Tsay Keh Dene First Nation
The Tsay Keh Dene First Nation is one of the Sekani bands of the Northern Interior of British Columbia.
The territories, settlements, and reserves surround Williston Lake in the Omineca region of central British Columbia.
[2] While navigating the Parsnip River in 1793, Alexander MacKenzie of the North West Company (NWC) made the first European contact with the Tsek'ehne.
[3] In 1824, Samuel Black of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), who made the first European exploration of the Finlay River headwaters,[4] encountered three Tse Keh Nay groups.
[11] In 1870, the HBC established the Fort Grahame fur trading post on the east bank 105 kilometres (65 mi) north of Finlay Forks.
Factor Ross, on the west bank opposite, was the more important settlement site,[13] but the Fort Grahame area name often applied to both sides of the river.
[14] The 68-hectare (168-acre) Fort Grahame reserve (called Finlay Forks 1) was allotted in 1916, surveyed in 1926, and transferred to the federal government in 1938.
[29] In 1989, the band reached an agreement with the provincial and federal governments to create the 810-hectare (2,000-acre) Tsay Keh Dene reserve at the northern tip of the lake, the 400-hectare (1,000-acre) Mesilinka reserve on the Mesilinka River near Blackpine Lake, and a non-residential plot at Ingenika Point.
Served by a central office in Prince George,[23] the present reserves and settlements under the jurisdiction of the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation are as follows:[31] In April 1990, construction began on the new community, reducing the band unemployment rate.
When the HBC closed Fort Grahame in 1949, Frank (Shorty) Webber already ran a trading post at Old Ingenika.
[46] After the dam reservoir had consumed the Old Ingenika settlement,[47] all that remained was a BC Forest Service runway on the bluff above.
[49] In 1971, band members began returning from the forestry camps to the locality to pursue a traditional lifestyle by squatting on Crown land.
[60] In 1987, despite the squatter community status,[61] the provincial and federal governments took steps to resolve housing, water, sewage, supply, education, and employment issues in the village.
[64] When Gordon Pierre was elected chief in 1986, Ray Izony and about 40 band members relocated to Blackpine Lake.
[30] During the early 1910s, Indian Agent William McAllan recommended the creation of reserves within 10 kilometres (6 mi) of this location but was overruled by the McKenna–McBride Commission.
[70] Indian Affairs assumed the new reserves would provide the best of both worlds, allowing residents to remain isolated from wider Euro-Canadian society but have access to the waterways for transportation, while benefitting from social services and job opportunities.
[74] However, the series of delays in relocating the first five families from the forestry camps to the Parsnip River reserve, which did not occur until that October, dissuaded others.
[75] The benefits of access to clean water, the electrical grid, the Hart Highway, and services,[76] were only partially available.
[15] The lowering of the dam height from an earlier proposal meant the reservoir did not submerge the reserve,[81] which was uninhabited and purely a meadow in a mountain valley.
[79] The Scattering of Man (Dəne Yi'Injetl), a 2021 documentary film by Luke Gleeson, profiled the effects on the community of the dam construction.
