Community will fight to protect its homeland, says elder

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Little Red River Cree elder Jimmy Blesse has seen his homeland disappear at the hands of major logging firms for more than 30 years.

Now he's terrified a pulp mill company is eyeing Wood Buffalo National Park as a prime timber area for their operation. And it's the same pulp mill company his band is waging war against in court.

The years of resentment are coming to a head for the 300 members of the Garden River settlement located a few kilometers inside the boundaries of Canada's largest national park.

Blesse said the Cree elders aren't going to allow industry to ravish their backyards any longer while the government of Canada continues to ignore Indian rights

"As a community we can't give up so easily. This time we've got to put up a good fight," Blesse said through an interpreter, during an interview at his small Garden Creek home.

"It's too early to say what we'll do, but it's gone on far too long."

Daishowa Canada Ltd., builders of a $500-million pulp mill in Peace River, recently bought Canfor Corporation of High Level in a deal that has the Cree elders of Garden River outraged.

Blesse said his people are sick of watching the logging trucks ride past their community with timber destined for the chopping blocks.

He fears Daishowa will take over the timber area controlled by the High Level mill since 1956 and says his community isn't going to allow its forests to grow smaller.

The little Red River Band filed a federal court suit late last month demanding the federal government conduct an environmental study of the proposed Daishowa mill before it's completed.

Blesse feels the Daishowa take-over bid was a slap in the face to Native people, who must rely heavily on government programs to survive. It's a sad irony and one Blesse says he can no longer live with.

"We've always been told lies -- that the logging would not affect our homelands. But there is a big push to get our resources. We continue to hear these lies by the government and industry," he says.

"The government gives us houses, electricity and schools -- then they want our resources in return. But it is nature, it is how we survive. It is our life."

Blesse speaks bluntly about the survival of mankind as the environment and wilderness continue to be sacrificed for the sake of industrial advancement.

With a piercing glance of defiance, Blesse issued the government a warning about destroying Native culture in the name of progress. When you erase the beginning he says, you will have no future.

"I've thought about it a lot. It's going to be totally disastrous, not just for Native people, but for everyone. The whole community will be wiped out because of industrialization. We're frightened for ourselves and we're frightened for our children," he says.