Coast Salish Water Warriors: Voices for the Water at the Salish Sea Assembly in Seattle

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Nov. 9, 2024

SEATTLE -- The powerful Salish Sea Assembly magnified the voices of the Coast Salish Water Warriors, the struggle to shut down the Trans Mountain Pipeline, and the flow of dirty oil from the Alberta tar sands to the Salish Sea. It was censored by all major media.

"We are not just activists, we are revolutionaries and we're radical and militant and we want to keep it that way, we don't want to get soft in our older years," said Kanahus Manuel, Secwepemc and Ktunaxa, describing her family's struggle to protect their land and stop the Trans Mountain Pipeline in British Columbia.

Speaking of the "State of Emergency for The Salish Sea," Kanahus said, "We are the title holders to the land."

Water Warrior Dakota Case, Puyallup, spoke of his great grandparents Janet and Don McCloud and the fishing wars at Frank's Landing. "What they call treaty rights is what we call inherent rights of life."

"We were created from this land and put here. This is our duty, this is our obligation to protect the water," Dakota said during the gathering at the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center on Friday, the final day of the gathering, Nov. 6 --8.

"All of those waters lead back into one," said Patricia Gonzalez, Puyallup, Water Warriors Council, during the Coast Salish Water Warriors Panel.

"If you ever need healing, just go to the water."

The defenders are battling the dirty energy corporations poisoning the land, water and air in western Canada and Washington State, and the waters of the Salish Sea. The rivers from British Columbia in Canada and Washington State come together in the Salish Sea on their journey to the Pacific Ocean.

The dead birds floating in the Alberta tar sands tailing ponds, the man camps linked to missing and murdered Indigenous girls, and the increased oil tankers in the Salish Sea -- are all parts of the dirty oil business of the Trans Mountain pipeline pouring out of Alberta's dirty tar sands in Canada, bound for oil tankers in the Salish Sea.

The destruction, and theft of land, is a continuation of the genocidal residential school system. Native children were kidnapped, ripped from their families, and incarcerated in the abusive schools operated by Canada and the churches.

"We can't drink water from there any more," said Jean, who lives close to the Alberta tar sands in her homeland. "I was born into this destruction.

"Thousands of birds are dead in the tailing ponds."

"They had blue herons there."

Dangling from a Bridge, and Blockading: Prison for Freedom Fighters

"I went to prison three times last year for blockading, for protesting and stopping construction," said Will George of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation in B.C. Will described his years of the fight alongside people with strong hearts, and strong minds, to shut down the Trans Mountain Pipeline.

"It is an honor to be part of our freedom fighters who are being locked up," said Will, now a documentary film maker, featured in 'Warrior Spirit.'

Tori Cress is an Anishinaabe mother of two from Beausoleil First Nation in the Great Lakes Region, on Christian Island, Ontario.

Tori said their treaty rights to harvest were restored.

"But there's nothing left to harvest." As for the ancient forests, "All of those ancient relatives are gone."

During the Seattle gathering, panel moderator Anthony Fernandes remembered being at Standing Rock, during the resistance to Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. He said now the people here need their help. His uncles were shot at while clam digging, something that hasn't happened for.

"We need help," he said of the struggle for fishing rights, defense of the land from pipelines, and the defense of water from oil tankers.

"This is really uplifting," said Rueben George, Tsleil-Waututh Nation, founder of Protectors of the Salish Sea. Rueben spoke on reliance on the spirit and the spiritual ecosystem.

"We're people of the water."

Beginning with their powerful traditional songs and sound of the drum, Coast Salish shared their traditions of fishing, hunting and gathering and their culture based on the salmon during the three day gathering. They spoke of listening to the elders and following the spirit on their canoe journeys now ushering youths into the ways of their ancestors.

Read more and watch the video series recorded by Govinda Dalton at Censored News.

Coast Salish Warrior Warriors, The Salish Sea Assembly, Day 3
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/11/state-of-emergency-for-salish-sea-in.html

Coast Salish Freedom Fighters from the Alberta Tar Sands to the Salish Sea, Day 2
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/11/coast-salish-freedom-fighters-from.html

Live from the Salish Sea Assembly in Seattle, Day 1
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/11/today-salish-sea-assembly-in-seattle.html

Article copyright Censored News