The Nak'azd'li band leaders in Fort St.James will be in court tomorrow(?),attempting to stop the mine.
Obviously, they do not see the benefits, as do the McLeod Lake band.
People are under the impression they are taking Terrane Metals,the owners of the mine,to court.
Not so.
People are also under the impression that all band members are against this mine.
That is not so either...many of them are in favour of it.
The band is taking the B.C.Government to court for supposedly not involving them in the environmental process.
But in the end,this is really all about money.

"But in the end,this is really all about money."

Pretty much. Just about anything can be accomplished with enough of it.

Is there any mining process that is enviromentally friendly to the natural landscape and wildlife in the area? I highly doubt it. The article fails to mention how much the band is going to be compensated.

From living in Fort St James ive been following every step of this project since early 2005 when Terrane metals became an entity. I can tell you one thing.. The Nakadzli have been fully consulted during the whole process however they chose not to be a part of the review process and said little if anything at the public meetings and presentations. The company also changed mine plans to include first nation concerns from fort st james.Terrane also payed for band members to take mining courses and they also funded the band to do their own survey on the site but Nakadzli refused to share thier survey data..(Probaly because they blew the $$ on a new diesl pick up instead of doing the survey!)Just because your a FN band it doesnt mean that you have a wild card to hold up projects especially if they neglected to do thier own due dilligence.(Like attening meetings and taking part in the proecess set out.)

Does that matter.Terrane has probably agreed to some economic benefits for ML, but I say good on both parties. At least they are not holding their hands out or holding a gun to Terranes head. Rumors I hear from people in the Ft. are over 80% of the Nak'azd'li support the mine but continuously get ignored by the Sam Dictatorship. The boat is going to sail and the Sams will have to answer to their membership later and it might not be pretty!

Terrane built a new health center for ML.

Bang on cougs78 and northman.
And from what I am told,a great many of the Tachie band memebers also supports the mine in terms of economic benefits that will come from the opportunities the mine will creat.
Their are those that say there will be no jobs for first nations.
Complete bull.
The mine is also located on land personally claimed by the Sam family as their traditional keyoh.
That has not gone unnoticed by anyone,including the government.

I can go clain a tree in my neighbours back yard. Does that make it mine if the deed for the land belongs to my neighbour.Any deal the Nak'azd'li could have had would greatly benefit the membership and not the Sam family, that is why they have ignored Terrane. Terrane has stated from the beginning that this project will benefit all the communities in the area. It seems to me that Sams are very poor ambassadors to the region. I still hold out hope for their members though as I have talked to several of them and they totally disagree with their C and C (SAMS)

At the end of the day the various groups will come to some sort of an agreement, and that will be that.

The real issue at this point in time is whether Terrane will get the necessary finiancing to go forward. Without the financing you have nothing.

"This is really all about money".

No, it isn't. Like other native people, many Nak'azdli people are concerned about the environment and about preserving aspects of their traditional way of life. Furthermore, some people who do not oppose the mine nonetheless have concerns about the adequacy of the consultation process.

"the Sam Dictatorship"

Hunh? Yes, the chief and several councilors are members of the Sam family. They were democratically elected and are acting in accordance with their delegated powers. There's no dictatorship.

"land personally claimed by the Sam family as their traditional keyoh."

This is incoherent. A keyoh is not a personal land-holding, nor is the relationship between a keyoh and the keyoh hoontun-ne "holders of the territory" comparable to fee simple ownership. A keyoh is held corporately and the relationship is a combination of stewardship and usufruct.

As for the relationship between the Sams and the band, part of the problem here is that bands are an artificial creation of the Indian Act. The traditional holders of keyoh are not bands; moreover, the holders of a keyoh need not all belong to a single band, so it isn't really accurate to consider keyoh or keyoh holders as subsidiary units of bands. The problematic relationship between the traditional system and the Indian Act system, and the insistence of the colonial governments on dealing only with bands, is a long-standing source of confusion and frustration.

The actual proposed mine site is an approx 1 hour 45 minute drive by modern vehicle from Fort St James. The only person known to use this land is a white trapper. Just because you ran up there last summer and had trails cut doesn't prove anything, especially ownership.
Yes the mine will have some impact, but with improving technologies the mine will leave minimal impact. The major impact will be, people who do not receive handouts will be able to pay their mortgages, buy food and maybe have a chance to send their children to receive higher education. ( It is not free for us ). It is time Natives wake up and realize even their own ancestors would be ashamed of some of them. Get off your rear ends and be a proud people again !!

Nak'azdli's continued opposition to this mine is going to cost them millions. I think other band members are starting to realize this fact. They too need jobs and so do their children. Hunting the odd Moose or picking a few berry's doesn't cut it in today's world.

Maybe more people would take you a bit more seriously if you practiced what you preached about the environment. Maybe 1 out of 5 yards on the reserve are mowed in the summer. No one on the reserve does any sort of landscaping. Half the houses look like garbage dumps. The land on the reserve along the lake should be worth millions but isn't worth 2 cents the way it is. I'm not a politician and will never be, so I don't talk with forked tongue. Oh yeah, 30 06 rifles,nylon gill nets,steel traps and 4X4 trucks have nothing to do with tradition. Maybe actual using traditional materials to hunt,fish etc may have a positive impact on people's perception.

What on earth does mowing the lawn and doing landscaping have to do with preserving the environment? Don't equate middle class white aesthetics with caring for the environment.

Caring for the environment starts at home. And you don't have to be white middle class to do it ! Healthy lawns,trees ,shrubs etc eat away at co2 emissions. I'm just trying to tell you what part of the problem is. So, clean up your reserves, erase the perception of laziness. Go back to traditional hunting methods, people would pay to see a traditional hunt. It would be cool to see!!!

stop this crap about enviromentalist !! go see how much their salaries are !! ever seen dr suzukis house? etc man oh man take your blinders off and get this passed !! sooo many people see only one side how ignornat you look

"What on earth does mowing the lawn and doing landscaping have to do with preserving the environment?"

-If my personal property/living space looked like a warzone would you trust me to put the interest of the environment and people first? -Probably not!

-Poverty, desise and addiction is doing a great job of killing "culture and tradition" on any of these reserves or any community in general. I would be ashamed to call myself a leader if i would be hindering any opertuntiy to offset these problems in a community. Research what Chief Clarance Louis of the Osoyoos Indian Band has to say about this.

ever seen dr suzukis house?

-Which one?

Which one...Lol!...good one northman..good one!

lol

"We are very focused on the future, and we realize that we create this future by our actions. The single most important key to First Nation self-reliance is economic development."

-Chief Clarence Louie

This is quote from Chief Clarence Louie was copied from their website. Just so there's no confusion,he did not comment on this opinion board.

Clarence Louie...now there is a FN leader who figured out that you get a lot further if you become PART of the system,instead of bucking it at every turn.
He obviously figured out how it all worked and used it to his peoples advantage.
A very wise man!
A lot of other FN leaders would be wise to pay attention.