News

The Suskwa Chiefs had their first meeting in August 2002 to start up their watershed trust agreement and two meetings followed in September 2002 in order to access $100,000.00 for start-up monies to begin our water shed planning.

The Chiefs requested my resume before hiring me as Manager for the project and the Chiefs hired staff or field crew in October that began on October 28, 2002. The field crew started ground truthing and collecting information immediately.

The field crew selected by the Chiefs is as follows:

Bruce Johnson-Elder, Gyetem Galdo;
Alvin Sampson-Djogaslee;
Robert Austin-Spook/Yagosip;
Joseph Sebastian-Luutkudziiwus/Xsim wit’siin;
Jack Sebastian- Manager- Yhamoah Indian name- House of Luutkudziiwus.

As the crew did their ground truthing, collecting information and doing inventory, they now know and feel complete ownership of their territory and now want to protect their land at all costs.

The crew has done GSP on many parts of our territory, trails and traditional sites. The crew worked very hard for two and a half months, but feel they have completed only a small portion of our territories. The $75,000.00 we received is just not enough to complete the job.

Also we found that the Ministry of Forests is the worst offender, they are criminals and they continue to sell our trees without any consultation to the Chiefs. These companies continue to log our trees with no consultation. That needs to change.

We are finding a lot of Poachers that are stealing our wild life, and roadside trappers are trapping on our territories without our consent. This is one reason we have to get control of our territories and start policing them ourselves. Our wild life is dissolving much too quickly. Most of our findings are proof that we own the land.

Once we gather and document all the information to sustain and protect our lands, then we will force Consultation. As the courts state,” If they do not consult, then we can put them right back into court.”

The Suskwa Water shed funds were finished on January 4, 2003. We are now planning and completing our budget for the second phase of funds for April 1, 2003. We will be ready to start again.

Thank you,



Jack Sebastian
Manager, Suskwa Watershed.