Sutikalh 7 Year Anniversary Gathering. Saturday May 5, 2007

Come to this anniversary gathering on Saturday May 5, 2007 and celebrate 7 years of resistance & sovereignty. Sutikalh camp is located off Hwy. 99 midway between Mt. Currie & Lillooet.

For more info contact:
Rosalin Sam 604-894-2400 sutikalh2003@telus.net
Ramona Joe 604-894-2462

Background: On May 2, 2000, members of the St’at’imc nation and their allies established a permanent camp near Melvin Creek, located off Highway 99 between Mt. Currie/Pemberton and Lillooet, in the southern Interior region of BC.

Known as Sutikalh, the St’at’imc winter spirit of the area, the camp was set up to stop government and corporate plans to build a $500 million all-season ski and recreation resort in an untouched Alpine mountain area.

Part of the Cayoosh Moutain Range, the region is a transition zone from the coast to the Interior. It is habitat to Grizzly bears, cougar, bobcat, wolverine, deer, hawks, owls and many other small animals. It also contains one of the largest herds of Mountain Goats now remaining in North America.

The area has been occupied and used by the St’at’imc for as long as 10,000 years, following the retreat of the last glacial period which carved out the steep-sided valleys and jagged mountain tops.

Support Sutikalh!

Along with food gathering, the area was also used by shamans, who went to the mountains for purification, spiritual renewal and training. These traditions continue to be practised today at Sutikalh, where people come to gather foods, medicines, pure fresh water, and to participate in cultural and spiritual activities.

To this day the area remains unceded, unsurrendered St’at’imc territory, in which neither Canada nor BC have legal or moral authority to govern, claim territory or even carry out business.

That both levels of government continue to impose their authority is a violation of Canada’s own laws and its highest courts (i.e., the 1763 Royal Proclamation and, to a lesser extent, the 1997 Delgamuukw Supreme Court Decision).

For more informaiton, please go to www.sutikalh.resist.ca