Wet’suwet’en People

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Yinka Dini – People of this Earth

Unist’ot’en – People of the Headwaters

The Unist’ot’en (C’ihlts’ehkhyu / Big Frog Clan) are the original Wet’suwet’en Yintah Wewat Zenli distinct to the lands of the Wet’suwet’en. Over time in Wet’suwet’en History, the other clans developed and were included throughout Wet’suwet’en Territories. The Unist’ot’en are known as the toughest of the Wet’suwet’en as their territories were not only abundant, but the terrain was known to be very treacherous. The Unist’ot’en recent history includes taking action to protect their lands from Lions Gate Metals at their Tacetsohlhen Bin Yintah, and building a cabin and resistance camp at Talbits Kwah at Gosnell Creek and Wedzin Kwah (Morice River which is a tributary to the Skeena and Bulkley River) from seven proposed pipelines from Tar Sands Gigaproject and LNG from the Horn River Basin Fracturing Projects in the Peace River Region

Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, December 2018

Historic Wet’suwet’en use of the land

These photos, taken about 25 years ago, provide a glimpse into the lives of the Wet’suwet’en people using their territory.

This is the remnants of a trapping cabin that is located at the confluence of the Gosnell River, Thautl River, and Morice. This is about 3-1/2 km downstream of the existing cabin. On the left is Wehalih's husband Wigidimschol. To his left is his best friend XimSim. Ximsim passed away shortly after this photo was taken. To Ximsim's left is his brother Billy. Billy assumed the chief name Ximsim about 1 yr after his brother's passing. This is the grand daughter of Wehalih spending time on her territory about 25 yrs ago. She now lives in San Diego.

This cabin stood beside a slightly larger cabin just below the 66km bridge (where the blockade is located), It was built as a trapping cabin and used for one season before the logging company CANFOR came and burned the two cabins to the ground because they considered them a fire hazard. This Yamaha BRAVO is still in operation and was recently restored to do some trapping this year at Unist'ot'en Camp.

This is Tsakiy Ze' Wehalih (Freda's mother) using an ice auger at a lake on the territory. Wehalih's grandson (Freda's son) icefishing on the territory.