Dozens of First Nations in northern British Columbia have imposed a lockdown system as a preventative measure to stop the chance of the COVID-19 virus from getting into their communities or declared a state of emergency.
The Heiltsuk Nation has stopped access to non-community members and others are allowed out for essential travel only.
Heiltsuk Chief Councillor Marilyn Slett said it’s a challenging time but the community is doing its part to protect elders who are most at risk.
“We know the most vulnerable to COVID-19 are our elders. Our elders in all of our communities are our knowledge holders, our matriarchs, our traditional chiefs and people that transmit our traditional knowledge to the next generation,” she said
“We have to do everything we can to protect them and make sure they are safe.”
Their village Bella Bella is located on the central coast of B.C. and is only accessible by boat or plane.
The community has a local hospital but more intensive medical care would require over an hour flight to Vancouver.
The nation’s actions are guided by the advice of local health officials and health leaders around the province.
There are no currently no cases of the virus which is running through southern Canada in Bella Bella, and they want to keep it that way.
“Tourists and visitors are not permitted to travel in our territory, essentially they are turned away,” said Slett. “Our communities, especially our First Nations and remote communities, have limited heath access, and we really want to make sure that our communities have a good understanding of who’s travelling into our community and people are self-isolating.”
The epidemics in the mid 1800s and early 1900s both hit the Heiltsuk people hard.
Slett said they lost thousands of people to smallpox and the flu pandemics. Not allowing history to repeat itself is a big reason for the precautionary measures and current lockdown.
“Our history as First Nations people, we have been hit hard with these types of pandemics,” said Slett. “Now we’re certainly trying to make sure we have those safeguards in place, working with our neighbouring communities and working collectively in our communities with that one objective of making sure we do all that we can and expand our community resources in a way that supports our community.”
So far, 26 nations have taken action to control the COVID-19 spread.
They include, Haida Nation (state of emergency/travel restrictions), Haisla Nation (community members only with a road block), Hagwilget (community members only plus patrols), Nisga’a (four villages – community members only)
Witset (state of emergency) and Bella Coola (state of emergency).
