Open Letter from Pacheedaht elder, Bill Jones:

Hello all defenders of our sacred forests.

I am shocked and saddened to read all the messages of hate that you are spreading within yourselves. The shaming and blaming is painful to read and to hear about. You seem to have forgotten about why you have all come together in the first place.

I am an elder in the community of Pacheedaht and have established years-long and genuine relationships with many people like you including some of the people who are being so terribly abused on Facebook and the email list. We all have a role and a part in this and we need to appreciate and honor our differences. Difference is a good thing. Different strategies are a good thing. People of all ages and genders and races and cultures and classes need to walk together in order to help heal the wounds of colonialism and environmental destruction.

Your words are dividing our movement in terribly damaging ways and I plead with you to take a step back, get off your computers, get out to the woods.

Talk to each other, listen to each other. If you feel like somebody is not honourable take the time to communicate directly with them and meet them face-to-face to discuss your concerns.

We all know that nobody is perfect but we must trust that people involved in this movement are taking time out of their short lives and doing their very best to make positive change in this world. If people are willing to put themselves in this vulnerable position - of standing on a logging road or speaking out on the internet about the damage to our mother earth and the destruction of our sacred places - then we must trust that although we might not always say the right things or walk the right path we still deserve to be treated with respect.

Just yesterday for 2 hours I sat in circle at one of the blockades with my brother Joe Martin, long-time forest defender from the Tla-o-qui-aht Nation and his trusted friend Valeen. We visited along with 2 of our longtime and trusted friends, one of whom is being attacked and abused in your emails. We shared not only stories but discussed many issues that have been raised by some of the indigenous youth and other people on the blockades. We talked about the fact that our views are not always fully supported in our communities but that we have persevered regardless.

How do we reconcile the fact that not everybody in this community is on board? Who do we look to for guidance? Who’s voice counts?

There is no simple answer to these questions. There never was and there never will be but I can share my voice with you and tell you that I invite you to my ancestral land to defend our sacred mother. I assert my hereditary right to enjoy and use this land in traditional ways and to share my use and enjoyment with my friends and allies..

First Nations operate under many different ways of governance. Some are governed mostly by Band Councils, some are governed mostly by hereditary leadership, some are governed by both. Some communities are urban, some are rural. Some communities have large populations and some have very small populations. We must never assume that we know what is going on in a community that we do not either live in or have a relationship with.

Some of us, as do some of you, adhere strongly to the principles of Natural Law and feel that Natural Law is what should guide us all.

The reality is that my community and Joe’s community are comprised of complexity of individuals all with their own ways of being, just like everywhere else in the world. We have different ideas about many things including how to exist with these forests, what to do. To log or to conserve?

The Fairy Creek watershed is a sacred place for many reasons. I have many stories about this area, from my own experiences as a child and young man and also stories that were told to me by my elders. It breaks my heart in half when I see these last remaining stands being ravaged so a few people can have jobs for a few more months.

For any of you who are non-indigenous or do not identify with your indigeneity, do your best to follow the protocols of the land and culture where you live but also know that lifelong learning happens for everybody, in every culture. You will make mistakes, as we all do, and you, like myself, will continue to learn until the day you die.

For those of you who are indigenous, remember that there are many voices within our communities. There are many different priorities and many different paths to take. Some of us have committed our entire lives to upholding or reviving our cultures and traditions and some of us have not. Some of us came to that place early in life and some of us came to it late. We are men and women of all ages. Some of us live in cities, some of us live in the bush. Some of us live on reserves, and some of us live thousands of miles away from our homeland. We work in offices, we are loggers, we are miners, we are healthcare providers and teachers and students and activists. We, like everyone else are wonderfully diverse.

I encourage you all to stop typing for a moment.

Stop picking apart the flaws of your fellow forest defenders. There will be people who you like and there will be people who you don’t like. There will be people who use the kind of language that you can relate to and there will be people who use language that offends you, but within that there is no excuse for abuse or accusations or making demands that will ultimately serve to give the government what they want - the harvest of our ancient trees and the destruction of the forest ecosystems that support those trees.

These forests bring us the clean air that we need to breathe and the clean water that we need to drink and all the plants and animals that we need to sustain not only our bodies but also our spirits.

It is my sincere hope that more indigenous activists will join us in our efforts to protect these sacred lands.

Be humble and remember why you have all crossed paths in the first place. I’ll say this again. Go for a walk in the woods.

Thank you all.

Klecko! Klecko!

William Jones

Pacheedaht, Port Renfrew, BC

Last,

Much of this has already been shared but I reiterate and thank my sister for drawing up some of these suggestions and recommendations for everyone involved.

on the blockades and in planning -

- Share, far and wide and inspire support for this movement. Invite your indigenous and non-indigenous friends to visit and get on board.

- Maintain an elders tent for visiting indigenous elders and include a space for people to rest and even stay if they so wish. This should be clean and warm and offer space to rest. We are happy to participate and to talk but we love some quiet time to rejuvenate.

- Hire a reputable professional for a decolonial workshop, this will help to make the camps more hospitable especially for indigenous youth. Hold this workshop in such a way that people can participate online, in person, and after the fact and request that anyone involved watch or listen to the content

- Make sure that any indigenous activist who would like to come out is supported as needed with transportation, food, gear. Communicate this publicly and have a budget and resources on stand by at all times. It is likely that people will have to travel from far and wide as our community here is very small and very isolated.

- Always have a dedicated driver on call for shuttling any visiting indigenous activists whether from PFN or from elsewhere.

- Put some work into making River Camp wheelchair accessible including making an appropriate latrine. Do this with oversight from a disability consultant.