Born: 1939 (circa), Canada (assumed)
Died: Unknown
Country most active: Canada
Also known as: Lillian Campbell
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
Tahltan elder Lillian Moyer was 67 when she was arrested in 2006 in northern British Columbia and a First Nations blockade that had been preventing a mining company from exploring the Todagin Plateau for copper and gold. Community members alleged that after her arrest, the company’s heavy equipment leaked oil into Coyote Creek, a food source they used to fish for trout. “Today’s oil spill is our worst nightmare coming true,” said Rhoda Quock, a spokesperson with the Iskut elders group Klabona Keepers. “It shows what happens to our lands when development is rammed through without proper consultation.” The Royal Canadian Mounted Police threatened the First Nations protestors that they would be denied access to their fall hunting grounds if the blockade persisted.
“I am being arrested today for the people of Iskut, for the people of Telegraph Creek, and especially for our grandchildren,” Moyer told supporters. “This is from my heart. I believe my ancestors are speaking through me.” The previous fall, nine elders had been among fifteen people arrested at the same location for blocking mining access to the Sacred Headwaters, the source of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine-Iskut Rivers.