Ntulankeyutmonen Nkihtaqmikon (We Take Care of Our Land) is a group of Passamaquoddy people organized to stop the current efforts to locate an LNG terminal on Passamaquoddy land and in the ancestral waters of Passamaquoddy and Fundy bays. This is an interview with David Moses Bridges from Ntulankeyutmonen Nkihtaqmikon.

Rush Transcript:

Ntulankeyutmonen Nkihtaqmikon (We Take Care of Our Land) is a group of Passamaquoddy people organized to stop the current efforts to locate an LNG terminal on Passamaquoddy land and in the ancestral waters of Passamaquoddy and Fundy bays. They are part of the 3-Nation Alliance to Protect the Quoddy Region, along with Save Passamaquoddy Bay Canada, and USA.

We are joined on the telephone by David Moses Bridges, member of Ntulankeyutmonen Nkihtaqmikon.

Welcome to the program David.

Thanks Pierre

Tell us about the Passamaquoddy Nation for those who may not be familiar with who you are.

The Passamaquoddy Nation is the original inhabitants of Passamaquoddy Bay and the Passamaquoddy region. We've been here for thousands of generations. This is our homeland; we love this land. This land has always provided for us. It's a beautiful place; it's a pristine area on the coast of Maine and Canada. It's very important for us to maintain that land and the waters for future generations. It's provided for us, it continues to provide for us and it will continue to provide for us in the future if we take care of it now, if we're good stewards of the land.

Describe the relationship between the Passamaquoddy Nation and both the American and Canadian government respectively.

Passamaquoddy Nation in regards to US policy, the Passamaquoddy Tribe for years was called a state tribe which means it didn't fall under Federal jurisdiction. All of that changed in the early seventies when the Passamaquoddy Tribe was granted Federal recognition by the United States. On the Canadian side, there is no recognition currently, although historically, we have had a presence over there. My great grandfather was born on the Canadian side. Obviously, the US - Canadian border goes right through the heart of our original territory and has divided our original ancestral homeland into two separate countries. We still have family on either side of the border. We still maintain the right to travel freely across that border because we're only traveling in our own homeland.

In 2005, the Passasmaquoddy Tribal Council approved a lease to Quoddy Bay LLC which is an Oklahoma-based company. They are proposing to build an LNG terminal at Split Rock. I was wondering if you could explain how the lease for the LNG terminal came to be dubiously passed by the Passamaquoddy Tribal Council and subsequently, the Bureau of Indian Affairs?

Well, the way it all began was it was announced that there was going to be a feasibility study. Most tribal members found out about this through the newspapers rather than from their elected leaders. Most of the information, in fact all of the information prior to the vote in 2004, was handled by the developer and this is a community vote that I'm referring to. Information was provided by the state of Maine and the developer with many promises, most of which I found dubious at best. They were proposing free gas for everybody, a thousand dollars per year in per capita distribution should this facility be built. It was attractive to many community members because of that. When it came to be passed by the Tribal Council, the lease agreement itself was not shared with Tribal people and it wasn't even shared with many Tribal councilors and admittedly on the part of some of the Tribal councilors who did approve it, they didn't even read the lease prior to signing it. It's a 96-page lease, very detailed, and I would think that it would be important as elected leaders of the community to know and understand the lease and to also seek out third-party help in deciphering the lease, in other words having somebody review the lease who was not associated with the developer.

Could you explain what the issue of voting on descendents rights is, particularly in the context to the LNG development.

Descendents' rights is just what it says really. It's up to us living at present to protect our homeland for future generations. It's very important that we do this because this is what our elders did for this, many of them struggled for years and years to maintain our homeland and to maintain our culture. It's up to us now to think about these things to think about the future of our nation. The duty that we have now is to make sure that our children have a home, and that they have a safe and secure homeland that they have free access to. This is very important to us as a group because it's coming from our hearts and it's speaking to the future of our nation.

With that said, could you describe what the proposed LNG site and nautical traffic would entail?

The proposed site is right in the heart of the community. It's a very small community. It's about 50 acres on a point of land called Sipayik, at the very tip of that peninsula is an area called Split Rock, and this has long been held to be a sacred area where people can find peace of mind, it's a natural beach area where people can access the waters of Passamaquoddy Bay, launch their canoes, launch their boats. There's a horseshoe pit down there, it's a beautiful area. This terminal being proposed would obliterate that area, and put a major industrial facility right in the heart of our community. There's already been talk of relocations, of moving the community back. As I've said before it's a very small community with a large population considering its size. The facility is very large, our community is very small. It's about a mile and a half across what they call the western passage, over to Deer Island in New Brunswick. These ships require a wide birth and are escorted by armed gunboats, helicopters, there are exclusion zones all around the shipping lanes, exclusion zones all around the terminal, and it would severely disrupt our use and enjoyment of these waters and our own land.

You mentioned the suggestion of relocation. I understand the community of Sipayik itself is the result of previous displacements of the Passamaquoddy people.

Yeah, after the revolutionary war, the Loyalists as they were called, occupied our main village which was at Qonasqamkuk, and is now called St. Andrews. This was our main village, its where our elders were buried and as I said, the Loyalists, under English rule, displaced the Native inhabitants of that area, which put them for a little while over on Deer Island, and then eventually over to the American side.

Why do you think Split Rock was chosen as one of the sites for an LNG terminal?

It was chosen out of desperation by those who fully support this proposal. The original proposal was at Gleason's Cove which is actually on land that was purchased from the town of Parry in the mid-eighties,. There was a caveat with that purchase that any major industrial development would have to be approved by the voters of Perry, this was called article 40. As soon as the community vote voted in favour of this terminal, the issue of Article 40 was raised and the town of Perry was put to a vote on whether or not they approved this terminal. They turned down that proposal. They did not like the sound of a major industrial facility in their midst. At that point, the developer started looking around for another place, and out of desperation, they ended up at Split Rock. It's one of the only natural areas left in our small community. It's a common area, it's a green space. As I said before it has shorefront access, and they ended up there out of desperation. It's not the best place, it's not even a good place. It's what they had to do to make their dollars.

Tell us about, and help us dispel some of the myths that the proponents of the LNG terminal advocate? You suggested promises of free gas, and money and the like.

They'll pretty much tell you what you want to hear. They've made a lot of promises: they're promising hundreds of jobs, financial worries for the tribe will be virtually non-existent, they made noise about jobs at the facility for tribal members, jobs in the construction process for Tribal members. I suppose it's like any developer or any salesman that wants to sell you a product. They'll tell you what you want to hear. They'll make you any promise they want. They promise that Split Rock will not be disturbed and that access will be allowed, but at any LNG facility, the public is not allowed. These are potentially dangerous facilities. It's just a lot of noise that I'm hearing from them. It's promises that they can't keep, or promises that they have no intention of keeping. It's just to keep their process rolling that they'll pretty much say anything.

What are the impacts of the LNG terminal to the survival of the Passamaquoddy people, and in particular to Passamaquoddy ways of life?

In the first place, it's a major industrial facility in our midst, and when I say in our midst, I'm talking about 1/8 of a mile, π of a mile, ∏ mile from several hundred homes, health facilities, our schools, our places of worship. It's in our midst, and as part of their very nature, these are dangerous facilities. Anytime you store energy, it has the potential for a catastrophic failure, should everything go wrong. It's combustible by nature and it's going to be smack dab in the middle of our community. If you just use a little bit of basic logic, you can see that the sitting of this facility on Split Rock is the wrong place. These facilities should be sited in industrial areas, well away from homes, places of business, schools, anything like that.

Do you think that racism plays a role in choosing to locate an LNG facility in the heart of a Passamaquoddy community?

I don't know if it's so much racism, as it's preying on the economic desperation of the greater Washington County community. As you know, the employment rate in Washington County is down, the sardine industry failed, industries are failing. People are looking around for ways to maintain their economy and when they see this coming down the pipe with all of these promises, they're instantly interested in it because it could mean potential future economic good times. But the reality of it is that these terminals exclude other industries from the free use of the waters such as the fishing industry or the tourism industry. Their argument that this is going to provide jobs and be a boom to the economy is false because it's actually going to eliminate more jobs than it will create.

Since the announcement, what have been the responses from communities challenging the LNG project, including the involvement of your group?

I could tell you the first thing that happened at that announcement is that many people from the community remained silent, many elders and many young people have wished us all of their support and hope that we succeed in blocking this lease. We have the support of many community members and that is why we do what we do. We want to maintain our ancestral homeland and waters as do they. The group that we put together, there's a core group of people who are very vocal and are taking this all the way to up to Federal court to challenge this lease. We have the full backing of several hundred community members.

Could you explain the approval process for the LNG facility, where it's at now, and bring us up to speed about this court challenge that you just made reference to.

The Bureau of Indian affairs approved this lease in a couple of weeks. It's a pretty rapid decision, and the processes that they should have gone through, by looking at environmental impacts, by looking at community impacts, or even asking the question, is this even right for this very small community? Those questions were never asked. They were urged at the Council for the developers to approve this lease to make it binding and that's that. That's what they did. They waited thirty days after it was approved to announce it because this is how long the period is to file for a grievance. They refused to share any information about how this lease approval was arrived at. They really just rubber stamped it. And that's where our challenge goes back to. It's the process that the Bureau of Indian Affairs was suppose to follow. They're supposed to be the steward for Native people and not just there to rubber stamp Tribal Council decisions.

But I can tell you that the BIA is being called to task on the processes that they took. When we argued this in lower court, they had one story, when we argued it in appeals court, they had another story. They're all over the place. They're saying that it had contingencies in lower court. And then in the higher court, the Federal Appeals court, they are saying that the lease is binding, and was binding on the date that it was signed. I think it's pretty obvious to see that they have no consistency about the decision that they made which really reflects on the manner in which they approved it. They approved it rapidly, they approved it without forethought and they did it and the urging of the developer.

Aside from this legal challenge, are there other strategies that you folks are pursuing to stop the development of the LNG terminal?

Just to maintain our cultural identity and to not back down in the face of the oil and gas industry. It's really our duty right now as Tribal people to protect our homeland in any way that we can, to involve our children and our elders, and to continue to be good stewards of the land.

As Passamaquoddy people, we were here then, we're here now and we plan on being here in the future. Any industrial development that encroaches on our ancestral lands, were very concerned about. We're not opposed to economic growth. What we are opposed to is industries that are incongruous with our life ways, that bar us from our ancestral land with exclusion zones and things of that nature. It's not in our nature among Tribal people to close the door on our future generations just to enrich ourselves in the present. It's very important for us to maintain our ties to the land and the water and to do so for the future generations.

What other activities is your group involved in?

Our group is involved mainly right now to protect our homeland. It's our top priority and we're also right in the middle of it. We give our support to many other environmental justice campaigns, especially on indigenous lands, because this is not an isolated incident here in Maine. This is happening all over the United States. The Indigenous Environmental Network has kept us informed on the struggles that are going on with coal sands, oil sands, there are many other issues involving water quality and exploitation of Native lands by heavy industries, by the oil and gas industry, by the coal industry, uranium mining, things of this nature. Our group will always support the traditional indigenous people who want to maintain their tribal land base. As you know, Tribal land bases are very diminished from colonial times. It's a process that just keeps happening. It's happening now, it's happening again right in our midst. It's our duty as Tribal people to protect other Tribal people and to not just go from the quick dollar. I think it takes more than money to build a strong community.

How can listeners support your struggle against the proposed LNG terminal?

Obviously, we have an ongoing legal struggle. This takes money. We ask for donations to Save Passamaquoddy Bay Canada, to our group or to Save Passamaquoddy USA. If you support us, be vocal about it. Don't be afraid to talk about it. Cast your support where you believe. There are a lot of folks around the Bay of Fundy area and Passamaquoddy Bay that are going to be affected by this. And they should really take the time to understand exactly what's happened here and see how it's going to affect them down the road.

for more information:

http://www.wetakecareofourland.org
http://www.saveourbay.ca
http://www.wabanaki.com

Pierre Loiselle
Producer, Praxis Media Productions
5274 Rector St.
Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3K 2N4 Canada

(902) 454-5921
www.praxismedia.ca