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Treatyless on Wet’suwet’en Yintah

February 28, 2020

If faith doesn't matter in all things

then faith doesn't really matter.

For our valley, unresolved land title has created a crisis.   I know it's complicated, with so many stakeholders and participants - not just our local community, but also the Province, the RCMP, the Federal Government, and a world that's watching.
I'm convicted that there is a root cause of the crisis. 

But I'm convicted that there is a root cause of the crisis.  What was promised to the Wet'suwet'en - by Royal Proclamation before Canada was born - has not been delivered.  King George III promised original inhabitants of the British North American territories that they were free to enter land treaty with the Crown and, until they did, would not be "disturbed or molested by possession" of their lands.

Neither that king nor his successors made treaty with the Wet'suwet'en nation.

As a follower of the Creator revealed fully through Jesus, I am ultimately bound to my Creator's law.  This includes the Creator’s order to his people – in eternal treaty with Him - to "confess the sins of their ancestors."  (Leviticus 26)

As I pray, I hear my Creator

I confess that the ancestors of my earthly kingdom failed to keep promise.  Will my current head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, through her agents, ever enter treaty?  I understand why the Wet'suwet'en nation may lack trust in the leadership of those hosted on their lands since first contact.

If my faith remains silent at a time such as this, then my faith doesn't matter when it needs to.

I pray, though, that it does.  As I pray, I hear my Creator, ordering me to live by his law:

What does the Creator require of us?

To act justly

to love mercy

and walk humbly with our Creator.

 

Forgive us, Creator.

Forgive us, Wet'suwet'en neighbours.


This content was originally published on The Interior News. Used with author's permission.