Right: Nusatsum Mountain and River. Nusatsum is very important to the Nuxalkmc, from the time of our most ancient history. We do not want the Polaris mining corp to destroy Nusatsum Mountain for industrial gravel.

One of our origin stories tells of a great flood during which only Mount Nusatsum was visible. It was here our ancestors camped until they could return to the Bella Coola Valley. Our ancient village "Nusqualst" at the foot of Nusatsum is named for the squalst or green stone that we used for adzes for thousands of years. One of the original inhabitants of Nusqualst was "K m lsonxw." He brought down from Nusmta, the Heavens, the grizzly bear crest which is used today by descendants of people from Nusqualst:
Nusq'lst Memorial Plaque

Nusqualst was visited by Alexander Mackenzie in 1793; he called it the "Great Village." As he reported, the Nuxalkmc were generous hosts to him and assisted his "discovery" of a land route to the Pacific Coast. Another famous visitor, Franz Boas, recorded our Nusatsum origin story in 1898. Why does Polaris Minerals Corp not respect the significance of Nusatsum to the Nuxalkmc and to the history of Canada?

Above: "Scoping Document, Bella Coola Quarry and Deep Sea Port, No Cents Holdings, June 2000." This BC government map is published by the BC Land Use Coordination Office (LUDO) to facilitate its "corporate vision for land use." It shows how embedded the government is with Polaris Minerals corp, which owns No Cents Holdings. The industrial exploitation of Nuxalk Territory has continued ever since the government set up the Bella Coola Indian Reserve in the late 19th century.

Left: Bella Coola River Estuary, 2001. This photo is used by Polaris Mineral corp to show Sutlej Point, where it plans to built an industrial deep sea port from which to export aggregate. Behind Sutlej Point, the mountain slopes will be destroyed by Polaris granite mine.

Right: Bella Coola Estuary, 1998. Map by the Central Coast Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP). Yet another colonial land grab scheme by the BC government. Nuxalk Nation never conceded to the surveying of its land. The land Polaris plans to exploit (District Lots 33, 444 and 3) is Nuxalk land. Also the BC Assets and Land Corp has no right to grant Polaris a foreshore lease so that it can build an industrial port here. The Nuxalkmc have protected their estuary for thousands of years and always had an abundance of eulachon and salmon. Industrial exploitation is destroying the Nuxalk way of life along with our resources. Polaris plans include a water bottling plant on DL 3, granite quarrying on DL 44 and 33, aggregate mining on Nusatsum Mountain and a bulk loading ship terminal at Sutlej Point.

Left: Diagram of the "Coola Rock Quarry Deep Sea Port" as planned by Polaris Minerals Corp to export industrial aggregate (gravel and granite) mined from Nuxalk Territory. Anyone can see that the scale of this industrial operation will have a profound environmental impact on the Bella Coola Estuary. Not only will it degrade the estuary and further reduce our eulachon and salmon resources but it will destroy the natural beauty of the estuary and entrance to the Bella Coola Valley. This is what makes Nuxalk Territory valuable as one of the rare places in the world where nature has not been destroyed for commerce.

Right: Website page of BCRock.com. Screenshot 2012. This website is a front for Polaris Minerals corp and No Cents Holdings. It is proof of the continuing threat to Nuxalk sovereignty. The Nuxalk Nation is appropriated to make it seem as if there has been consultation and compliance. Despite devious tactics by Polaris including bribery to comply with a "joint venture agreement," the Nuxalkmc did not cooperate.

Nuxalk Commentary: "I'd say this work is getting pretty slick. Any takers on this type of deal. The payola looks great! Maybe there is an assignment for us. Anyway, this is what is happening right under our fighting noses! I wonder; how far this will go? I know that we have scared off investors, and that is one advantage we have working for us. No wonder they want us to fight each others. To break us down, and proceed with this type of joint venture. It also works if the House of Smayusta looks cooperative, and agreeable. Who is agreeable? and cooperative? I think, it is time to pull up the sloppy socks"
Qwatsinas (7 October 2003).

Left: Polaris Minerals Corp Profiles, 1997. Read about the destructive record of this mining corp in other parts of the world and be informed about its ruthless directors. Judge for yourselves if the Polaris "Bella Coola Rock Quarry" is desirable. . . In 2003 Marco Romero (Polaris head honcho) became so angered by the Profiles page on the Nuxalk House of Smayusta website that he faxed the Nuxalk a 20 foot long legal Writ of Summons. As a result of this crude act of intimidation by the bully-boy Romero, European supporters of the Nuxalk were quick to post the Polaris Profiles on their websites.

Nuxalk Commentary: "The Nuxalk band office has received notice from Marco Romero who says court proceedings will take place on October 20th, 2003 if the House of Smayusta does not remove this profile. Their company is after a second project in the northern Vancouver Island area; one of them has been approved recently. Unceded Nuxalk homelands are under threat, and now the Nuxalk Chiefs are under threat with court proceedings. We ask your assistance in listing this announcement and creating outreach and awareness about what is happening" Qwatsinas (17 October 2003).

Left: Marco Romero, known as "The Snake" for his poisonous treacheries. Nothing is too low for him to satisfy his greed. Romero learned his tricks while working in BC with Rio Tinto, one of the world's most disreputable mining corps.

"The actions of Rio Tinto Group worldwide exhibit systematic environmental and social abuses, which in their striking similarity and number cannot be reduced to individual incidents. Throughout all of the companies' operations there is a clear strategy of maximising profitability by any means possible, including violation of local and international law; collusion and funding of armed repression; corruption, lobbying and political manipulation; price-fixing; aggressive union busting; wholesale environmental destruction; and negligent health and safety policies." www.CorporateWatch.org and www.MiningWatch.org

Right: "Bearing the Burden: the Effects of Mining on First Nations in British Columbia," Harvard Law School, 2010. This study concludes that "B.C. law has created a de facto presumption favoring mining and placing the burden on the indigenous community to intervene to stop such activity. Human rights would shift this presumption, placing the rights of First Nations first. First Nations should receive a heightened level of protection with regards to land and natural resource issues on their traditional territory because of the cultural, spiritual, and economic importance of the land to their way of life."

The conduct of Polaris Minerals corp toward the Nuxalk Nation abuses our human and indigenous rights. To force approval of its rock quarry and industrial port, the corp uses unethical schemes to pressure and split the Nuxalk people. Massive rock quarries will destroy the land and degrade the Bella Coola Valley. All the archaeological and environmental studies paid for by Polaris make it seem that there is no problem with their greedy schemes to extract the resources. But just look at the massive scale of the deep sea port Polaris plans to export the aggregate. These projects will forever change our homeland and bring very little in short term benefits. We honour the warning of our Head Chief Nuximlayc in 2001.

Nuxalk Commentary: "We wish to submit an open commentary about the way that the Polaris corporation's "Bella Coola Aggregate Rock Quarry" will damage our environment and our traditional way of life and culture. The type of chemicals used to clean and wash the raw products will destroy the estuary, the Bella Coola River, and the marine life as we know it today.There has been tremendous corporate lobbying of the local leaderships and community people who may have limited knowledge of the impacts and the type of threat that this poses to our region.

There has been enough altering of our natural environment; we feel that it should be respected and seen for what it is today. There is much to obtain from this beautiful region for ourselves to take pride in and for the world to see. So why sacrifice it? Polaris and other corporations that want to come to develop Bella Coola have a bad track record for the environment as well as for their treatment toward Indigenous Peoples' in other parts of the world. So why do we even consider their proposal with this catastrophe awaiting our region?" Nuxalk House of Smayusta Chiefs (14 May 2001).

Left: Bella Coola River and Estuary.

Nuxalk Commentary: "People have desecrated Nuxalk Territory for years in the name of economic benefit and gain. The problem is apparent only when you ask: To whose benefit? Well, guess again Nuxalk peoples, again it's not for you! I am guessing that the beautiful space of Bella Coola is quickly going to be something of the past. What a shame! . . .

Well, it's no one that comes from Bella Coola, that's who! Why dig up our back yard?" Lizabeth Hall (7 June 2001).

Right: Bella Coola Valley.

Nuxalk Commentary: "I am from the Bella Coola Valley and have lived here almost all my life. The last thing we need is to have this project go through and watch the rest of our heritage go down the tubes. Let's hear comments from those town that have been robbed of their natural beauty because of company's like you. I bet you don't live in a town where projects like yours have destroyed them. Put some of those towns on your web as well as the comments from the people residing within that town.

We have lived through many hardships from companies coming and removing our resources. You come here and show us who benefited from all that garbage. Let us have our hometown stay as it is. This is Nuxalk Territory; our hunting grounds, our fishing grounds and our homes. We want to preserve it not destroy it." Sylvia Sinu7ximus Saunders Bradt (7 June 2001).

Left: Ancient Nuxalk Petroglyph at Thorsen Creek.

Nuxalk Commentary: "It will be virtually impossible for the Nuxalk to have any effective objection to the project. If we tried to get an injunction to stop Polaris Minerals in the future, a judge will weigh the time and money that they have put into the project against Nuxalk interests.

Judges seem to understand the old mighty buck more than aboriginal interests, so rather than interfering with Polaris Menerals' profits, the judge would like allow them to follow through with the project, while Nuxalk interests would be screwed" Nusqimata (11 Oct. 2003).

Right: Bella Coola Harbour, North Bentinck Arm.

Nuxalk Commentary: "I believe there will be protest against the rock quarry. There does remain a number of Hereditary Chiefs that maintain a position of sovereignty, with support of Nuxalk people who do not want to risk any threat to the ocean environment, which is viewed to be the 'gateway to our salmon to our Bella Coola River. Currently, the main threat or concern would be the installation of a deep sea port. More research, environmental studies and education are needed to fully understand the possible ramification of such a port.

One again we are faced with the decision of participating within a resource development and or extraction within our traditional territory initiated by an outside third party interest. I have a concern about the level of involvement tof our people. It was brought to the Band Administration that we were offered two million dollars to be in direct control of an environmental assessment. A question: Do we have veto power of any particular practice or the quarry and /or the deepsea port? If it is determined that there will be signifcant affects on the migration of our salmon, is there any contingency to another location of such a port?" Ray Morton (14 January 2004).

Left: Bella Coola River and Estuary.

The Poisonous Fangs of Polaris

Left: Kwakiutl Chief Councilor Rupert Wilson. When Marco Romero failed to get his Bella Coola Rock Quarry approved by the Nuxalk in 2001, he moved over to Kwakiutl Territory on Vancouver Island. He first propositioned Chief Wilson who refused to be duped because the benefits to the Kwakiutl were too low. Romero then went behind the back of Chief Wilson and bribed another band councilor. Due to his lowly tactics, Romero is called by Chief Wilson "The Snake." No proper referendum on Romero's mine was ever held among the Kwakiutl People as required by law. Instead Romero went to the neighbouring 'Namgis First Nation, making them a 12 percent partner in his so-called "Orca" gravel mine.

Marco Romero openly boasts about his devious strategy of locating mines on contested First Nation land. Mining regulations were cut back and streamlined in 2004 to facilitate industrial extraction. Natural Resources Canada promotes Polaris as a model corp for its partnerships with First Nations. Such corporate propaganda by the government and Polaris Minerals corp conceals their underhanded violations of Aboriginal Title & Rights, but history will reveal the truth.

Nuxalk Commentary: "Here is some information that reveals how Polaris Minerals attempted to work with No Cents Holdings and the Nuxalk Band Council. It gives an idea of the dialogue that went on with the 'Namgis and shows their concerns about the Polaris mining investors. They were worried and did not want to see Polaris come to their territory. It also shows what Polaris does and how it operates within the native community. It is really crude and corrupt. A Nuxalk band council member was promised some front monies; in exchange he was willing to do all the work along with a couple of other band council members. Thus the old regime approved the Polaris "joint venture" and left the mess for the new band council to face. It went ahead with the marine study for the Polaris project. Flyer information was sent out naming the board of the marine study, an act that follows under the 'damned if you do and damned if you don't' cliche. . ." Qwatsinas (27 June 2007).

Left: "Conflict Gravel." This Polaris open pit gravel mine is located on "hot" (contested) land protected by the 1853 Douglas Treaty rights of the Kwakiutl Indian Band. It is part of the Cluxewe River Watershed and contains a rich archaeological heritage. An ancient Kwakiutl village and important salmon harvesting site is located at the mouth of the Cluxewe River.

Logging corporations have illegally stripped this Kwakiutl land of its forest resources over the past 50 years. In 2005 Polaris made a sleezy $10 deal with Western Forest Products to get a 50 year lease of 350 hectares of the Cluxewe Watershed to extract its lucrative gravel. Polaris head honcho Marco Romero brags that his mine will make billions in profit by exporting the conflict gravel to California. He does not tell how he crushed Kwakiutl Treaty Rights, used bribery to turn family and community members against one another and converted an area of rich biodiversity into a wasteland.

Left: Kwakiutl "Take Back Our Land" Protest, 4 August 2011. The Kwakiutl protest was against the BC government and Western Forest Products for their blatant disregard of Aboriginal Title & Rights. Attending the protest was Grand Chief Stewart Phillip (in blue) of the BC Union of Indian Chiefs. Lack of consultation and accommodation in relation to the exploitation of their land and resources has forced the Kwakiutl First Nation to take legal action against Canada. They are demanding that Canada uphold their 1853 Douglas Treaty which preserves for their use all land extending two miles inland along the coast between Port Hardy and Port McNeil.

Right: Cover of the 2010 annual report by Polaris Minerals corp with red text added. Quotes taken from the Polaris report are lies: Polaris does not respect Aboriginal Title & Rights. It destroys Indigenous land, resources and heritage. Just take a look at what Polaris has done to the Kwakiutl by destroying the Cluxewe Watershed with its billion dollar rock quarry and industrial port. This was what Polaris wanted to do in Nuxalk Territory.

Canadian mining corporations are notorious for their abuse of Indigenous Peoples and for wrecking the environment. In BC, the mining industry has all the advantages of crooked colonialist land schemes like the Mines Act and the Land Act. Also open to corruption is the 2004 Supreme Court of Canada ruling on the duty of industry to consult and accommodate First Nations. Polaris is expert at using complex and confusing "impact and benefit" coercion to conceal its unethical exploitation of Indigenous land and resources. Polaris brags of partnerships but where are its native board members? One of the few Polaris employed natives sued the corp for racism in 2010. Chief Wilson says that the widely cited Polaris claim to have a beneficial relationship with the Kwakiutl is untrue, yet another instance of deception and treachery.

Left: Topographical map of the Cluxewe River and Watershed, showing the 350 hectare Polaris open pit quarry calculated to make a profit of some 4.3 billion dollars over the next 30 years. Despite being on contested Kwakiutl Land, the mine was approved wiith record speed, including a federal foreshore lease, A legal attempt to stop the Polaris project by the Queackar Komoyue Nation was quashed by the court in 2005.

Removing a mountain in the Cluxewe Watershed by exporting c. six million tonnes of gravel yearly has major impacts such as: pollution from the processing plant; ground water extraction; contamination from settling ponds; access roads and transmission lines; an offshore panamax ship port; a conveyor system that runs 24/7. Yet environmental and archaeological assessments were rubber stamped, giving the mining industry the clear signal that contested First Nations land is "open for business" in BC.