WATCH: Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Says Her Nation Supports Pipeline

WATCH: Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Says Her Nation Supports Pipeline

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Are all Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs against the Coastal GasLink pipeline? According to several sources, only 5 of 13 are opposed, leaving a handful of others who are proponents to the project out of the conversation.

Helen Michelle has been a Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chief with the Skin Tyee Nation for over 40 years. Her, along with several other Wet’suwet’en Nation members who are in favour of the pipeline are speaking out in support of the project.

Listen to these two videos and see what she has to say about her clan’s unanimous support for Coastal GasLink. Also see:

> Bonnie George: Wet'suwet'en Are Being Misinformed

> Rita George: Wet'suwet'en Matriarchs Did Not Give Permission to Protest

Helen Michelle: Skin Tyee Nation Fully Supports Pipeline

"I don’t know why they protest, and, we walked in that area on foot through a consultation with LNG and there was no buildings there, there was nothing. After the approval of LNG, they started building facilities there and it’s only one big family that use them, and a lot of the protestors are not even Wet’suwet’en people. They are not Wet’suwet’en people.

You see the young man falling trees? He’s not Wet’suwet’en people. I’m Wet’suwet’en! And they’re using people from all over the world who are not Wet’suwet’en who are protesting there and it’s not right to do that.

Our own people said ‘go ahead’… [you] can do a head count in our community,  100 per cent are gonna say ‘yes’ go ahead. And all my hereditary chiefs, 100 per cent of my hereditary chiefs are gonna say ‘go ahead.’ They wanna protest on our behalf of Wet’suwet’en people, they should be consulting with all of us, and all of us have said to ‘go ahead’.

So, they don’t consult with us, they’re just on their own using people from all over the place that protest, and a lot of them are not Wet’suwet’en people so that’s not coming from us. It’s one family that’s against it holding ground claiming their territory and building things and bringing people in to protest.

If you individually interview them, you’re gonna know that more than half of those people are not Wet’suwet’en people."

Helen Michelle: Foreign Protestors Should Not Be In Wet’suwet’en Territory

Q: “Do you support resource development, and do you think it can be done in an environmentally sustainable way?

Yes I do. I support the resources because like I said we had lots of consultation, we asked lots of questions, we walked the very ground where they LNG was going to go. We’ve had lots of consultation in the last 5 years or so, and we all discussed it: elders, our band, all our band members, we agreed. We all agreed, and I have hereditary chiefs too, and they all agreed.

- Helen Michelle - Hereditary Chief, Skin Tyee Nation, Wet'suwet'en

More Coastal GasLink & LNG Canada:

> LNG Canada: 10 Frequently Asked Questions + Answers

> Hey United Nations, Coastal GasLink Has Support of All 20 First Nations on Route

> LNG Canada: Removing 18 Million Cars from the Road