Tŝilhqot’in leaders want to see Tŝilhqot’in solutions being implemented for Tŝilhqot’in problems.
At a press conference held at the University of British Columbia on Feb. 24, leaders of the Tsilhqot'in National Government (TNG) spoke to media to draw attention to a document TNG has published as a result of lessons learned from the Tŝilhqox (Chilcotin River) Landslide in 2024.
Jenny Philbrick, executive director of TNG, said the report provides four calls to action based on the collaborative approach developed during the response to the July 30, 2024 landslide.
The four calls to action include:
- Establishing core funding to implement urgent emergency response and recovery actions;
- Reforming fisheries management regimes to protect Tŝilhqot’in salmon stocks, supporting Indigenous jurisdiction over fisheries;
- Transitioning the Emergency Salmon Task Force into a long-term arrangement to harness strong technical expertise and align provincial and federal regulation with task force work;
- Emergency management which sees B.C. and Canada integrate the consultation, cooperation and consent-base protocols across all departments to ensure Indigenous jurisdiction is respected, even in an urgent emergency response, and planning, agreements and funding for cumulative impacts recovery.
"I think it's a good step forward for the Tŝilhqot’in, but I think it's a good step forward for all Indigenous people and governments to work together all across Canada," said Philbrick.
"We have a pretty good working relationship with the governments that's there," said Francis Laceese, nits’ilʔin (chief) of Tl'esqox (Toosey).
TNG created a salmon task force in response to the slide, which threatened salmon trying to return to spawn in the Chilcotin River system.
"This isn't about pushing other governments out," she said.
"This is all about how Indigenous people should be taking the lead in their lands," she said, noting the document they created, just five pages long, attempts to summarize what went well in responding to the crisis and what could be done better.
Philbrick explained how the area where the landslide took place is called Nagwentled by the Tŝilhqot’in, which means, "the land that moves."
"We've dealt with this before," she said, noting their historic knowledge of the area was important in the response.
Laceese said salmon is the Tŝilhqot’in people's primary food source and as such, is critically important to the community.
"It's a part of our DNA," he said, noting the area has seen slides in the past as well, some of which impacted salmon, due to the soils in the area and had established a salmon task force in the past.
"We take the lead and we know the area," he said, noting there is still a lot of instability in the area and they will have to prepare and assess different areas to fish from than those lost in last year's slide.
"We're very adaptable," he said.
Jason Houde, a Tl'esqox (Toosey) councillor and resource manager, said with the report's title Nagwentled, he thinks about his grandparents and all they taught him about the land.
"We as parents have to send a strong message to our children about the importance of this land, the water and the fish and how we manage these fish and resources, including our timber resources as well," he said.
Houde said despite the lingering impacts of residential schools, the people are working to move forward and learn. He spoke of the spiritual and cultural importance of Nagwentled (also known as Farwell Canyon).
He said the people use the area for land-based healing and collecting medicinal plants.
"Prayer, being on the land, offering up your prayer, going down to the water, going for a spiritual dip, the water is just so refreshing it's like you're a new person when you come out of there," he said.
"It's really, really important for us to go down there," said Houde.
"In times of great tragedy, we learn, and what we learned is we have to rely heavily on our ancestral knowledge," said Lennon Solomon, nits’ilʔin (chief) of Yunesitin (Stone).
"When you work collaboratively with us, the success rate goes up," he said.
Philbrick said while there were some missteps during the response last year, things did get better as the response efforts went on.
"From the very beginning, we should have been involved," she said.
While last year's salmon run was expected to be low due to the previous impacts of the Big Bar Slide, Philbrick said the TNG team is expecting a good run this year.
"We're really excited for that," she said, noting the turbidity (level of suspended sediment) in the river has gone down since the slide.
The document is the third one produced by the TNG with calls to action on how the TNG can better work with their partners, said Philbrick. She said the goal is to help others learn as Indigenous communities and all levels of government work to implement the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPPA) in B.C.
"We are the Tŝilhqot’in People and Tsilhqot'in People means people of the river and everything we do, our everyday lives, revolves around the river," said Philbrick.
The Tŝilhqot’in National Government was established in 1989 and is comprised of the six Tŝilhqot’in communities of Tl’etinqox(Anaham), ʔEsdilagh (Alexandria), Yuneŝit’in (Stone), Tŝideldel (Redstone), Tl’esqox (Toosey) and Xeni Gwet’in (Nemiah), west of the Fraser River on the Chilcotin Plateau.
