Wet’suwet’en Peoples (Yinka Dini – People of this Earth)
Unis’tot’en of the Wet’suwet’en
*This article is a courtesy of the Unis’tot’en official webpage; we are spreading the info and love!
The Unis’tot’en (C’ihlts’ehkhyu / Big Frog Clan) are the original Wet’suwet’enYintah Wewat Zenli distinct to the lands of the Wet’suwet’en. Over time in Wet’suwet’en History, the other clans developed and were included throughout Wet’suwet’en Territories. The Unis’tot’en are known as the toughest of the Wet’suwet’en as their territories were not only abundant, but the terrain was known to be very treacherous. The Unis’tot’en recent history includes taking action to protect their lands from Lions Gate Metals at their Tacetsohlhen Bin Yintah, and building a cabin and resistance camp at Talbits Kwah at Gosnell Creek and Wedzin Kwah (Morice River which is a tributary to the Skeena and Bulkley River) from seven proposed pipelines from Tar Sands Gigaproject and LNG from the Horn River Basin Fracturing Projects in the Peace River Region
Likhts’amisyu Clan of the Wet’suwet’en
LaksamashyuThe Likhts’amisyu (Firewood Clan) are made up of people who have ancient roots which originate in the ancient Gitxsan village of Temlahamidt. They have developed strong relationships with many of the Wet’suwet’en Clans and neighboring tribes. They carefully managed a Fireweed travel and trade corridor which enriched people from the Nat’ot’en territories, through to the Wet’suwet’en territories, into the heart of Gitxsan territories and up into Nisga’a territories. Their territories in Wet’suwet’en country are also threatened by development. For example, the Bard Ventures Mining Exploration site near Houston BC threatens an ancient battle/burial ground of the Wet’suwet’en and their southern neighbors the Tsilhc’ot’en. Also, there is the Huckleberry Mine which is located at the Easternmost side of the Sibola Range near the devastated watershed at Ootsa Lake which was flooded by the Kemano Hydro Electric Project. The proposed Petroleum Pipeline projects threaten some of the most treacherous and unstable terrain in Wet’suwet’en territories along the Clore River Watershed.
Grassroots Wet’suwet’en
The Grassroots Wet’suwet’en do not operate from a boardroom or from a societies act, they walk and breathe their laws with a powerful and unbreakable marriage to the land. The Grassroots peoples of the Wet’suwet’en are healers, warriors, elders, hunters, fisherpeople, knowledge keepers, and are culturally driven. The Grassroots peoples have a great potential to reverse impacts from colonization and eradicate the resultant social and spiritual poverty by continuing to show the next generations to walk with their laws.
To Learn more about what solidarity looks like with Unis’tot’en’, apply for volunteer opportunities and/or possibly caravan to the blockade encampment, check-out this related site:
MADISON — Hunters are killing Wisconsin wolves at a dizzying rate, pushing another season toward an early end.
The season began Oct. 15 and is slated to last until Feb. 28 or until hunters reach a 150-animal statewide kill limit. As of Thursday morning, just eight days into the season, hunters had killed 103 animals, nearly 70 percent of the limit. State wildlife officials have closed four of the six wolf-hunting zones where hunters were quickly approaching zone-specific harvest limits or had reached or exceeded them.
Dave MacFarland, a large carnivore specialist for the Department of Natural Resources, said hunters didn’t reach the 70 percent mark last year until two weeks into the season. The kill limit was higher, at 251 animals, but the DNR issued about 1,000 more tags than this year. Hunters needed 34 days to reach the 70 percent mark in the inaugural season of 2012, when the quota was 116 animals and 1,160 tags were issued.
MacFarland attributed this year’s fast pace to more hunters heading into the woods early in the hopes of bagging a wolf before their zone closes. More hunters are using traps, perhaps the most efficient means of hunting wolves, he added. Of all the wolves killed so far this year, 85 percent were trapped, compared with 70 percent in 2013 and 52 percent in 2012, he said.
He also noted that the DNR issues 10 tags for every wolf counted in the quota, putting more hunters on the landscape than for other species. For example, the agency authorized 1,500 wolf tags this year compared with about 10,000 tags for 4,700 bears, a ratio of almost two hunters per bear, he said.
The 2012 and 2013 seasons each ended Dec. 23, two months ahead of the February stop date. MacFarland said he wasn’t sure when this season might end.
Hunters were still 32 animals shy of the quota in Zone 3, a corner of northwestern Wisconsin, and 28 wolves short of the limit in Zone 6, which encompasses most of southern two-thirds of the state.
MacFarland said the kill rate is typically slower in that area but DNR officials are watching for signs that they may have to shut the hunt down early to compensate for the over-quota numbers elsewhere.
“It’s definitely going quick,” he said. “We’ll have to wait and see if that trend continues. It’s going to depend on how much people are motivated to get out in the two remaining units.”
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published
Penokee Defenders 