<Bill Namagoose, Executive Chief, Grand Council of the Crees of
Quebec (speaking at the New England Environmental Conference, Tufts
University, Medford, Massachusetts, March 1991)>
We've been coming to the United States for two years now to
talk about James Bay. James Bay II will finish what James Bay I has
started. Two-fifths of our territory has been destroyed. Through
our efforts, through your efforts, this has been pushed back. But
they are ready to go anytime. Great Whale will destroy five rivers.
Five rivers destroyed overnight for production of 3,000 megawatts
of power and flooding approximately 3,000 square kilometers of our
land. Where the flooding occurs, that is the best land, that is our
hunting ground, the best hunting grounds that we have. That's where
the animals go, that's where the vegetation is, that's where the
trees grow, in the river valleys. That's why there's such an
impact. People tell us we've got huge tracts of land, but they come
and flood the best tract of land, chase people off is this power going?
It's coming here. It's coming here to light your lights. There are
two ends to a hydro line. There's the luxury end, the comfortable end.
Lights, heat, cooking, there's music coming out of the other end of
the line. But at our end of the line, we don't hear music. We hear
massive destruction. Dynamiting of our river, dynamiting our
cliffs, dynamiting our land, blowing up our land. Huge monstrous
vehicles ravaging the land. That is what we hear at the other end
of the line.
The choice is not to go nuclear or hydro. That is not the
choice. The choice is waste versus conservation. In Hydro-Quebec
alone, on the Hydro-Quebec grid, there are 6,000 megawatts that can
be freed up with proper conservation. That's twice the capacity of
the Great Whale River. Of course Hydro-Quebec resists this. It's
not in their policy of building, keep building, keep destroying.
When people come to us to ask us for their needs, we are prepared
to listen. We listen to people's needs as much as we expect people
to listen to our needs. But this need, there is no need for this
power. Our elders ask us, Do they need this, do they really need
this? And we tell them no, they don't really need it. Quebecers
don't need it. They want it to sell to the Americans.
Also Hydro-Quebec tells us we don't own the land we're on.
That somehow our rights have been extinguished. We've been there
thousands and thousands of years. All of a sudden, someone started
an entity called Canada. It's 135 years old, Canada. We've been
there 5,000 years. All of a sudden, people ask us, don't you want
to be Canadians? We've been Crees for 5,000 years. And they don't
even know what Canada is, or being Canadian.
Right now there is a revolution going on in Canada. There's a
revolution between the two dominant nations, the French nation and
the English-speaking nation. You must have heard about the Meech
Lake agreement. It's been incredible, being a third party watching
this fight, this struggle. There was one nation, the French
nation,asking the more populated English-speaking nation, do you
accept me? Will you accept me? The Premier of Quebec and the
Premier of Canada saying, we don't accept this Meech Lake accord.
You will not be accepting Quebec. Accept Quebec. Do you accept
Quebec?
That's one thing the native people will never do. We will
never beg anybody to accept us. They will just have to accept the
fact that we are there. The fact that you're asking someone to
accept you puts your people, your nation, in an inferior position.
Puts the nation you are asking to accept you in a superior
position. The constitutional crisis in Canada can only be solved by
recognizing the fact of what Canada is and describing it on a piece
of paper, or in the Constitution. Not asking people to accept, to
reject, who's in, who's out.
Other issues have been put aside. Canada is dominated by
constitutional discussions. And Hydro-Quebec comes down here and
Bourassa comes down here and tells you, why don't you buy this
clean, cheap power. Don't have to go nuclear, don't have to go
coal-fired. Buy this clean, cheap power. Never mind the
conservation movement. Some people-alot of people-alot of powerful
people fall into that trap.
Electricity is used to benefit a culture, to enhance your
culture. But no culture should prosper and be enhanced at the
expense of another. Conservation is the answer. With conservation,
all cultures will thrive. With your purchase of this power you are
financing these projects. New England states are financing the
destruction of the Cree culture, the Cree nation. And the answer is
simple: all you have to do is cancel these contracts. There is
enough energy right now for everybody.
We are sacrificing, you are sacrificing, research for
alternative sources of energy by accepting this quick fix from
Hydro-Quebec. Where will you get your energy when Hydro-Quebec
says, I need my energy back now, in Quebec. They'll cut you off.
The answer is to start looking now for alternative sources of
energy, conservation measures.
You cancel the contracts, the financing will be cancelled.
These contracts are used in Quebec to justify these projects.
Hydro-Quebec's president Mr. Drouin once said that we better get
rid of this myth that huge hydroprojects destroy the environment,
that they cause massive environmental destruction. He said that
there was more environmental destruction caused by the Ice Age than
by hydroprojects. How do you deal with these people? You may find
that funny, but it's true! That's the kind of resistance, that's
the kind of challenge we have. Look at the people who are in power.
That's their belief. In Quebec they call building dams high
technology. Piling rocks, rivers, that's not high technology.
That's massive environmental destruction. High technology creates
more jobs than the piling of rocks and killing of rivers. With
one-third the capital investment we can create more permanent jobs
than the temporary jobs caused by construction of these huge
projects.
Anytime there is a great environmental issue, or a huge
megaproject to be built, it is always, always on indigenous lands.
Why is that? Why are indigenous cultures, indigenous people,
sacrificed? People design these huge megaprojects and ask us to
accept them in wilderness parts of our land. And when whe
children. For us, speaking of land ownership, we can't buy, sell,
or own the land, or buy water, or own the air. For a man to say he
owns the land is like a flea on a dog trying to say he owns the
dog. They can't own the land. This is a fundamental issue. This is
Cree land, it is used for Cree culture, Cree nation. It's been used
like that for thousands and thousands of years.
Now people expect us to change into a new society, new order
in three years. It is impossible. Asking us to adapt in that short
period of time, it's killing us. It will kill us. You cannot adapt
to new society, new way, have your home destroyed, have your people
humiliated, and survive as a nation. Why are the Crees always asked
to pay the ultimate price?
When I landed at the Boston airport, I saw a display on solar
energy. There were these pamphlets on native people and
electricity. That was the best welcome I ever had anywhere. There,
in the airport, somebody was concerned about us. I said great!
Somebody cares. We're not alone. Some people care about our
culture, about our land, about our tradition, about our way of
life.
That's the answer. If you help us, we can beat this project,
we can save our Cree culture, our Cree nation. That's all we ask.
All we ask is that you people unplug yourselves from Hydro-Quebec.
Thank you.