Pokemon No Go? Indigenous Woman Wants Burial Ground Pokestop Gone

Prince George Pokemon Go players gather at the entrance to the Lheidli T’enneh burial ground, a designated Pokestop. (Facebook/Kym Gouchie)

‘This is sacred ground. There should not be any Pokemon Go inside a burial site’

By Betsy Trumpener, CBC News: Jul 25, 2016

A traditional burial ground should be a No Go for Pokemon Go — so says a Lheidli T’enneh woman who wants to shut down a poke stop in an Indigenous graveyard in Prince George, B.C.

Kym Gouchie was visiting her father’s grave Sunday, when she encountered dozens of Pokemon players traipsing through her First Nation’s burial ground.

“To have a poke stop there and to have people searching around in the burial grounds is absolutely absurd … and very disrespectful– Kym Gouchie, Lheidli T’enneh 

Sacred burial ground is Pokestop

“It’s sacred there,”said Gouchie. “This land was once my ancestral land. This is the only little piece of land inside Prince George that is ours, and you are disrespecting it.”

“My dad, my uncles, my cousin, my great grandmother are all buried there,” she said.

The traditional graveyard  is located in a popular riverside park, where the Lheidli T’enneh once lived, before their village was burned to the ground in 1913 and their community forcibly relocated to reserve land.

Kym Gouchie spoke to dozens of people who came to a Pokestop in the Lheidli T’enneh Indigenous burial grounds as she was visiting her father’s grave. (Facebook/Kym Gouchie )

The traditional Lheidli burial ground is now open to the public, but it’s gated and enclosed by hedges within the Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park.

But this weekend, said Gouchie, she confronted a young man in the graveyard who pointed at the outdoor altar and Indigenous clan carvings and he told her it was a Pokestop.

‘Absolutely absurd and very disrespectful’

“To have a Pokestop there and to have people searching around in the burial grounds is absolutely absurd in my mind and very disrespectful,” said Gouchie.

A Pokestop is an in-game checkpoint, a location where players enter and click on their device to collect prizes and items available at that stop

A Lheidli T’enneh singer and artist, Gouchie said her adult children gamers who enjoy Pokemon Go.

But she is angry.

“I was being sort of a defender of the land. I was thinking, I need our K’san [traditional] drummers out here so we can block both these gates and … stop this,” she said.

Defender of the land

“This has to stop,” said Gouchie. “This game has only been live in Canada for one week. It’s only a matter of time before that burial site is filled with Pokemon Go people.”

Gouchie says she spoke with many players on Sunday and tried to educate them about the place they were entering.

She said many agreed a graveyard Pokestop was “creepy” and preferred to stay outside the burial ground’s gate while they played.

‘It should not happen’

But she said others told her they weren’t hurting anything by playing in the burial ground.

She doesn’t blame the players, but Niantic, the game’s creator, said Gouchie .

Gouchie has submitted an automated request to have the Pokestop removed.

She’s also reported it to her chief and council.

“It should not happen. It should not be on their map,” she said. “They didn’t consult us. They didn’t ask permission,” said Gouchie.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/poke-stop-in-indigenous-burial-ground-angers-lheidli-t-enneh-woman-1.3694224?cmp=abfb

Native American Protest Ends Peacefully After 3 Men Make A Stand On Sacred Ground (VIDEO)

By CINDY STAUFFER | LancasterOnline

Native American protest ends peacefully after 3 men make a stand on farmer’s hilltop they say is sacred ground

Three men wearing red face paint and carrying a red flag stood for a half-hour atop a Manor Township farm hill, protesting what they said was the desecration of a Native American burial ground there.

They waved the flag, occasionally played a pipe and yelled war whoops, waiting until the property owner showed up, followed by a Manor Township police officer.

A member of a small protest group of about 10 people who were with the three men said she called the police herself, “to get the process moving, to get this finished and to get respect.”

The three men agreed to leave the hilltop, after an hour of negotiations with the police officer and the property owner, Donald Witmer.

Witmer  recently cleared the hilltop of trees so he could farm closer to the area, raising the ire of the group.

Protesters said historic records show the hilltop, which Native Americans call Chief’s Hill, is the final resting place of an Indian queen, and other leaders of the inhabitants of what is called Conestoga Indian Town.

They want Witmer to respect the land.

“He heard our point of view,” said  Chief Carlos Whitewolf, of Lancaster, head of the Northern Arawak Tribal Nation, one of the three protesters. “All we wanted from him was to listen to our point of view.”

Native American Chief Carlos Whitewolf walks to a protest atop a hill he and others believe is a sacred burial ground in Manor Township Sunday.

One of the protesters, Roy Whitehorse, of Ephrata, said it is against the law to disturb a burial ground.

“We want (Witmer) to understand he’s violating the law,” Whitehorse said. “We want to tell him, ‘No more.’ ”

Witmer said he does not think Native Americans are buried on the hilltop, but in a nearby lower location he called “the flats.”

The property, and Conestoga Indian Town, is registered with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Commission spokesman Howard Pollman recently said that as long as Witmer is not using public funds, “He can do whatever he wants.”

After the men left, Witmer said he made no concessions to them. They had wanted him to allow an archaeologist to examine the hilltop, saying it would prove there are Native American graves there. He declined.

“We’re going to be farming there in the next week,” he said.

Witmer said he thought Sunday’s protest was meant only to draw publicity to the Native Americans themselves and to keep people upset about the path of a proposed natural gas pipeline, which is passing not far from the hilltop.

He said he has been cutting trees on that hilltop for the past three years and no one has said a word.

“It’s all about the pipeline,” he said.

Witmer saw the red flag on top of his farm hilltop as he was coming home from church Sunday morning, he said. He drove to the field, cutting quickly up the hill in a sport utility vehicle.

The sound of raised voices could be heard for the next few minutes, as Witmer told the men they needed to leave his property. But when police arrived, he did not press trespassing charges against them.

Witmer said he spoke to the protesters Saturday, as they held a vigil across the street from the hilltop. He invited them to the hilltop to talk about the issues, he said.

“We had a good conversation,” Witmer said, saying he was surprised when he saw them on his property Sunday.

The protesters said they did not feel that Witmer was listening Saturday but they hoped he was Sunday.

Whitehorse said he would like to get an injunction against Witmer, preventing him from farming on the hilltop. Whitewolf said the Native Americans will keep an eye on the land.

He said the Native Americans owe it to their ancestors.

“We are here to tell those spirits that we will fight for them and give them rest,” he said.

Native Americans along with mediators and police officers, are pictured on the land of Donald Witmer in Manor Township, as a protest takes place on Sunday.

B.C. buys disputed Grace Islet in Ganges Harbour for $5.45 million

B.C. taxpayers will pay $5.45 million to protect a First Nations burial ground on tiny Grace Islet. Photograph by: David W Lewis, Times COlonist

BY LINDSAY KINES, TIMES COLONIST

B.C. taxpayers will fork over $5.45 million to protect a First Nations burial ground on tiny Grace Islet that an Alberta businessman purchased in 1990 for $270,000.

The B.C. government has agreed to pay $850,000 for the islet in Ganges Harbour at Saltspring Island and $4.6 million for losses suffered by Barry Slawsky, who was building a luxury retirement home on the 0.78-acre property.

As of July 2014, B.C. Assessment valued the land at $590,000 and the buildings at $145,000.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada now holds title and will work with First Nations to restore and conserve the islet.

Natural Resources Minister Steve Thomson said the price tag covers Slawsky’s costs over two decades to install utilities, hire archeologists, architects and other professionals, and to begin construction of the house, which is partially completed.

The settlement also compensates Slawsky for the loss of future enjoyment of the property.

“This wasn’t a real estate transaction,” Thomson said. “We had to deal with a long period of ownership, activity on the island, everything. So it recognized a whole bunch of other considerations.

“The important step was to make sure that we got the property into the hands of the Nature Conservancy of Canada so that we can deal with the ongoing values on the property.”

He said the First Nations archeological and cultural interests in the site “became much more apparent as this progressed.”

But Gary Holman, NDP MLA for Saanich North and the Island, who lobbied to protect the islet, said the government could have saved taxpayers a lot of money by intervening sooner.

Kayakers discovered exposed human remains on the islet in 2006, and archeologists subsequently located at least 16 burial cairns.

Nevertheless, the province’s archeology branch issued a site alteration permit in 2011 and re-issued it in 2013. Opposition grew as construction progressed until the province intervened in December.

“I think the province had the opportunity to deny the permit in the first place, given that it was a known burial site,” Holman said. “And then they also had an opportunity, as far back as a year and half ago, to refuse to renew it, given that the permit had been violated.

“It took so long for the province to act, I think they didn’t exercise the full leverage they had to get a fair deal for both the owner and the province.”

Thomson dodged questions about whether the case will set a precedent for future expensive settlements.

“Every situation’s unique,” he said. “I’ve asked staff to look at our internal administration procedures around site-alteration permits in these kinds of situations, so that we hopefully don’t get into those situations again with that level of advancement of the property.”

B.C. to buy private island to protect First Nations burial ground

Cairns marking the graves of First Nations peoples who lived and worked here hundreds of years ago were found on Grace Islet, whose sale to the provincial government is nearly complete. (John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail)

JUSTINE HUNTER | The Globe and Mail

The B.C. government has reached a tentative deal to buy Grace Islet, where a private home was being constructed atop an ancient aboriginal cemetery.

It is the 12th time since the 1970s that the province has purchased land to resolve a conflict over what the law deems to be of archeological value – sites that are regarded by First Nations as sacred burial grounds.

Grace Islet was purchased by Edmonton resident Barry Slawsky in 1990, and at that time the site was known to have archeological importance. But when ancient human remains were found, archeologists investigated and found 16 burial rock cairns that would trace back at least 500 years.

Under the province’s Heritage Conservation Act, it is illegal to damage, desecrate or alter a burial place that has historical or archeological value. But Mr. Slawsky was granted a provincial permit to build his retirement home after agreeing to construct it around and above the rock cairns.

However, as construction began, First Nations expressed opposition to what they saw was desecration of a burial site.

The Cowichan Tribes drafted a civil claim asserting aboriginal title to the islet – an unusual case, if it had proceeded, because land claims are normally limited to Crown land where title has not been extinguished.

The pact, if it is finalized, would avert that lawsuit. “Our ancestors can now rest in peace on Grace Islet,” Vern Jacks, Chief of the Tseycum First Nation, stated in a news release.

The province has not stated how much it will pay for the site, which will also require remediation to deal with the half-constructed home on the islet in Ganges Harbour off of Salt Spring Island.