First Nations’ Fears

Rolling Stone reported that Neil Young, surprisingly, performed last week for the time in years just 50 miles west of the Farm! neighboring community, Victoria Heights, is named for its west facing view where, after 1900’s logging, pioneers could “see the lights of Victoria”, British Columbia’s Capitol on Vancouver Island. What is going on in the land of the Coast Salish, Kwakwaka’wakw, and the Nuu-chah-nulth; the latter with 14 reserves “along the mountains and sea” from the Brooks Peninsula in the north to the Strait of Juan de Fuca – across the Strait, the Makah are part of their Wakashan Linguistic Family? Two recent Nuu-chah-nulth-related posts on Nootka Island and Makah/Norse longhouses garnered 600 and 1,800 comments, respectively; ~500x more than expected. Many of those comments came from British Columbia (BC), many honoring Nuu-chah-nulth history and the 4,300 members alive today. These First Nation Peoples were not unknown in our area; like the Haida and Tlingit, their war canoes once reached deep into Puget Sound in search of food, slaves, and vengeance. Nels A. Bruseth’s diary script from 1910 below describes the aftermath of one of their raids up Pilchuck Creek, approximately three miles from the Farm, where we assume slaves were captured as the “Sticks” is Chinook jargon for “forest people” or might also have been from the Stikine River. Nuu-chah-nulth warred across Vancouver Province of the Rocky Mountain Floristic Region and among themselves. Approximately 90% of their peoples died of disease after explorers’ first visits in 1774; but, after the “acquisition of guns, well-armed Nuu-chah-nulth groups such as the Mowachaht, ‘A:ho:sath and Tla’o:kwi’ath nearly exterminated others such as the Machl-‘ath, ‘O:ts’o:s’ath and T’ok’wa:’ath.” Reviewing the extraordinarily large number of comments over the last two months, there seems to be a concern for increased clear-cutting on their home island, namely the accelerated harvesting of old-growth forests, and diminished insect, bird, and ocean invertebrate life caused by new logging herbicides on the west side of an island larger than all the Hawaiian Islands combined. In BC, ~95% of forests are publicly owned and one in seven jobs relate to forestry; this is the way it has “always” been, but the issue appears to be that the last 20 years’ practices – perhaps herbicides? – have changed and biodiversity has plummeted? What is going on in the land of the Nuu-chah-nulth? Does North America have its own Amazon in terms of loss of diversity?

https://www.rollingstone.com/…/neil-young-heart-of…/ 
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/…/nootka-nuu… 
https://viea.ca/business-living-on…/first-nations/ 
https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/docs/mr/mr113/land.htm 
https://ecologyst.com/blogs/films/before-they-fall… 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPhc_rtonTw 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvDBPtR6qwE https://link.springer.com/…/10.1007/s13280-021-01660-5…

The key concern for the environment evidenced by Indigenous Peoples’ posting appears to be related to:

fisheries
being left alone
logging practices

Comments, content, questions appreciated, email bb@plc215.org

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