A First Nation in British Columbia has served a company that wants to build a natural gas pipeline through its territory an eviction notice.

“This notice is to inform you that all Coastal GasLink staff and contractors currently trespassing on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory must vacate our territory immediately,” reads a letter from the First Nation’s hereditary chiefs to the company whose $6.6-billion pipeline would transport natural gas across 670 kilometres from northeastern B.C. to the LNG Canada export terminal in Kitimat.

Coastal GasLink workers and contractors in the area near Houston, B.C., complied with the notice peacefully Saturday night, confirmed two spokespeople for Indigenous groups.

A spokeswoman for Coastal GasLink, Suzanne Wilton, said in an emailed statement that “the only people on site Saturday were security staff.” The company expects construction to resume this week after a holiday break, she wrote.

At first, the workers were reluctant, said Na’Moks, who also goes by John Ridsdale and is the highest ranking hereditary chief of Tsayu, one of the five clans that make up the First Nation.

He estimates it took workers between 90 minutes and two hours to leave.

Coastal GasLink, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment beyond the emailed statement, said on its website that it received the notice.

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