Anchorage, Alaska — A group of Southeast Alaska tribes requested on Aug. 1 that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights order a temporary pause on Canadian mining activity. They say “reckless” mining activity violates their human rights.
That came after Canada’s Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship ordered on June 27 that the tribes be denied “participating Nation status,” which has the effect of diminishing their say in the permitting process.
Lee Wagner, who is Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian, and the assistant executive director of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission, said the 15 tribes in the commission did everything they could to prove their ties to Canadian lands where gold mining is proposed. They won a lawsuit at the Canadian Supreme Court saying tribes with traditional ties to territory within Canada qualify for participating Indigenous nation status. That status would require agencies to consult with and accommodate them in the permitting process.
Wagner said in a prepared statement, “Canada’s (subsequent) decision (to deny that status) categorically silences those of us who have occupied and stewarded these watersheds for tens of thousands of years, long before the colonial border was established. Canada is putting companies and profit over the rights of its neighbors who are separated only by a colonial border. Let’s be clear: this is a death sentence for our rights and way of life, the waters on which we depend, and the wildlife with which we share our home.”
She told ICT, “I feel that it (the decision) was unjust … concerning and disheartening and it almost feels biased and prejudiced that ‘okay, you’ve proven this, yes, but now we’re going to change it.’ It feels a little too convenient for what they’re wanting to do.”
She said the mines are for gold, a luxury, “They’re not a necessity, but they’re going to be endangering a whole ecosystem and biodiverse, cultural, old, traditional, beautiful area.”
The commission said the Unuk River watershed, which supports salmon and eulachon runs, is at stake. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the eulachon run nearly disappeared and was shut down in 2005. In 2021 the fishery was opened again but harvest was restricted to one five-gallon bucket per household.
Lee Wagner’s daughter Tasia Wagner told ICT the closure and strict limit on the harvest caused a “weird disconnect” for her generation. “With the around 20-year pause in harvesting the eulachon, that was a pause in me learning how to harvest and process the eulachon myself and my cousins. So basically that’s nearly a whole generation that has not been able to partake in this way of life that my mom and my uncle and their cousins got to learn from and grow up in with my grandparents and their uncles and aunties”
She said harvest limits leave elders unable to taste a favorite food. “It’s hard when the river opens up for that one bucket when we have so many community members and elders that have yet to have eulachon again for the first time in decades. And a lot of our elders pass before they’re even able to try or taste eulachon again. And that’s heartbreaking.”
Louis Wagner, Jr., who is Tsimpshian and Tlingit, is Lee Wagner ’s father, and Tasia Wagner’s grandfather. He shared with ICT memories of the days when eulachon were plentiful in the Unuk River.
“We would come back with 30,000 pounds of eulachons and bring them to (the communities of) Ketchikan, Saxman and they would fly in from Prince of Wales (Island) there and get what they need. And the family in Ketchikan would send it out to the west coast and the float planes would be very busy and then we’d bring them to (his home village of) Metlakatla,” Louis said.
“So everybody got their eulachons and had their fish and we started making the eulachon grease with whatever was left. So nothing was ever wasted. We’ve made use of all of it, but now our people aren’t getting the fish. The kids aren’t growing up eating the fish and if they don’t grow up on it, good chance they won’t like it. It’s an oily fish, but it is the best,” he said.
“We have been doing everything we can to engage the Canadian government in this process, giving them the opportunity to disrupt their ongoing colonial legacy, and recognize our sovereign rights,” said commission vice-president Rob Sanderson Jr., who is Tlingit and Haida, in a prepared statement. “We are the guardians of some of the last wild places left in the world not yet exploited by the extractive industry, but without our rights recognized, we cannot do this. We hope that individuals around the world—many of whom are also facing devastating consequences resulting from Canadian mining—join us in this fight.”
Earthjustice and Re:wild join the 15 tribes that make up the commission in asking Canada to recognize the sovereign rights of Alaska tribes and consult them on all development decisions impacting their traditional territories.
For their part, Canadian agencies say the environmental threats raised by the tribes were considered by Canadian authorities and determined to be not likely to have significant environmental effects. They also have said implementation of plans includes mitigation measures and other commitments.
The Canadian agencies have told the Inter-American Commission that permitting decisions were properly conducted, and it’s “out of order” for the tribes to preemptively challenge the potential outcomes of coming environmental assessments. Moreover, the agencies said they routinely provide opportunities for the public to provide input during environmental assessments and those opportunities are available to the tribes.
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