On a misty morning in the fall of 1985, a small group of Haida people blockaded a muddy dirt road on Lyell Island (then known as the Queen Charlotte Islands). After a century of colonialist rule, Haida culture was nearly obliterated, with language and traditions fading, and the land stripped of its resources. But a committed group of Haida and their supporters took a stand, demanding a stop to clear-cut logging practices that had destroyed salmon habitat and ravaged old-growth forest. In the face of overwhelming pressure from the RCMP, private logging interests and even the media, the defenders called for the government to work with Indigenous people to find a way to protect the land and the future.
