Editor:
Re: Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs, ‘Want it, but don’t want it,’, Mar. 9, B1.
When Enbridge will want to meet with the Gitskan Hereditary Chiefs or the Gitxsan Treaty Society (GTS), it is hoped that Enbridge will have done their research and know that there are grassroots hereditary chiefs (that are inheritors of the names) and their families all of whom still use the traditional and cultural lands in question. The writer for the GTS should not speak for all Gitksan when he says that they have never slammed the door on Enbridge. There are many Gitksan out here who have studied the Enbridge proposals. The suffering in Gitksan country is not going to be eliminated by Enbridge infusing dollars to the GTO, and as for dying for water in the hills, I don’t see many from this office going up into the hills to die for their water. Especially when in our view, water comes to those on reserve and Indian Affairs pays for the water system.
When did the GTS have a system to hear people out? When there is a society in placy and those who belong to the society, the board of directors have to follow legal protocol and not be dictated to. There are many Gitksan people who do not belong to the GTS. All the reading we get out of this article is dollar signs. Money, money, and more money.
And the poor are getting poorer.
Mary Dalen
Cedarvale