Tiny House Warrior arrested after B.C. Trans Mountain protest
Eviction notice issued on what Secwepemc Nation says is ancestral land
CLEARWATER, B.C.— An Indigenous activist was briefly detained Saturday after a Trans Mountain pipeline protest in British Columbia’s North Thompson Provincial Park.
Kanahus Manuel, a spokesperson for the activist group Tiny House Warriors, was arrested by the RCMP after allegedly defying an eviction order from the BC Parks service that was delivered on Thursday.
The group’s members belong to the Secwepemc First Nation, which released a statement Saturday afternoon calling Manuel’s arrest a “declaration of war.”
In the release authored by the Secwepemc Women’s Warrior Society, Manuel is referred to as a political prisoner of “the white supremacist RCMP and Park Ranger goons of the Canadian state,” who they said are intent on forcing the Tiny House Warriors from lands the Secwepemc consider ancestral territories. It adds the territories were never surrendered to a Canadian government.
Dawn Roberts with the B.C. RCMP said members went to North Thompson Provincial Park to meet the protesters and discuss the eviction notice.
Snutetkwe Manuel said her sister has been charged with mischief after the group refused to leave the park; Roberts did not confirm that formal charges have been filed. An RCMP statement said Manuel was released from custody late Saturday afternoon on a series of conditions and a promise to appear in court at a later date. Manuel said the RCMP and BC Parks service have no jurisdiction in the park.
“This is a Secwepemc village site. Our people died of small pox here,” she said.
Roberts said that she did not know precisely why the eviction order was filed by BC Parks, but did say the tattooing ceremony forced the closure of the park and cancelled reservations for campers.
Kanahus Manuel responded earlier this week, saying her people have been inconvenienced by colonialism for over 150 years.
“We were moved off of our lands. There are internationally protected rights which (say) Indigenous people can use and exclusively occupy their lands to maintain our culture, our language and our ways.”