ELSIPOGTOG RESISTING FRACKING

mnnlogo

 

 

MNN. June 26, 2013. Tensions are rising at the Highway 126 anti-fracking camp near Elsipogtog First Nation in Kent County, New Brunswick (Wabanakik). By June 23, on National Aboriginal Day, twenty-nine had been arrested. One is in hospital. 

NB FRACKINGWarrior Chief John Levi is calling supporters to help resist seismic testing by US corporation, Southwestern Energy (SWN), and the provincial government. Their bosses are the bankers who own the corporations of Canada and the US. 

The Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Acadian and other Indigenous peoples of Wabanakik refuse to give their consent. Aggressive RCMP and SWN private security forces are protecting the testing and stirring up confrontations. Protesters are threatened by undercover RCMP who steal SIM cards from cell phones and physically assault elders. 

FRACK ARTResistance continues. Peaceful roadside pickets, blocking trucks and surrounding SWN vehicles are underway. Arrestee Gilogoetj Dedam explained: “They’re destroying our land … If we got off that road, those trucks will drive right by”. 

The cops are becoming more violent, shoving, denying water and bathroom access and tightening handcuffs to cause blood stoppage and bruising. 

A sacred fire, a line of open tents, a communal kitchen, gathering space, singing and drumming creates an inviting environment for supporters and visitors. 

FRACKEDThe resistance is against environmental destruction. All businesses bend the rules. Now they openly break them with impunity. Corruption and violence is how business is done at every level of the corporate system. The “owistah” disease is in full bloom. The corporations want us out of the way to get our resources.   

Hear the wind blow. Feel the breeze in your face. Watch from the tree of peace. The hierarchical monetary system is crumbling. Canada sits on top of the New World Order pyramid. The preferred model is ownership of everything and everyone by a few bankers.  

FRACK WORLDAll war is about printing money and controlling how it’s spent. All wars are banker wars. We only need one more war to bring peace to the world; the people against the bankers and no one needs to get bombed. We remember Buffalo Springfield sang; “There’s something happening here/What it is ain’t exactly clear. There’s a man with a gun over there/Telling me I got to beware. I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound/Everybody look what’s going down” For what it’s worth


Dangers of fracking. FRACKING: Drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure to fracture shale rock to release natural gas. Ground water, environment and health are destroyed.

War Chief Levi speaks.

Elsipotog Story. 

MNN Mohawk Nation News kahentinetha2@yahoo.com Thahoketoteh@hotmail.com For more news, books, workshops, to donate and sign up for MNN newsletters, go to www.mohawknationnews.com  More stories at MNN Archives.  Address:  Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0

 

 

 

PACK UP & GET OUT:MALISEET TAKE CONTROL OF HYDRO DAM

PACK UP & GET OUT:
MNN. Aug. 8, 2009. In the 1960s some Mohawks use to visit the Maliseet community of Tobique in New Brunswick. They visited us in Kahnawake to exchange ideas about the Great Law of Peace and how to resist colonialism. We looked up to our elder, Louis Karonhiaktajeh Hall for guidance. He designed the Unity flag, which became known as the warrior flag, and wrote books on indigenous history and revitalization. These people broke free of the capitalist system of exploitation:

“On Monday, June 8, 2009, some Maliseet walked peacefully into the New Brunswick Power Corporation [NB Power] hydro station. Stephen Red Feather Perley approached the employees and said, “You guys have fifteen minutes to pack up and get out.” They left. The Maliseets wrapped a chain around the gate and locked it. The dam was now the property of the Maliseet Nation of Tobique.

Tobique, the largest Maliseet community in New Brunswick, first rejected a developer’s bid to build a hydro dam there in 1844. Another was rejected in 1895. At that time, the Tobique River was “one of the greatest salmon river systems in the world,” (along with the St. John River and its other tributaries) with hundreds of thousands of fish swimming upstream to spawn each year. This defined them and their way of life.

By 1945, provincial and federal agencies started development. In 1950 New Brunswick’s Premier approved construction of a dam at Tobique without consulting the Maliseet. By year end construction began.

Tobique’s chief wrote to Indian Affairs, “If the dam cannot be stopped, we demand compensation.” He wanted “free electricity for all their domestic and business uses”. When the power lines were installed, they were billed. The Council paid for Elders and those on social assistance.

Today, barely any wild salmon make their way up the Tobique river. Tobique has high rates of cancer, due partly to the power lines over the community and to the toxic chemicals dumped and sprayed on their land by NB Power. The dam has eroded the community’s riverbanks. Trees being washed away and homes are in danger of falling into the river”. Many of the edible and medicinal plants are gone. The islands they grew on are underwater. Tobique residents are charged among the highest electricity rates in New Brunswick.

In the spring of 2008, Canada’s Indian Affairs Department put Tobique’s finances under third party management; the Council was purportedly $20 million in debt. They stopped paying the power bills. In April 2008 the elders and welfare recipients received bills for thousands of dollars. When NB Power threatened to cut off an Elder’s electricity, the community stepped in.

In May 2008, some Tobique activists set up a blockade denying NB Power access to the community and to the dam. Almost all Maliseet stopped paying their power bills.

In July 2008, the Maliseet began allowing NB Power access to the dam to do repairs and maintenance only. The employee had to check in with them and be escorted into the dam or community.

That month, NB Power forgave over $200,000 worth of hydro bills. In 2008 Paul Durelle, of Baie-Ste-Anne, NB died when NB Power cut his electricity because of non-payment during the winter. The Maliseet women sat at the blockade every day until New Brunswick’s no-disconnect policy came into effect.

In May 2009, an NB Power employee was caught sneaking around the community reading meters. [After kicking off the peeping Tom] on June 8th, the Maliseet took over the generating station. The blockade went by the highway in front of the dam.

On June 26, 2009 tensions escalated. A truck rolled by the blockade and into the station. The driver was talking on his cell phone. Stephen Perley told him to hang up and seized his truck.

The flustered driver was escorted to the blockade and given food and water. His employer refused to pick him up. The RCMP drove him home.

Today Maliseet women sit at the blockade every day playing cards and watching for NB Power trucks. Cars drive by, many honking in support. The dam continues to operate. NB Power continues to profit off from Tobique’s land and water.

On June 30th, 2009, the NB Minister of Aboriginal Affairs committed some money to restore eroded riverbanks and to clean up toxic and other wastes dumped at and around the dam.

Ottawa’s Department of Justice recently validated Tobique’s specific land claim, the largest in Atlantic Canada. Talks are underway.

The electricity being made on their land belongs to the Maliseet. The imperialist thieves have been hit in the once bulging pocketbook that they refused to share with the Indigenous land and resource owners. Also, they are fraudulently putting up Maliseet unsurrendered land as collateral to raise money on the stock exchange. Maliseets could soon learn to run these operations. So, New Brunswick and NB Power, stop panicking! Don’t do anything stupid or
desperate! Contact: Shawn franky777@gmail.com

Posted by MNN Mohawk Nation News kahentinetha2@yahoo.com www.mohawknationnews.com
Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Go to MNN “CANADA” category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStorehttp://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews; Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updateshttp://.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php; Sign Women Title Holders petition!http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois

Wednesday, 29 July 2009
http://www.nbmediacoop.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=248:pack-up-and-get-out&catid=84:indigenous&Itemid=201

poster: katenies