To: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Attorney General Jody Wilson
Trudeau: National Inquiry Into Gustafsen Lake
We, the undersigned, hereby acknowledge and endorse the following letter written by Wolverine, in counsel with the Secwepemc People and People of the Allied Tribes, calling for a National Inquiry into the Ts’Peten/Gustafsen Lake Standoff 1995.
We declare that the injustice and brutal force faced by the Ts’Peten/Gustafsen Lake Defenders at the hands of the paramilitary forces of the Federal government must not continue to go unaddressed and unknown to the greater public. We stand with the Allied Tribes calling for this Inquiry so that the root issues at hand - the ongoing genocide of Indigenous Nations and the continued exertion of jurisdiction by the Federal and Provincial governments on unceded and unsurrendered territory - be finally settled between Canada and Indigenous Nations.
Open Letter by Wolverine to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Attorney General Jody Wilson: [link here]
Why is this important?
The 1995 siege at Gustafsen Lake, B.C. was the largest paramilitary assault in modern Canadian history against Indigenous peoples. Twenty years later, 83-year old Secwepemc Elder Wolverine is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Attorney General Jody Wilson for a national public inquiry into the Ts’Peten/Gustafsen Lake Standoff.
In 1995, after a long history of peaceful attempts to have Secwepemc sovereignty respected, Indigenous people from the Secewpemc nation and their supporters took a stand on sacred Sundance lands at Ts'Peten, aka Gustafsen Lake. The incident began after a local white rancher, Lyle James began demanding that the sacred Secwepemc Sundance Camp leave land to which he claimed ownership. Approximately 24 Sundancers set up camp to defend Ts'Peten.
Beginning in August 1995, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) surrounded the Ts'Peten Defenders. Over the next month police, politicians, and media escalated the situation to make the siege the most expensive and largest domestic military operation in Canada's history: armoured personnel carriers, .50 calibre machine guns, land mines, and an astonishing 77,000 rounds of ammunition were directed at the land defenders.
For twenty years, the Ts'Peten Defenders have been calling for a national public inquiry. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says, “It is time for a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with First Nations peoples.” The injustice and brutal force faced by the Ts’Peten/Gustafsen Lake Defenders at the hands of the paramilitary forces of the Federal government must not continue to go unaddressed and unknown to the greater public. The time for this national public inquiry into Gustafsen Lake has come.