KI Band Members Walk To Ottawa To Meet Chief Spence

Jan 09, 2013

Members of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (mercifuly known as KI or Big Trout Lake) First Nation are used to long walks.

Big Trout Lake, the homeland of the KI, located 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, is not accessible by road with the exception of the three coldest winter months when ice roads are in place,

So, in 2006, as part of a protest against Platinex Corporation's plans to test drill for platinum on their traditional lands, KI elder Mark T. Anderson and a number of other band members, travelled 2100 kilometres by foot from Kenora to Queen's Park in Toronto to talk government officials.

Two years later Mark Anderson was one of the KI band members who put up a blockade to stop Platinex from drilling test holes.

Members of the KI Council, including Cecillia Begg, ended up in a Thunder Bay jail over that protest in 2008, at the same time that Ardoch Algonquin First Nation elder Bob Lovelace was serving jail time for a blockade against a drilling program for uranium in North Frontenac township. The two cases were linked because some of the same legal issues were at play, and the same legal teams were involved in both cases for the mining companies, First Nations, and even the Province of Ontario.

The KI six, as they were known, were released from prison after two months. Lovelace was released a month later.

On January 2nd, 2013 Mark Anderson returned to Eastern Ontario. This time, along with Cecillia Begg, John Cutfeet, three other walkers and two drivers, they continued their walk from 2006, travelling from Toronto to Ottawa on Highway 7 to express solidarity with Attawapiscat Chief Teresa Spence and the Idle No More protests against potential changes to their Treaty rights.

“The Crown pledged to honour the commitments they made at treaty time, 'for as long as the sun shines, the waters flow and the grass grows.’ God's creation was used to entice our people to sign on to Treaty #9 at KI, and now Canada, through the actions of the Harper government, wants to continue to violate the treaty commitments through Bill C-45, which will negatively impact our people, lands, waters, and environment,” said Anderson in a press release at the start of the walk in Toronto.

Members of the Land O'Lakes Emmanuel United Church found out on Saturday (January 5) that the KI walkers were coming through Kaladar that day. The walkers can cover over 100 kilometres a day because of the way the relay walk works. The van drops the walkers off at five kilometre intervals, marked by flags, and each walker goes to the next flag before they are picked up and transported to their next location.

“We had heard that the walk was underway but we did not know how the walk worked so we did not expect them so soon,” said Eleanor Belfry-Lyttle, a member of the church. We only had an hour to prepare, so a couple of us heated some frozen soup and made some sandwiches and we met the KI walkers in Kaladar where we served them some lunch.

Eleanor then joined Cecillia Begg for a 5 km stretch.

“I’m so glad I did it,” she said later. “It gave me more of a sense of the reality of the whole underpinning of what’s happening, and it’s something I have had concern about for most of my life in terms of respect for the earth and caring for the natural environment. I heard Cecillia say the same thing. Step by step walking with Cecillia I felt we were drops in the ocean. That is the hope, that this is a movement that extends beyond Canada.”

A little later on, Mark Anderson, who is a few days shy of his 69th Birthday, passed through Sharbot Lake. Mark is living at Six Nations these days, but he will be returning to KI this winter to see his family, including his great grandchildren.

Although it was late in the day, he kept up a good pace through to Silver Lake.

“We wanted to be part of what is going on now, because our rights and everyone’s rights to the land are being attacked all over again, so we decided to continue our walk from 2006,” he said.

The van picked up Mark Anderson at Silver Lake, and since the advance walker was approaching Maberly and it was getting towards 4:30 they decided to end the day's walk at Maberly, where the walkers were staying overnight. They doubled back to Sharbot Lake to pick up oats, however.

“I find we need oatmeal in the morning when we are walking,” said walk convenor John Cutfeet. “We didn't have any this morning. We ate a greasy breakfast and it made for a harder day.”

The KI walkers reached Ottawa on Monday, and went straight to Victoria Island to express solidarity with Teresa Spence, who is now almost a month into her hunger strike.