Hazelton where some Gitxsan have boarded up the offices of other Gitxsan actually has very little to do with Enbridge or Elmer Derrick signing a deal with Enbridge representatives. It has everything to do with taking money for saying yes. The GTS has accepted over 20 million dollars, indebting the Gitxsan people for almost the same amount. Various Gitxsan people along with Gitxsan Village Councils launched a lawsuit way back in 2008 claiming the GTS was not legitimate and were not representatives of the Gitxsan as a whole.

As one individual wrote yesterday in regards to the blockade, “6.7 million dollars went through the GTS office in 2009. All we want to know is where did it go? Let's break down the expenses.”

The matter of Derrick signing a deal with Enbridge just sent the issue over the tipping point and made many more Gitxsan people aware of the problems. While all the media across Canada are proclaiming this is all an Enbridge conflict it is actually something completely different. It is a group of people attempting to remove the corruption from their community and their politics. The BC Court is fighting to avoid having the entire political/corporate corruption system exposed for all to see.

Almost every Indian who has lived on a reserve has first hand experience with this. Those who pander to the elected families, their friends and relatives get the brand new houses and cushy, well paying, jobs. Those who challenge them are ostracised and have to fight to get any of the benefits available under the Indian Act as the band controls the disbursement of funds. They see it because it is small scale.

This is something all citizens of the world need be made aware of. The executive branches of all organizations, government, business, societies including Treaty Societies, are all susceptible to this fraud.

In municipal politics the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) generally manipulates the elected members to vote yes to all matters put in front of them. He or she remains in the position after every election and clearly knows much more about the running of the City and can generally talk circles around the newly elected member.

The same applies to Regional District, Provincial and Federal Politics. The same also applies to international organizations such as the United Nations, World Bank and the International Monetary fund. In these higher levels however, one arriving in such a position has generally already proven how competent they are at saying yes.

Our Federal MP's and our Provincial MLA's must vote the way they are told or they get kicked out of the "Party", the cash reward for saying "Yes" Party.

The world of finance works when people are willing to do or say anything for money. Vote buying is the simplest way to achieve an end. No matter what a government or corporation wishes to do, they can state the board or the elected members approved their decision when in truth, the average man and woman just sold them selves to the highest, or maybe only, bidder.

The issue is compromising integrity for money. It’s all the rage these days.

 

Recently the former Executive Director of the Gitxsan Treaty Society (GTS) claimed that the injunction to remove the blockade in front of the Gitxsan Chiefs Office set up by the Gitxsan Unity Movement was ordered by him at the direction of the GTS board of Directors.

The injunction was filed less than 48 hours after the Gitxsan Chiefs ordered the building shut down and put on a 24 hour 7 day a week watch. The Gitxsan Unity Movement have been attending to the Chiefs wishes for almost 6 months and it appears they have no intentions of of removing this blockade until the Gitxsan Crises is resolved.

On Sunday, December 4th, 2011, three of the Gitxsan Clans held separate meetings in three locations to voice their concerns and consider their future action in regards to the announcement of the signing of an agreement between the Gitxsan and Enbridge. The Gitxsan Unity Movement began as Gitxsan Against Enbridge in early December 2011. The goal of the movement is to bring harmony between the Gitxsan Government and the values, law and will of the Gitxsan.

 

Gitxsan leaders are expected to consult and cooperate in good faith with the Gitxsan's people's concerns through our own representative institutions in order to obtain free, prior, and informed consent before adopting or implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.

The Gitxsan people have since shut down the Enbridge deal but have lost faith in the GTS entity and have now called for further measures from the Gitxsan Chiefs to take action. To which has mostly fell on deaf ears of the Chiefs who are in support of the GTS. There is still hope that the High Chiefs of our Nation will sit down and talk about resolutions to this crises, even at the beckoning of Assembly of First Nation's Grand Chief, Shawn Atleo and Union of BC Indian Chiefs Stewart Phillips.

We are now calling on the GTS Board of Directors to step in and hold yourself accountable to the people. We ask you, are you putting our own people in jail?

Board of Directors

Jim Angus   Chairperson

Alvin Hyzims

Anita Davis

Darlene Howard

Vernon Smith

Marge Quock

John Olson (Two Mile)

Sandra Olson (since removed)

Charles Muldon (excused from meetings for conflict of interest)

Linda Williams

Lucille Stoney (not excused from meetings for conflict of interest)

BC Supreme Court Justice Mark McEwan had ordered the RCMP to dismantle the blockade and arrest four Gitxsan Chiefs, Delgumuukw, Dawamuukw, Guuhadakw and Axmatximwill over their involvement of the blockade. The RCMP are using their discretion to see the Gitxsan resolve this issue through Gitxsan Law (Ayookw) rather than through the BC Supreme Court system.

First Nations from across the country and Internationally are watching this unfold. For they realize that the Delgumuukw Court case decision, the pride of the Gitxsan Nation, is at stake here. Gitxsan Law has to be used here to resolve this dispute or it will jeopardize how Aboriginal people do business on their own territories throughout the world!

 

All of this was decided by a board of directors who possibly are unaware of decisions made on their part. may the GTS Board of Directors hold themselves accountable to their people (pdeek) now.

The Gitxsan Unity Movement is 100% volunteer driven, with the Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs and members working in the best interests of our land, culture and people.

 

 

Go to this website to vote on the poll asking ...

Should the RCMP follow orders of BC Supreme Court Justice Mark McEwan and dismantle the peaceful blockade in Hazelton of the Gitxsan Treaty Society Office by the Gitxsan Unity Movement?

http://www.interior-news.com/

Photos from contributors on Facebook

Media coverage:

• CFTK was on location and did an excellent report
  • Here's a link to their text report
• APTN wasn't on location and did this report
• Tyler was on location and did this Rabble blog post
• Smithers Interior News did come down to get a statement and we expect an article from them this week.
• From earlier, the Judge compares Gitxsan situation to "Caledonia Crisis"
• Here's a good letter in the Province, saying the Judge has ignored critical case law.
• The Daily team was on site in the afternoon and posted some great coverage! They even streamed events live on the internet!

Online:

• Photos (above) posted from the day have been shared 100s of times on Facebook, going viral!
• We posted this video update online and it has been widely shared
• After sending the emergency phone message, we posted this update in the afternoon
• The crisis yesterday overlapped closely with the Hereditary Chief's meeting yesterday with mediator Shawn Atleo and Philip Stewart
• Observers from court returned to Hazelton late in the day and delivered a verbal report, the highlight are here.

Some Comments from Facebook:

• "I am SO PROUD of Gitxsans up north for ASSERTING THEIR SOVEREIGNTY! You are on unceded territory - Del'ga'muukx! Gitxsan Unity keep it up!! :)"
• "It is time to show him the real picture with less than a week to network and get it out everywhere so the Judge can see what the government is pushing on him. He is being told what to do and being directly interfered with - his outburst are irrational and his reference to OKA was a clear sign of "a perceived hostility". This perceived hostility and the move to call in the Sheriff is a reference to the Wild West mentality of Ottawa."
• "Totally agree, sergeant Jeff Pelley thank you for your insight n allowing the Gitxsan people to try to work things out! The Canadian judicial law has no place and should not have a say to this particular issue! The only law broken here is our own, and it is up to us as gitxsan people to resolve it... Oh creator help us... Guide our thoughts, our actions , and our words... ♥"
• "My prayers are sent to you and us all. Thank you for making a stand. ♥"
• " I looked under the Criminal code of Canada Section 2 for the arresting powers of a sheriff I'm pretty sure that the sheriffs have no authority to do what the judge is considering. He may have overlooked this part in the criminal code. I may be wrong but I'm sure I read it correctly."
•  "This article fails to mention one glaring fact that even Judge McEwan is trying to ignore as well...the status of the society....they did not, and still do not, have a legal board of directors. The judge gave them time to remedy that situation, they failed to do so, so he gave them more time...wishy washy...and now he's complaining? No legal board of directors..ipso facto...not a legal society...the injunction therefore is null and void."

As a side note we'd like to welcome our GTS viewers, as it was made obvious in court yesterday that much of their "evidence" against the Chiefs was coming from the website, facebook, videos, photos, and even cell phone text messages. Stay tuned for more updates!

May 14th 2012 - Edited May 15th

Note - to protect individuals we aren't naming or quoting sources in this update. It was made obvious in court today that all our updates, facebook posts, and even cell texts are being collected as evidence. That just encourages us, but we don't want to implicate people who may not want to be.

In court today the GTS lawyer pressed hard for the arrest of four Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs who have been spokespeople for the Gitxsan Unity Movement. Observers reported that the judge was initially very angry that the blockade was still up, and demanded that the Chiefs be brought into court immediately. He refused to listen to arguments from lawyers for the Chiefs or the RCMP, and called on the RCMP to bring the Chiefs in to court. The chiefs met downtown at the sacred fire with their balnkets and prepared to be arrested. A phone call went out to all supporters, and within half an hour over 200 people showed up to support the chiefs. It is estimated that over 400 people came down within the hours after the phone call! 

An observer reported that the GTS lawyer presented a number of statements to the judge that were either not true or out of context. A lawyer for one of the chiefs tried to reason with the Judge but was initially not successful. Counsel emplored the Judge to consider the mediation efforts underway, but the Judge repeatedly dismissed their arguments. Observers praised the RCMP and their lawyers for their defense of the people and their refusal to create more conflict by enforcing the injunction against the blockade.

The arguments of the non-GTS lawyers infurated the Judge, who seems to believe that the Unity Movement and all the Gitxsan against the GTS represent a very small portion of the population. A number of witnesses in court reported that the RCMP lawyer stated to the judge that there were over 175 people at the Chiefs building today, and that the Judge repsonded by saying "this isn't Oka" (the RCMP lawyer responded that "it could be"). It's also reported that the Judge suggested to the RCMP lawyer that Gitxsan supporters at the blockade would just scatter and run away if the RCMP moved in to arrest.

The Judge was derisive about the Gitxsan Unity movement and the Gitxsan who are opposed to the GTS. In the morning he referred to GUM as "bullies." He also dismissed the Gitxsan law and process on the ground, making reference to Aboriginal people being no different from Asian people in his court. The Judge in the end did acknowledge in a limited way the progress through meetings, mediation attempts, and the mothers day accord - but he still called for the arrest of the four chiefs and dismantling of the blockade.

The GTS lawyer sought to paint the Spookw litigation group as being the same as GUM. Spookw and GUM both share opposition to the opporessive tactics and behaviour of the GTS, but they are separate groups.

It is obvious from statements in court that the large outpouring of support on the ground has had a very real impact on this struggle. The RCMP did have members in from out of town on the ground, and they did have a special team waiting nearby. The headcounts done by RCMP members on the ground and reported back to court definately had an impact on the outcome today.

Witnesses reported that the Judge, frustrated with the RCMP's refusal to arrest the Chiefs and enforce the injunction, is considering ordering the Sherrifs to carry out the arrests. We've been told that this decision will happen in about a week. The representative for the Sherrifs has committed to being in touch with the Gitxsan to make sure things go smoothly should this happen.

This struggle is far from over. The Gitxsan Hereditary Cheifs and the Gitxsan people have made it clear that they do not want their Chiefs arrested. The Unity Movement and the Chiefs want a Gitxsan solution to the crisis. We have our own laws. It is sad that the GTS continues to push their case in the BC Supreme court, and spend great amounts of money fighting their own Chiefs. A strong foundation for moving forward in a good way has been created and put forward by the Chiefs in the Mothers Day Accord, which reportedly includes these main points:

1) That the injunction and lawsuits against the unity chiefs be dropped
2) That the blockade of the Chief's Office be lifted
3) That an impartial 3rd party secure contents of the building
4) That the Chiefs continue to meet until differences are worked out

There is a clear path here for resolution of the crisis, and it is a Gitxsan solution. We will continue to work for accountability, transparency, and for the return of authority to the Gitxsan Chiefs and the Gitxsan people.

This is an update from the Gitxsan Unity Movement. First, thank you to those who came down to the chiefs office after receiving our emergency phone call. We estimate over 200 people came today on short notice. 

 

After a court adjournment and recess, the GTS lawyers are again making their arguments in Smithers for the chiefs to be held in contempt and arrested. There are RCMP members here from out of town ready to act on order from the judge. The day is not over yet, but the Judge is now saying there may be too much ambiguity to arrest the Chiefs.

 

Your support is needed today and in the coming days. Please come down to the Chiefs Building in Old Town and show your support.

 

Yesterday the Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs met together with AFN Grand Chief Shawn Atleo and BC Union Chief Stewart Philip to mediate a Gitxsan solution to this crisis. They created "the mothers day accord" which has the following main points:

 

* That the injunction against the unity chiefs be removed

* That the blockade of the office be removed

* That an independent 3rd party secure the contents of the building

* and That the Gitxsan Chiefs work together on a solution to the crisis

 

The Gitxsan Chiefs are committed to unity, and to a Gitxsan solution. We urge you to come show your support. We all make a difference by taking action. Thank you.