Pipeline negotiations pit First Nations groups against each other

If it sometimes seems like Canadian politics is imploding and fragmenting - what with off-again-on-again pipeline decisions, far-from-transparent PMO machinations, difficult relations with various other countries from China to Saudi Arabia to, well, the United States - then that's probably nothing compared to what's currently happening in First Nations politics.
Resource and pipeline infrastructure development are pitting one group against another, not just one First Nation against another, but individual clans with different outlooks, diffferent administration systems, and even women against men. Take what's happening within the Wet'uwet'sen Nation in British Columbia, where opposition to the Coastal GasLink LNG pipeline has led to a battle royal between male hereditary chiefs (who are largely opposed to the pipeline on environmental and what might be called spiritual grounds) and some of the more development-forward women of the Wet'suwet'en Matrilineal Coalition, who have now had their own hereditary titles stripped from them.
Gloria George, who glories in the hereditary title Smogelgem of the Sun House of the Laksanshu clan of the Wet'suwet'sen Nation, along with Darlene Glaim (Woos of the Grizzly House of the Gitdumben clan) and Theresa Tait Day (Wi'hali'yte of the House Beside the Fire of the Laksilyu clan) - yes, you can see how this could get very complicated very fast - have had their matrilineal titles rescinded, and they have been sidelined from important meetings over the pipeline development. There is also strife between the hereditary chiefs of different clans and the elected band councillors on reserves. Traditionally, hereditary chiefs have been mainly responsible for the lands of an aboriginal group's traditional territories, while elected councils have mainly been responsible for social programs, economic development and governance on the reserves, but obviously there is a substantial overlap between those responsibilities.
The Coastal GasLink Pipeline, for example, has been agreed by all 20 elected First Nation councils along the route, including the five elected councillors of the Wet-suwet'sen Nation. But five hereditary Wet'suwet'sen house chiefs who object to the proposal are holding up proceedings, and they have organized a blockade of the road and bridge leading to the development area since early January. Some other First Nations have also called for the rights of these hereditary chiefs to be respected. The protracted negotiations over the TransMountain oil pipeline also showed that some hereditary chiefs toed the line on traditional lands and the environment, while others were quite happy to be swayed by promises of money or ownership rights.
It's a bit of a minefield. How federal negotiators and resource development companies are supposed to negotiate with and placate all these disparate groups is anyone's guess, which a good part why these kinds of projects take forever (if then) to be agreed. But, hey, it's their land, so there's not much that can be done, whatever your feelings are about this pipeline or that pipeline. It does kind of rankle, though, that, in this day and age, we are having to take into account the views of unelected officials. And it doesn't seem very fair to the First Nations themselves, who have voted for elected officials to administer their land for them.