Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
The downstream effects of the Kenney Dam weren’t felt right away. Growing up on the Saik’uz First Nation in the 1970s, Chief Priscilla Mueller remembers a time when the Nechako River was overflowing with spawning salmon in July and August. Elders would set nets and families would help clean the fish. Smoke shacks ran continuously, preparing the food for winter, and freezers would be filled with the abundant stocks.
The Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako passed a resolution to acknowledge the “long-standing interference” on the claims of Indigenous communities in the Nechako First Nations region. Construction and operation of the Kenney Dam has caused interference on the claim of Aboriginal rights and title of First Nations, specifically Saik’uz First Nation, Stellat’en First Nation and Nadleh Whut’en, RDBN officials noted in a March 10 news release. Officials are asking the federal government, provincial government and Rio Tinto to do “all things necessary to support the efforts of the Nechako First Nations to restore the ecosystem functioning of the Nechako River and its affected tributaries.”
