Mining operations threaten syilx Okanagan laws and identity

This is the third story in a three-part series about the proposed expansion of the Copper Mountain Mine. You can find the first part hereand the second part here.

Madison Terbasket grew up learning about syilx title and rights from the perspective of her global culture as a member of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band (LSIB).

Since childhood, the 25-year-old has been deeply rooted in her homelands nkʷrulauxʷ (Blind Creek, a place of yellow dirt) in the Similkameks area (Semilkamen, Eagle Valley).

As she got older, she said she began to realize that the nearby Copper Mountain mine was violating not only her First Nation’s ancestral laws governing water, but other SILs as well.

Located south of Princeton, British Columbia, in the sməqmíx homelands of the syilx Okanagan Territory, the site now known as the Copper Mountain Mine has seen operations since 1923. While the mine owners You want to significantly expand your mine operationsMany people are worried Threats to the Similkameen River and its tributaries.

“The whole identity of smólqmíx comes from this river,” Terbasket said.

“We are the Valley of Eagles, how can you feed the eagles if there is no river?” She said. “It is our identity. It is also the lifeblood of our land.”

Medicines cannot be accessed at the mine site: Knowledge Keeper

In an interview, Siuelna Leon Lewis – a knowledge keeper from the LSIB – explained that smīlqmíx translates to Eagle Valley, from nsyilxcən.

“We are the eagle people, famous for our eagle feathers and ochre,” Lewis told IndigiNews. “This is what we used to paint our faces and paint our rock paintings with. This is what our people know.”

sknir̓mn (Buttercup) Anona Kambi, Keeper of Knowledge at syilx Okanagan, he said in March The rock paintings found throughout the region range in age from hundreds to thousands of years.

“When anthropologists first made their journey through our lands, they came to the incorrect conclusion that this was our first attempt at a written language. We knew that was not true,” Campy said.

that account Published in 1958 by a local settler historian detailing how the Similkameen Valley between Princeton and Headley includes 20 groups of red ocher paintings.

“Some of the paintings have to do with tribal rituals and initiation ceremonies, some are guides for hunters and travelers, and others are historical records,” says John Goodfellow. Similkameen story.

Goodfellow explains how the indigenous people of the valley dug for bitter roots, gathered wild potatoes and wild onions, picked wild berries, seeds and much more.

“Fishing in lakes and rivers was a large part of the Indian diet. Basket traps were used, as were horsehair lines to which barbs or cactus hooks were tied.

“Native women made homemade baskets and strings. Before they could have rifles for hunting, the natives used bows and arrows, lariats and traps. Even deer were hunted.”

“At other times, an entire tribe, with the help of their dogs, raises deer in a natural enclosure, where they are quickly killed with bows and arrows.”

This same historical account shows how settlement led to a deliberate attempt to annihilate ways of knowing in favor of “white men’s civilization.” This began with the fur trade, then developed into mining and the search for gold, copper, and coal.

Under settler colonialism, the Jabal Copper Mine site witnessed its first operations a century ago. Several companies have taken ownership of the project over the past century, with the mine experiencing periods of activity and inactivity.

Lewis said the location of the mine itself prevents Smilqamex members from practicing culture and ceremonies in that area, as they did in the past.

“We would go hunting and fish. We would pick our roots and fruits and collect our medicines,” he said.

Lewis said the mine not only violates their right to land ownership and their right to practice culture and hold ceremonies. Both Terbasket and Louis spoke about how the mining process also intersected with the smīlqmíx’s responsibilities to uphold their rights to care for tmxʷulaxʷ (land), siwɬkʷ (water), and tmixʷ (all living things) for the next seven generations.

“These are our laws that take care of the Earth. Because if we take care of the Earth, the Earth takes care of us.”

“We’re thinking about seven generations yet to come. They haven’t been born yet. They need clean water, clean air, access to food and medicine. And that’s what seven generations before us did so we could get there. Now, it’s our responsibility.”

Lewis said the problem with the Copper Mountain mine and all its owners throughout its history is that they only care about profit and have no connection to the land.

“Polluting the land, polluting the water, polluting our medicines and food. Everything that affects us. “When we eat that, it will make us sick,” he said.

“We have a prophecy about it. Eventually, we won’t have access to any of our food, our medicine, our water.

“Isn’t Silk’s Law violated every day by this mine?”

In July, employees of Hudbay Minerals, the current co-owners of the Copper Mountain mine, hosted a meeting with the Smilqmix community.

The band members-only gathering was for the company to share its plans to extend the life of the mine by 14 years, by reviving the mine’s former Ingerbelle pit. IndigiNews obtained an audio recording of the meeting.

Terbasket, one of the youngest members to speak at the community gathering, shared her concerns about the proposed Ingerbelle Pit expansion and the mine as a whole.

She told meeting participants that the mine has repeatedly violated CELEX laws and has a history of damaging water.

This year, the province’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy issued six fines to the Copper Mountain mine totaling $105,348, all of the violations related to nearby water pollution. In 2021, the mine at one point exceeded the legal limit for copper waste discharged from its Wolf Creek tailings pond by more than 4500 percent.

“Is this mine treating our water with the respect we’ve been taught? How much have they misused that water? And if that’s true, isn’t the Silk Code being violated every day by that mine? It’s really terrifying,” Terbasket said during the meeting.

She acknowledged that corporate profits in today’s world often “outweigh the impact” of resource extraction.

“But right now, I see this as a clear attack on our rights and rights, and threatens our water – the lifeblood of our land,” she said.

An elder and knowledge keeper also spoke during the meeting, saying they were worried about future generations. IndigiNews did not obtain permission to publish her name.

“I sit in this room and see some little ones, children. I worry about them – what will their future be?” “By the time this child grows up, some of you who make a deal (at the Ingerbill Pit) will be in the boneyard,” the elder said.

“I’m worried about the valley I live in here, where I grew up. So much damage – I don’t want to see any more of it.”

At one point during the meeting, a child from the community approached the microphone and said she had something to say about the Similkameen River.

“I absolutely love the river, and you all love the river, right?” she asked, and many in the community responded enthusiastically: “Yes! We love the river.”

syilx Okanagan water laws ‘tangled’

in SIOC (Water) Declaration 2014the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) recognized water as a “relationship” between people – a sacred entity that must be treated with reverence and respect.

“Any use of water must be an act of reverence and commitment to our responsibilities,” the declaration said.

Also, ONA 2018 Iʔ Syilx iʔ sukʷnaqinx scqʷəlqʷiltət Syilx Okanagan Language Declaration It explains that the laws regarding their lands, territories, waters and resources are made in their language nsyilxcən.

“We the Creator, the nsyilxcən-speaking people, stand here as guardians of our lands, lands, waters and resources for the good of all time,” the declaration states in its first clause.

Meanwhile, ONA 2022 axá iʔ sccuntət iʔ tl x̌aʔxitət x̌l iʔ nqsil̓tət Family Announcement Article Seven states that Creator gave the syilx people “the responsibility to be custodians of their waters, lands, lands, foods, and resources, and we continue to do so.”

Terbasket, who works in the natural resources division of the Penticton Indian Band, told IndigiNews that her country’s many official documents governing water are interconnected.

“They’re all intertwined,” she explained. “Even though you violated the water permit, you will still break the family [and] Language ads are still broken.

In 2022, LSIB Yelmexim (Chairman) Kallobain Keith Crowe said IndigiNews Similkameen River ‘endangered’ Due to a number of factors, including mining and forest pollution and climate change.

“If we lose Similkameen, which is the lifeblood of our valley… we lose our identity,” he said. “We are losing who we are.”

In November, Crow and Upper Similkameen Indian Band (USIB) president Bonnie Jacobsen was among the members A group of SYILX and non-SYILX leaders who signed a memorandum of agreement They and other regional leaders pledged to work together to protect the Okanagan and Similkameen watersheds.

Both Jacobsen and Crowe declined IndigiNews’ requests to talk about the mine, the proposed Ingerbelle pit expansion, and the contents of a community meeting in July.

In 2019, LSIB and USIB entered into “participation agreements” with Copper Mountain Mining Corporation, which then owned the mines. In the same year, an application was made for the New Ingerbelle project.

The sməqmíx leadership has not yet made a decision on the new Ingerbelle expansion project. It is unclear how much revenue the two groups themselves generate from mining operations.

A Joint statement Of the LSIB and USIB released in 2023, he said both First Nations “have been frustrated by the mine for years and the relationship has become increasingly tense.”

“First Nations governments are shared decision-makers, and we expect companies on our lands to treat us fairly and with respect as the custodians of our lands and waters from time immemorial,” a statement from Jacobsen said at the time.

“Our lands have never been ceded, surrendered or sold.”

IndigiNews also reached out to Hudbay Minerals but did not receive a response.

Even in the face of environmental injustice and corporate greed, the community should not lose hope and strength in confronting mine expansion, Lewis said.

“We should always try. Never give up. It’s like trying to push a big boulder up a hill,” he said.

“You can’t lose hope. You always have to keep going. Everything I do is help my people. I can’t get discouraged.”