When a wildfire broke out near his remote B.C. community last summer, Tl'etinqox First Nation Chief Joe Alphonse and his community refused to leave.

Despite an evacuation order in the Chilcotin region, he decided to stay and defend his community against a summer of massive wildfires.

The nation had a firefighting plan in place. They stuck with it, even after the RCMP threatened to order the Ministry for Children and Families to remove the children.

“Why is it that at just the slightest provocation, they will take our kids away?” Chief Alphonse asked, during a recent interview with National Observer. “I would have been willing to go to jail for that. We’re making a stand. We want to look after ourselves and we don’t want to depend on anybody.”

Photo of young boy at celebration in Anaham, B.C., after the community responded to wildfires in 2017

The 2,000-member band had been evacuated during the wildfires of 2009 and 2010. This time, they began moving into action themselves as the wildfire neared their homes. Previous evacuations had been too distressing.

“Our members were staying in gymnasiums on cots. It was just like residential school.”

They weren't willing to repeat the experience.