Flooded routes: Traditional Tsek’ehne movement along the Finlay-Parsnip watershed and the impacts of the Williston Lake Reservoir

• In Event: The Far Off Omineca and Beyond: Reconsidering the Finlay-Parsnip Watershed of Northern British Columbia, 1860-1956

Abstract

This paper examines the various forms and extent of Tsek’ehne movement throughout their traditional territories in Finlay-Parsnip watershed and Peace River country in northern British Columbia prior to the construction of the Bennett Dam in 1968. While the construction of the Bennett Dam was predicated on reading Tsek’ehne land as untouched wilderness, through examining the archival record alongside oral histories from elders in the Kwadacha, McLeod Lake, and Tsay Keh Dene First Nations, we see how the construction of the dam materially erased these existing Indigenous infrastructures of circulation in its creation of the 1,761 km2 (680 sq mi) reservoir. These networked means of Tsek’ehne movement were constructed through intimate, long-standing, vernacular knowledge of the land, carved out through traditional uses along the riverways, traplines, and other trails but also shaped and traversed through engagement with settler industries, such as forestry. In the end, the dam construction worked to limit means of Tsek'ehne movement, rendering these communities more remote, disconnected and immobile not only within their own territories as the dam flooded important lands, trails and hunting grounds and made river travel impossible due to presence of submerged trees, larger waves, and other new dangers, but also from settler society and access to its economy.

Author

• Helena Safron, Florida State University