rewrite this content and keep HTML tags Over the course of two trips in the past month, a team of journalists on joint assignment for Ricochet, IndigiNews and The Real News Network has been following the story of Secwépemc resistance to the federally-owned Trans Mountain pipeline, and a recent route change that will dig an open trench through one of their most sacred sites. Award-winning Indigenous journalist Brandi Morin, alongside IndigiNews journalist Aaron Hemens and cinematographer Geordie Day, is working on a longer feature and a documentary that will be released in the new year. Please help support the costs of this reporting, and the upcoming documentary, here. It’s 4 a.m on Sunday, December 10, and Khursten Bullock and Crissy Fox (an alias she prefers) are ready for their mission. The mist of their breath trails hangs in the moonlight that dimly lights the rolling grasslands of Secwepemcúl’ecw. They’ve been tasked with dropping tobacco into one of the boreholes inside the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion’s construction site. A Secwépemc prophecy holds that the tides will shift in their favour once the ceremonial medicine touches the bottom. They move silently in the darkness ahead, and barely a word is spoken on the short trek from the site of a sacred fire lit by the Secwépemc to the open pit construction site near “Kamloops.” As they approach the area, they drop off the gravel path, and into a rocky trench alongside it. Floodlights pierce the darkness, lighting up the construction site and anyone approaching it. They don’t want to be spotted by Trans Mountain security. Not yet. Crouching parallel to a barbed wire fence, they approach a small wooden ladder and clamber over the fence. From there, they sprint to the shelter of a clutch of pine trees on a hillside, and tiptoe to their lookout spot. They sit on the hillside, looking down on the tall chain-link fence, and plan their approach. About 10 minutes later, they’re at the fence. They shimmy through and frantically race to a wooden staircase that leads to metal scaffolding above the hole. The noise of the chains they’re wearing around their bodies locking onto the metal scaffolding reverberates in the hollow chamber of the borehole’s opening. Security remain, for the moment, unaware of their presence. Sacred, and threatened The construction is happening at a sacred Secwépemc site called Pípsell. Out on the land, a crisp scent hangs in the air, with sage growing in endless clusters mixed with the dry ponderosa pine and Douglas fir trees blanketed with a fresh layer of snow. A trail of clouds lingers over the nearby Jacko Lake, which is home to a Secwépemc creation story. Yet, the constant banging and shrieking of machinery echoing in the foreground, along with the unnatural pollution of industrial flood lights, is an abrupt juxtaposition. This is where some of the last of “Canada’s” TMX project is being stitched together. The project is a cash cow for the Canadian oil economy as it’s the only pipeline carrying crude oil from “Alberta” to the West Coast. The expansion will increase the capacity of the current TMX pipeline (built in 1951), from 300,000 barrels per day to 890,000 barrels per day and allow oil companies better access to export markets. The project has faced continuous delays since its original owner proposed an expansion in 2012. Protests quickly erupted from environmental groups, the City of Burnaby, and Indigenous nations expressing opposition to the expansion cited serious concerns of damage to ecosystems along its route. It was then bought by the Trudeau government in 2018 after its original owner, Kinder Morgan, pulled out due to economic uncertainty given the setbacks and public outcry. Subsequently, the costs of the project have ballooned during its construction from the initial estimate of $5.4 billion to $30.9 billion. But the pipeline wasn’t supposed to run through the grassland hills near Jacko Lake in unceded Secwépemc territory. The community had opposed the original plans, and had secured assurances from the company that they would avoid parts of the area and use micro-tunnelling instead of the more destructive trenching. But in September, the Trans Mountain Corporation requested permission from the Canada Energy Regulator to modify the pipeline route by about 1.3 kilometers in the Jacko Lake area, replacing plans for a micro-tunnel with an open trench. The company said it was necessary due to challenges encountered while attempting to micro-drill a tunnel. If the route wasn’t changed, it would delay the completion of the pipeline by at least 10 months and cost an estimated $2 billion of lost revenue. Despite opposition from the Secwépemc Nation, the regulator approved the route change. “Since time immemorial, our people have had an ancestral, cultural, and spiritual connection to the area known as Pípsell, which is considered a ‘cultural keystone place,’” Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc Nation, which consists of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc and Skeetchestn Indian Band, stated in a news release. “Through engagement and collaboration over the years, Trans Mountain is aware of the spiritual and cultural significance of the Pípsell area and our obligations to these lands. The sacredness of this area is also recognized by the provincial and federal Crown.” The Nation only consented to the project under the condition that the project acknowledges and respects their inherent jurisdiction over their territory, as well as their right to safeguard their cultural heritage. “As I continue to do this work, I am constantly reminded that Pípsell is not just a lake, it is an inseparable area that is also a burial and prayer ground,” Unceded Law Response Group Commissioner and Secwépemc knowledge keeper Mike McKenzie said in an interview. “We have to do what we can to stop this because it is some of the last if not the last of its kind.” McKenzie described it to Canadian Press as “our Vatican. This is our Notre Dame. This is a place that gives our people an identity and kept our people grounded since time immemorial.” ‘I want to get arrested’ Cree land defender and Secwépemc ally Bullock has been camping out in and around Pípsell for over a week. Before sneaking past the TMX injunction construction barrier to put down tobacco, she had a plan to stop work and get arrested. Bullock is one of several allies who arrived in Pípsell, answering a plea for help from the ULRG, led by a group of Secwépemc people upholding Indigenous rights and law. ULRG states that it creates, “Indigenous-led spaces for Indigenous peoples and allies to solve complex challenges. We are serving Indigenous peoples while strengthening legal protections and strategies… to prevent harm and to promote the well-being of all on unceded land, including wildlife, the natural world, and the supernatural.” “The premise was I want to get arrested out here,” Bullock said the day before, with a wide grin. The Saskatchewan Native believes her life purpose is to travel in her camper van to various land defence zones around Canada and put herself on the line for Mother Earth. “(I do this because) my fear is that there’s going to be no planet left for my grandchildren. That’s what keeps me awake at night. Going to jail for the cause, doing these things, it doesn’t scare me at all,” she declares, decked out in a white and gray-coloured snow suit. Her long brown hair falls out from under a black toque with “LAND BACK” etched in red, and an Indigenous man wearing a Mohawk warrior scarf in the center. “Leaving this planet a mess for my grandkids, that’s what really scares me. If my grandson or granddaughter isn’t able to see old-growth trees or these bodies of water or all these places that we’re just desecrating, then I didn’t do right by them if I didn’t try as hard as I could to stop; to protect that.” She’s wrapped chains around her chest and torso and holds the keys in her pocket. Her red-haired comrade Fox pulls on a t-shirt reading, “No pipelines” with intertwining hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language over her long, black puffer jacket. Her chains are also secured around her body. The two are working with “Vancouver”-based environmental group Protect the Planet and say they’re aligning with ULRG in solidarity. The two visited Secwépemc Elder Barb Larson at her home in the Skeetchestn Indian Band just days before to seek her blessing to attempt to stop work on the TMX pipeline here.…
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