Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC)

"As we're fighting this fight, I know our ancestors are with us, helping to give us the strength to do this important work, so we can leave this area to those that come behind us." — Esther Reese, SEITC President and Chair. Established in 2014, Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) is a consortium of 15 Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian Nations upholding their sovereign right to steward traditional lands, waterways and sacred sites. SEITC is currently leading a significant human rights initiative that aims to halt any further harm to transboundary watersheds and traditional territories. #humanrights #dripa #sovereignty #southeastalaska #wrangell #stikine

The Wagners worry about the future of waterways that have sustained their family and others for hundreds of years. “What I want is that the river is still there for my children and their children,” Louie Wagner said. “Everything that was endangered is disappearing and never coming back. It’s just pictures in a picture book — like dinosaurs.” Washington Post coverage of the threat that #transboundaryMining poses to our Tribal citizens and the lands and waters they depend on. https://lnkd.in/gzbsH2KY

"SEITC President Esther Aaltséen Reese said Wrangell will be directly impacted by the mining project. Galore Creek is 25 miles from the border and the entire project drains into the Stikine River." KSTK reports on Canada’s $15 million funding for the Galore Creek Mine. Listen here:

Canada’s department of natural resources last month announced that it plans to inject about $15 million U.S. into a massive copper and gold development just 25 miles from the Alaska border. The project is perched above tributaries of the Stikine River — a major salmon-bearing waterway that flows into Alaska’s Inside Passage between the small towns of Wrangell and Petersburg. “Rather than honoring Indigenous sovereignty and its treaty obligations, Canada is staging our traditional homelands and waters to be the sacrifice zone to benefit the British Columbia mining industry and its shareholders,” Richard Chalyee éesh Peterson, president of Southeast Alaska’s largest tribal government, the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. https://lnkd.in/ew9FkzzZ

Register and comment: https://lnkd.in/gQsnek3c The British Columbia government is now accepting comments from the public on Skeena Resources' proposal for the Eskay Creek Mine, located 40 miles upstream from the Alaska border in the Unuk River watershed.

Join us for the Southeast Alaska screenings of Klabona Keepers, a powerful documentary about 15 years of matriarch-led resistance to protect the Sacred Headwaters from some of the world’s largest multinational companies. After the film, stay for a discussion with Tahltan Elders, youth, and filmmaker Tamo Campos. Free admission! Oct 15 — Craig, Tribal House, 6pm Oct 16 — Kasaan, 6pm Oct 17 — Wrangell, Nolan Center, 6pm Oct 18 — Ketchikan, Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, 6pm #KlabonaKeepers?#SoutheastAlaska?#SacredHeadwaters #IndigenousResistance

More than 500 miles of salmon-supporting rivers and streams in the Taku, Stikine, and Unuk River watersheds are threatened as Canada rushes to expand gold mining projects in the area. Regulators in British Columbia have proposed to re-open an old underground mine on the Unuk River. The Eskay Creek Mine would be an open pit design, processing 5,000 tons of rock each day for up to 12 years. All the tailings and acid-generating waste rock would be dumped into natural lakes, enlarged by earthen dams that would need to last forever to prevent catastrophic harm. This project threatens to destroy the Unuk River’s large salmon runs and eulachon spawning grounds—fish central to Tlingit identity and culture. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples enshrines the right to free, prior, and informed consent on development projects affecting Indigenous communities. Yet even though Canada and BC governments have adopted this standard into law, regulators have so far refused to properly consult with the member Tribes of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) on the Eskay Creek Mine or any of the other six proposed and operating mines dotting these transboundary watersheds. ? Send Canadian Ministers a letter to demand they follow the law and protect the human rights of SEITC member Tribes before permitting any more mining activity in the region. Follow the link to take action:?

On Aug. 1, the Southeast Alaska Tribes requested support from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, arguing the reopening of the Eskay Creek Mine in B.C. will violate their human rights. B.C. is set to publish an environmental impact assessment for the Eskay Creek mine in the near future, which will open a 30-day period for public comment during which the SEITC can give feedback before the mine revitalization process moves forward. According to Manupipatpong, this is not enough time for member tribes of the SEITC to give their free, prior and informed consent to the project. This request for precautionary measures to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights means the SEITC would be afforded the time they need to evaluate the environmental and cultural impacts of the mining project to their waters, Manupipatpong explained. For Reese, the stakes for SEITC’s consultation in the Eskay Creek revitalization process are the highest they could be. “If we can't get a seat at the table,” said Reese, “We are looking at the decimation of our way of life.” #NationalObserver #DRIPA #UnukRiver #TransboundaryMining #ESKYF

“Canada’s decision categorically silences those of us who have occupied and stewarded these watersheds for tens of thousands of years, long before the colonial border was established. Canada is putting companies and profit over the rights of its neighbors who are separated only by a colonial border. Let’s be clear: this is a death sentence for our rights and way of life, the waters on which we depend, and the wildlife with which we share our home.” — Lee Wagner, SEITC assistant executive director