First Warrior

Speaking one of the two known language isolates in the Pacific North West, the Ktunaxa peopled a territory centered around today's Kootenay Lake. Their Mother Lake. Developing cultural land knowledge through times extending deep into the last ice age. Until European colonization decimated their paradisical Eden times. Yet traditions survived, recognizing people leaders as first warrior. As first hunter. Protecting and providing for the Yaqan Nuʔkiy people of the marsh. Harvesting high mountain forests to build sturgeon-nose canoes. To navigate the waters of unceded territorial valley bottoms. Knowing the crafts of weaving bulrush matting to cover warm season teepee poles. To be recognized by the IPCC as lifestyles adequately addressing climate change issues. Indigenous traditions available among other solutions as the climate issue escalates into a climate crisis. Among other human distractions within a resource-based economy on a planet overshot by human consumption.