The conflict over a natural gas pipeline project in northern British Columbia has swelled across the country, drawing intense attention to the Wet'suwet'en Nation.
To outsiders, the organization and the dual Wet'suwet'en power structures can seem confusing, and parsing who has legitimate authority over the decision to support or block the pipeline can be challenging.
Along the pipeline's route, 20 elected First Nation councils have signed benefit agreements, but across the country, Indigenous groups have taken part in demonstrations and blockades to protest the project.
Here's a guide to some of the main Wet'suwet'en people who have emerged as leaders, spokespeople, advocates and opponents of the project, and how they fit into the nation's elected, hereditary and corporate organizational structures.
Note that there's the Wet'suwet'en First Nation, which has an elected chief and council, and the broader Wet'suwet'en Nation, which includes both the elected bands within the colonial system of governance and a traditional hereditary clan system, which has responsibility for a broader unceded territory covering 22,000 square kilometres.
IN FAVOUR OF THE PIPELINE
Five of the six elected band councils within Wet'suwet'en Nation have signed benefit agreements with the pipeline company, Coastal GasLink (CGL), a subsidiary of TC Energy. (Hagwilget Nation is not on the pipeline route and has not signed any agreements.)
The elected councils, which also include Witset First Nation, Skin Tyee Nation, the Nee Tahi Buhn Band, Ts'il Kaz Koh First Nation (Burns Lake Band) and the Wet'suwet'en First Nation, represent First Nations on reserves created by the federal government under the Indian Act.
Karen Ogen-Toews
Karen Ogen-Toews is a former elected chief of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation. She signed one of the agreements to approve the pipeline, and remains a vocal supporter of the plan.
"In my heart I know I'm doing the right thing. I've done the right thing for our people and my heart is in the right place," Ogen-Toews told CBC News. "If our people are living in poverty, the way to overcome it is through proper training, trades, education and a job.".....Much More