Chief Dsta’hyl (also known as Adam Gagnon), a Wing Chief of the Likhts’amisyu Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, was unjustly arrested and sentenced to house arrest in 2024 for peacefully defending the land and rights of the Wet’suwet’en people from the Coastal GasLink pipeline expansion project. He was the first person to be designated an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience in Canada.
Amnesty International has called on the government of British Columbia to ensure the end of the criminalization of Wet’suwet’en and other Indigenous land defenders. Here, Chief Dsta’hyl reflects on his critical work to protect Wet’suwet’en land, rights and the environment we all depend on.
We don’t own this land. We belong to the land. We are a part of the water, the earth, the air – we are a part of everything. The land and the Wet’suwet’en are very spiritual. My mom once said that the moment you accept a Wet’suwet’en Chief’s name, you are no longer your own person. From that day on, you only act in the best interest of your people… and everything that has to do with living on the land and being a part of the land.
In the 1950s, our lands were put onto reserves and we were given English names and turned into “legal Indians” – they made it sound like they were giving us something, but they were actually taking everything away. Before, we had hundreds of thousands of caribou (reindeers) on our territory, but the government and industry that followed drove them out. There are hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of resources underground on our territory and they want it.
