“By the mixing of our waters, it becomes your responsibility to protect our water, and our responsibility to protect your water.”  Hereditary Chief Pete Erickson of the northern British Columbia Carrier Sekani First Nation completed the final water ceremony before a crowd of over four hundred supporters in downtown Toronto on Wednesday, 9 May 2012.  As representative of one of the five-member First Nations of the Yinka Dene Alliance, Chief Erickson, along with a delegation of over fifty First Nation representatives, had just completed the ten day Freedom Train journey across Canada’s west to highlight the nations’ opposition to Enbridge corporation’s proposed Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline through their territory.

The Yinka Dene territories are located in the headwaters of the Fraser, Skeena and Mackenzie/Arctic watersheds. Their people have relied on salmon since time immemorial. Their territory is 25% of the 1,177 km through which the proposed pipeline will carry raw tar sands crude from Bruderheim in the Alberta Tar Sands to the inland coastal community of Kitimat, British Columbia. Citing the infamous Exxon Valdez tanker spill, the Yinka Dene and supporters fear contamination from pipeline ruptures and tanker spills of catastrophic proportions.

On 29 March 2012, the Ontario government paid $3.5 million to mining company God’s Lake Resources (GLR) to walk away from its leases, located on Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) lands.  Multiple sacred KI graves lie within the claim area.  KI had issued an eviction notice to GLR last September.

For KI, one of the largest First Nations communities in the region, it was perhaps a déjà vu moment.  Following the 2008 sentencing of six months in prison of six community leaders for protecting their land from mining exploration by Platinex Corp., the province bought out Platinex for $5 million.  The “KI 6” served sixty-eight days before a judge released them unconditionally on sentencing appeal.