TETLIT'ZHEH/FORT MCPHERSON
Fort McPherson elder Charlie Snowshoe can see the Peel River from his house. He said he knows that any pollution in the river will eventually flow right past his front door.

Fort McPherson’s Charlie Snowshoe was presented with an Indspire Award for his environmental work during a ceremony in Winnipeg on March 21. From left, Glen Abernethy, minister of health and social services, Charlie Snowshoe and Arielle Meloul-Wechsler, vice president of human resources for Air Canada. - photo courtesy of Indspire

"If anything happens in that area, it’s going to come our way," he said.

Snowshoe is this year’s Indspire award winner in the environment and natural resources category for his work to protect the environment.

Formerly known as the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards, the event honours 14 aboriginal people from throughout Canada every year.

Snowshoe, a member of the Gwich’in Renewable Resource Board and the Gwich'in Land and Water Board, has also served as the vice-chair of the Gwich'in Land Use Planning Board and as a member of the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board.

He also helped facilitate Dene Metis and Gwich'in land claims agreements, as well as helped with negotiations on the Porcupine Caribou Management Agreement.

Snowshoe’s environmental work, especially helping to protect the Peel Watershed, was one of the reasons he was chosen for this year’s award.

The majority of the Peel Watershed is in the Yukon, but falls under the land claim agreements of four aboriginal governments; the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun, Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation and the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, as well as the Tetlit Gwich’in Council in NWT.

Snowshoe said it’s important to remember that many residents of Fort McPherson and other communities are originally from Yukon.

"The McPherson people are originally from the Peel River Watershed," he said. "They used to live up there before the missionaries and the Hudson Bay came in."

This year, after years of consultation with First Nations governments and communities, the Yukon Government rejected the Peel Watershed Planning Commission’s plan for protecting 80 per cent of the watershed.

Instead, the territorial government modified the plan to protect 29 per cent. First Nations, including the Gwich’in Tribal Council, and environmental organizations have since launched lawsuits against the Yukon government.

Snowshoe said he worries about what could happen if the watershed were open to full-scale development projects. He said he has visited mining operations in both Canada and the United States and has seen the environmental destruction they cause.

"We don’t want to see anything happening like what is happening to the oil sands in Alberta," he said. "It’s something like that that we don’t want to see happen, not in the Peel watershed or the Peel River."

Snowshoe said he remembers how elders fought to protect their land during the Berger Inquiry about the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline in the 1970s.

"When I travel around, the elders that I knew are all gone," he said. "I wish they were around to back us up. They were fighting people. When they say no, it was no and they worked it out until they got an agreement."

Snowshoe said he hopes the territory’s young people will pick up the torch and stand up for their rights and for the environment.

"I had a message for the young people to start getting involved and learning to see what is happening," he said. "We need you."

He said there needs to be a balance between the jobs and income industry can provide and making sure land and water is protected. He said when visiting British Columbia, he took note of the various ways certain industries, governments and First Nations were working together.

"They’re looking to work with them instead of going against them and it seems like it’s working out pretty good," he said.

The Indspire award is not Snowshoe’s first. In 1992, he received the Commemorative medal for the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada; the Lifetime Achievement Award in Environmental Impact Assessment for Western and Northern Canada Affiliate of the International Association for Impact Assessment in 2007; and the Gwich’in Achievement Award for Land and Environment in 2008.

Snowshoe said awards aren’t important. But making sure traditional land remains unspoiled is crucial.

"It’s the last frontier, they call it," he said. "It’s virgin country."