Background on the Ts’Peten/Gustafsen Lake Inquiry, Genocide, and Unceded Territories
by Wolverine / January 31st, 2016
"A little over 20 years ago, in 1995, after over a century’s worth of attempts to have Secwepemc sovereignty respected, including visits to England and letters written to the Federal government, the RCMP initiated a 31 day siege against my People as we took a stand against the desecration and dispossession of our sacred Sundance Grounds at Ts’Peten/Gustafsen Lake in so-called British Columbia.
The 1995 Gustafsen Lake Standoff as it is known, if it is known, to you, was the largest paramilitary assault in Canadian history. Over 450 RCMP and paramilitary officers, armoured Personnel Carriers mounted with .50 calibre machine guns, land mines and 77,000 rounds of ammunition were deployed against us. The RCMP stated their murderous intentions in national media during the siege, openly boasting about bringing 18 body bags for the 18 Defenders barricaded by the RCMP into the camp. One of the defenders was 14 years old and pregnant at the time.
This is genocide. This is the genocide that began at contact and has not stopped since. As we speak, our People are being harassed and murdered by various and violent institutions of the state including the RCMP. Our People are being dispossessed of our homelands, our Children stolen, our Women missing and murdered, our Men in prison, our Cultural Practices outlawed and all of us entrapped in federally administered cycles of addiction, dysfunction and poverty."