A lot of reporters are getting an important point wrong in their coverage of the Wet'suwet'en protest against Coastal GasLink. It's being framed as a disagreement between hereditary chiefs and a single elected band council. But there isn't one band. There are, I believe, six.
People are getting confused because there's a Wet'suwet'en First Nation. But that First Nation is just one community within the larger Wet'suwet'en nation, and it's actually not the largest.
The largest is Witset First Nation (formerly Moricetown). The others are Skin Tyee, Nee Tahi Buhn, Burns Lake (or Ts'il Kaz Koh) and Hagwilget. I believe Hagwilget is the only one that isn't in the path of Coastal GasLink. The others have all signed pipeline agreements.
What's happened with Witset First Nation is interesting. Witset signed an agreement with the province in 2015, but community outrage led to some uncertainty about how they would proceed. Finally, last year, the council voted to sign an agreement with TransCanada.
Here's a story about that vote: interior-news.com/news/witset-vo…
But there are clearly mixed feelings in the community. It's complicated. Here's an interesting interview with Witset Chief Victor Jim, saying the pipeline will create jobs, but the recent arrests "never should have happened." aptnnews.ca/2019/01/09/i-d…
Anyway, I'm not there. I'm not going to pretend I have any insight into how the Wet'suwet'en people feel about this pipeline. I don't know.
But I think that if we're going to talk about the tension between elected and hereditary leadership, and who speaks for whom, we should at least be clear about who the players are.
