CodeBlue BC has named Hereditary Chief Gwininitxw, also named Yvonne Lattie, a Local Watershed Hero for her lifelong defence of watersheds. She has campaigned to change forestry and industrial practices in BC, and is a leader of conservation planning and historical ecology studies at the Slamgeesh Salmon Science Station in the Stikine.
"As the head chief of the house, it's my responsibility to ensure that I do everything in my power to protect the lands and resources for the future generations. Being a hereditary chief does not mean you're someone special. What it means is you have responsibilities that are beyond small," Lattie, 75, told CodeBlue. Lattie has walked her talk, putting herself at risk to give local residents a say in decisions about their lands, which for decades were made in Victoria, Ottawa and corporate headquarters.
In 2020 Lattie was among the Gitxsan hereditary chiefs who, with other protesters, were arrested at a rail demonstration near New Hazelton. With other hereditary chiefs, she fiercely opposed the 670-km Coastal GasLink pipeline through their lands, putting herself at odds with others in her communities. (CodeBlue BC campaigned against the pipeline's threat to critical salmon habitat.)
The controversial pipeline was built with the support of 20 elected First Nation governments in disagreement with hereditary chiefs, and will carry fracked methane from Dawson Creek to be processed in a new facility near Kitimat, to be exported to Asia.
Lattie has been outspoken about the complex Delgamuukw legal case led by Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs, in which a 1997 landmark ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada upheld Aboriginal Title and recognized oral testimony as evidence of historic occupation. "The decision recognized] that we have rights and responsibilities, that we can now speak and be acknowledged as having never surrendered our lands or our territories," Lattie told CBC News.
Two years ago, Lattie was one of the Gitxsan hereditary chiefs who declared part of the upper Skeena watershed an Indigenous Protected Area, off-limits to unauthorized activity and subject to Gitxsan law. The 170,000-hectare area includes the ancestral territories of the Wilps Gwininitxw.
"My whole life has been devoted to the many generations to come," said Lattie.
"I did not graduate school. I left in grade 8, to raise my siblings while my mother and father worked. There were seven of us, and mom and dad together made $1 per day. Times were not gentle, but they were good. We had to work hard. Many families would get together to plant acres of potatoes, prepare salmon and moose. It was all about sharing.
"But in today's society, somewhere along the line, there was a break and the generosity is not there any more.'
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QUESTIONS for Yvonne Lattie
What is your first memory by water?
When she was a child, Lattie's family drew their water from a well house. "It was water in its purest form, cool, and the most amazing tasting water."
"When I was 5 or 6, I remember my grandmother Mary Simpson had a nightmare. She got up at the break of dawn, got a pan of well water and, to make sure that nothing happened to me, washed me with the water. She would blow into the water and she would talk to the water. She asked the water to clean the negativity from my body and take it. Then she took the water outside. There was a lone tree at the far end of the field. It was all gnarled, and it looked like it had a hard time. She kneeled in front of the tree, spoke to the tree and grass, and asked Mother Earth to cleanse the negativity from the water and return it to the system of life, and then she poured it onto the base of the tree."
"Later, she explained to me, "Water is the essence of life. When your mom was pregnant you were in the water. You are born of water. And she told me that respect is a priority. Even the smallest blade of grass has life. Everything that exists has life. Without respect being intact, she said life would not survive."
What is your favourite water critter?
"Anything that moves in water is life. I cannot say a favourite, because they all need one another to survive."
What is a place that you love in your home watershed?
The Slamgeesh wetlands at the head of the Slamgeesh River. The Slamgeesh headwaters, remote from any towns or roads, is where Lattie's family originated, and where salmon return to spawn.
"In May the ice will start cracking, and when the ice starts cracking something in the DNA in those little tiny smolts clicks into place and lets them know it's time to let the water move their body, and they start their journey to the ocean."
What issues are you seeing affect your watersheds?
Industrial development and a colonization mindset.
Our ancestors talked about a huge black snake that would rise where the sun rises, go clear across the country, and set where the sun sets. And on its route the big black snake would devour everything in its path. It would have no mercy for anything. And now we see the pipeline, Coastal Gaslink.
Industry has massively clearcut our timber, and now with the pipelines going through they're clear-cutting rights of ways for these pipes. Once they remove the trees, there is nothing to hold the soil in place. There are lots of landslides, lots of muck running into the river. There goes the salmon.
Our people survive off the land, we live off wildlife and salmon.
With industry coming in there's such a huge gloom I wonder what's going to happen to our means of survival.
I think about Mother Earth compared to us as human beings, with arteries and capillaries in our necks, and the Skeena and Nass rivers as arteries and capillaries in all our watersheds.
If we don't take care of ourselves all of those arteries plug up and we end up with a stroke or heart attack. Look at Mother Earth-all the damage-the waterways and salmon are damaged. How will Mother Earth survive?
First Nations have no control over development, and politicians, the government, keeps subsidizing it. Government apologized for residential schools and disease-but guess what? It's happening again, with industrial development.
Through the eyes of my grandmother I have looked into the past. Through the eyes of my grandchild I look into the eyes of the future. I hope that they have a future as good as we did.
If you put my grandmother on the land, she was as intelligent as any professor. She knows the land, knows culture-but white man's way of education made a huge difference with our people... in university, it's all intellectual.
If First Nations were allowed to look after the land the way we were taught, our earth would be healthy.
How does drought affect you?
The trees are becoming diseased and 2021 was the last year we were able to harvest wild cranberries. Now that there's drought there are no cranberries, and no huckleberries. The wild plants we need for medicine and food are no longer there, all due to drought.
We can go to the store to buy groceries. Can you imagine what the animals are feeling?
What motivates you, keeps you hopeful?
Looking into the eyes of my grandbabies. Their eyes sparkle, they're full of life, and our teachings say our ancestors return in our children. So it's up to us to ensure they can have a good life.
Who benefits most from BC's watersheds?
Governments [in Victoria and Ottawa]. They benefit from all the dams, hydroelectricity, salmon harvesting on the coast, and all taxes collected from people working.
(Lattie does not see herself or the Gitxsan as part of Canada's governments.) We have our own governing structure, that's very stringent. We don't leave loose ends. We try to make sure everything survives and has a right. Respect is a huge part of that, and love of all things.
But we are working with the provincial and federal governments to try to come to agreements about our territory. It's still our territory, but we do understand that we do need support.
How should BC address water wasters and polluters?
"We've got to quit being so lenient. A slap on the wrist means nothing to them. If they can't take care of it, we take it away."
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Lattie told CodeBlue BC that British Columbians must re-think development practices.
Development that destroys the land "will lead to the genocide of First Nations-but it is not only First Nations, it's all people. Just look around and see climate change."
"And many of our people have become colonized. It's like everybody has to earn a lot of money and have fancy vehicles and fancy homes. My grandmother said that all you need is a roof over your head, walls, a fire in your furnace, and food in your belly. We come into this world naked, and we leave naked. We should only take what we need."
"Enjoy life while it's here. Life is fast. Not long ago I was a five-year-old, now I'm a 75-year- old lady. It goes quick. Enjoy it. Make sure you have time to give to family and children, all the love and teachings they need. Share your knowledge. And allow them to have the opportunities that you never had."
All photos courtesy of Chrystal Lattie
