COMMUNITY-BASED KNOWLEDGE CAPTURE:
TSAY KEH DENE DEVELOP AN ONLINE ARCHIVAL SYSTEM
by

Derek Ingram
B.A., Geography, Natural Resource Management
Vancouver Island University, 2006

MASTER'S PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS
IN
FIRST NATIONS STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA
April2012
© Derek Ingram, 2012
UNIVERSITY of NORTHERN
BRITISH COLUMBIA
LIBRARY
Prince George, B.C.

ABSTRACT

Indigenous peoples have differing perceptions of what constitutes data,
including how to collect, preserve, and interpret information. A data management
system has the potential to embrace community knowledge, which will have longterm benefits for the preservation of a culture. Designing a database platform for
an Indigenous community requires researchers to be cognizant of the history and
current position of distinct Aboriginal Nations.
The focus of this Master' s research project is the methodology and process
of data capture to build a data management system sensitive to the needs of the
Tsay Keh Dene in northern British Columbia. This qualitative research project
examined how the Tsay Keh Dene perceive their cultural, historic, environmental
and geographic landscapes. It describes methods to determine how the database
interface should function and develop with Tsay Keh participation. With this data
management system, the Tsay Keh have an efficient and powerful tool specifically
created to their needs.

11

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract

11

Table of Contents

111

List ofFigures

lV

Introduction

Natural Resource Development in Canada:
An Overview of Effects on the Tsay Keh Dene
Research Questions
Reflections of a Northern Researcher

Chapter One

The Tsay Keh Dene, Past and Present
The Reserve System of Land Occupancy
The Residential School's Impact
W.A.C. Bennett Dam (Williston Reservoir)
Road Construction on Tsay Keh Territory
The British Columbia Treaty Process
The Tsay Keh Response

14
21
22
24

Chapter Two

A Review of the Literature
Sense of Place
Indigenous Knowledge
Mapping Indigenous Knowledge
Bridging Gaps

26
26
31
34
37

Chapter Three

Methodology
Indigenous Research Methods
Geography and Cartography
Oral History
Ethical Considerations

40
42
45
48
51

Chapter Four

Tsay Keh Dene Online Database:
Benefits of the Project to The People
Culture
Tsay Keh Response
Geography
Tsay Keh Response
Economics
Tsay Keh Response
Conclusion
References

54
54
56
57
58
59
60
61
63

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4
6
9
10
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111

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1: Overview of Tsay Keh Dene Traditional Territory
Figure 1.2: Dust Storm Over the Williston Reservoir

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19

lV

In: Natural Resource Development in Canada: An overview of effects on the
Tsay Keh Dene

The Constitution Act, 1867 differentiates between propriety rights and
legislative authority relative to natural resources and the environment.
Through the Canadian Constitution, ownership of all crown lands and natural
resources not specifically given over to private ownership is given to the
provinces. (Mitchell, 2003, p.1)
The Canadian government delegates decision-making powers concerning
Crown lands to various government bodies within Canada. Until recently, First
Nations 1 governments had lost their voice in land use decisions about their traditional
lands including natural resource development on those lands. The natural resources
that are of primary concern in the north are natural gas, precious metals, and prime
timber.
British Columbia continues to depend on natural resource development as the
basis of provincial economic security and health. This exploitation of British
Columbia hinterlands for natural resources represents a source of conflict and
uncertainty between First Nations, industry, and government. At the forefront of the
conflict are different interpretations of what the land represents to each of these
groups.
A conventional perception by government and industry is that the North is an
unpopulated frontier containing an under-utilized wealth of resources waiting to be
"colonized" (Coates and Morrison, 1992). An alternate view of the same land,
however, sees the so-called hinterland as a homeland to many First Nations whose

1

Throughout this paper, references will be made to Aboriginal and Indigenous people, First Nations,
Indian, or simply "the people"; all of these references are to the same people: those who inhabited this
land prior to colonization by the Western European "discoverers" and "settlers," and their descendants.

1

interests are often overlooked in the development process (Berger, 1988; Swiderski,
1992; Usher, 1993;).
According to Thomas Berger (1988), "progress" has led to the destruction of
traditional economies, local environments, and essential resources integral to First
Nations and to their identities. (Place, 2007) The result has been industrial
development that continues to erode First Nations land and culture, and has, in many
cases, left these communities with geographies that have become foreign landscapes.
As noted by Jessica Place, (2007) "The findings of Berger's influential inquiry
into proposed development in the Mackenzie Valley speak to issues that are also
evident in the hinterlands of British Columbia"(Place, 2007, p. 5). At the core of the
issues are opposing values regarding land use. Land is an important part of First
Nations peoples' ways oflife, and resource development can undermine the ability of
First Nations to maintain their identities and culture (Berger, 1988). While the
dominant society perceives land in terms of extractable resources, for First Nations,
"the land (is) sacred, the source of life and sustenance, (and) not a commodity to be
bought and sold." (Berger, 1988, p. 127).
Presently in British Columbia, there is enormous pressure on First Nations'
traditional territories for resource exploitation and activities that would help to sustain
the province's overall economic health and wealth. In the recent economic climate of
semi-recession, the Tsay Keh Dene continue to be in the position of watching their
land being exploited for its wealth, yet without appropriate acknowledgement that
these areas are not only fundamentally consequential to the community, but are also
the source of the peoples' sustenance and spiritual well being. "Therefore, the space
2

and the relationship between people or between people and their environment are
seen as sacred, a key concept within many Indigenous peoples' spirituality." (Wilson
2008, p. 87).
The Tsay Keh Dene people are geographically and genealogically connected
to their lands-the land is their identity, embodying all aspects of language,
traditions, customs and protocols. Fundamentally, the land constitutes their ways of
knowing and being. There is much concern for the future generations of Tsay Keh
Dene, and it is my hope that this document will find its way to assisting those who are
in search of their identity and language.
This First Nations Studies Masters project documents the development of an
online database for the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation of Northern British Columbia. As
part of that database, this paper focuses on the value and importance of "place" to
Tsay Keh Den e. The benefits of the database development process to the Tsay Keh
will be the emphasis placed on critical aspects of Tsay Keh epistemology and
ontology, and additionally, how this archival system supports the preservation of their
culture for future use.
Presently, minimal literature exists concerning data capture development for
First Nations communities. Besides the academic benefits from the lessons learned
from this experience, this project is potentially a starting point and a resource for First
Nations communities developing their own, perhaps similar, online Indigenous
archival systems.

3

The Tsay Keh are in the process of creating a specialized information
management system to store historical and contemporary community knowledge. It
has been my job to create an archival system equipped with the functions to ensure
this system is a vehicle to help preserve the Tsay Keh culture and assist with land
management strategies.
Through the early stages of researching database possibilities, it became
obvious that there were important lessons to be learned by the development of this
specialized system. This was the point at which documenting the development of this
product became the focus of my University ofNorthem British Columbia Master's
research project.
Research Questions

At this critical junction in history, where global politics exist in times of high
anxiety-compounded by the fact that there is an accelerated demand on natural
resources-it is prudent that Canada's First Peoples have their say when it comes to
their own cultural and geographic landscapes. Distinct from other non-Indigenous
cultures, a First Nation community embodies unique knowledge systems that must be
taken into consideration when building an electronic application such as an online
database. This thesis project examines the different factors that must be incorporated
into constructing a storage mechanism for First Nation's community knowledge.
The Tsay Keh Dene have a deep connection to their traditional lands. This
connection, thousands of years in the making, is being severed by continuous
industrial developments that fail to recognize the significance of this land to the Tsay
4

Keh. Furthermore, there is a lack of appreciation on the part of industry and
government for the full implications of what this industrial development will do to the
health of this First Nation's culture. Preserving local knowledge can be a way to
validate Tsay Keh Dene' s cultural connection, use and occupancy of their lands to
both government and industry.
The key research questions are:
1) How does an online database capture Tsay Keh Dene knowledge?
2) What are the potential benefits to Indigenous communities in electronically
archiving this data?
The research questions become the framework behind the overall design of a
Tsay Keh Dene database capable of storing Indigenous knowledge of this community,
thereby placing value upon the lands this First Nations uses in northern British
Columbia.
A key factor in the design and functionality of this data management system is
that community members not only have access to this tool, but also have ease in using
this technology. Navigation through the data that will be stored in this database will
have multiple aplications for all users:

•

As archival data that can be used in the treaty process (proof ofland
use and occupancy);

•

Helping inform decisions on future land use on traditional territory;

•

As a teaching aid in Tsay Keh school and education system;

•

Assisting with bridging Elders' traditional knowledge with younger
generations; and,

•

Connecting community members with their traditional territory and
traditional historic knowledge.

5

Reflections of a Northern Researcher

Who am I and where do I fit in? I identify myself culturally as a Canadian
with Scottish, Irish, and Cree roots. With a Bachelor's degree in Geography, my
background is in the field of natural resource management. Professionally, I work for
the Tsay Keh Dene in their Lands and Resource Department in Prince George, British
Columbia. Working for a First Nation allows me to keep my own environmental
ethics without compromising my value system.
Currently, my position as Director of Land and Resource for the Tsay Keh
Dene Band's Lands and Resource Department is to assist the Nation to reach their
goals ofland management in their territory. With the continued assault on Tsay Keh
lands through industrial development, management of traditional territories is very
difficult. The goals and management strategies steering the overall direction of the
Land and Resource Department incorporate Indigenous knowledge methodologies
that focus on sustainable land use.
Chapter One of this project document offers a description ofTsay Keh Dene
history, featuring the significant forces that have impacted ancient connections to the
Tsay Keh Band's traditional territory. Understanding the community is paramount in
designing a data management system. In this chapter, the historical information about
the Tsay Keh- Dene that I present provides insight into links between those past
relations and contemporary development of natural resources on that same land.
Chapter Two is a review of the literature in which I examine the concepts of:

sense ofplace, Indigenous knowledge, and mapping ofIndigenous knowledge. I
6

reference leading authors and academics to provide a thorough understanding of
contemporary thought concerning these three topics. These are intrinsically
intertwined topics that essentially filtered the overall trajectory and outcome of this
data management system.
Chapter Three features an explanation of the methodology used in this
research project. I discuss in detail my research methods, including Indigenous
knowledge, oral history, ethics, and geography (including mapping and cartography).
My discussion expands to include the technology used in implementing this project.
The online database application incorporates contemporary conventional tools to
support the unique needs of a traditionally oral society. I show how tools such as
Google Earth help facilitate these needs by incorporating visual data with oral and
written data.
Chapter Four is a discussion of the community benefits that an online database
will achieve for the Tsay Keh Dene. As I document the creation of this specialized
database, I am cognizant of the specific attributes and themes other researchers and
academics can learn from, particular to the needs of Indigenous communities.
As I note in this chapter, there are minimal scholarly resources available on
the topic of data capture management systems specifically designed for Indigenous
communities. Therefore, when I created the framework for the development of a data
management system for the Tsay Keh, it was initiated from the ground-up and
incorporated experimentation. In this chapter, I establish that this database system is
not a stagnant tool. Given the intrinsic nature of this system-as the outcome of this
project-data capture will evolve with time, grow and be modified at the discretion of
7

others. As they use the system, community members will be able to add information
and data to it; thereby, creating a growing and living information tool, continually
evolving to be consistent with the operating definitions and needs of the users.

8

CHAPTER ONE: THE TSAY KEH DENE, PAST AND PRESENT
To understand the possible benefits of a community knowledge archival
system designed for the needs of a specific culture within a recognizable and
confining set of demographics, it is critical to understand the history of the group, and
their current reality.
Historically the Tsay Keh Dene have suffered many changes in their lives and
culture resulting from being subjected to colonial policies and economic systems in
which they have not been included. The Tsay Keh are currently positioning
themselves to participate in land management of their traditional territory as part of
their aspiration to help their community to regain physical and spiritual health.
The history and complexity of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal relations in
Canada is epitomized by the situation in the Province of British Columbia:
There the Native Protest over the loss of their lands has been more
audible than elsewhere, and the Indian land question has agitated the province
for more than a century. One tribe, the Nishga [Nisga'a], has been at the
forefront of this controversy. The story of the Nishga Indians illustrates the
quest of all Canadian aboriginals for legal recognition of their aboriginal
rights. Their story takes us back to the beginning of the European colonization
of North America, and it brings us forward to the very center ofthe present
conflict over land claims, Indian self-determination, and the concept of
aboriginal government. (Berger, 1982 as cited in Swiderski (1992, p. 33).
Like the Nisga'a, the Tsay Keh Dene has endured much at the hands of the
Canadian governments and policies. Tsay Keh history includes the move to the
reserve system ofland occupancy, the dramatic results ofthe enforcement of the
Indian Residential School system throughout the twentieth century, and finally, the
onslaught of 'outsiders'-non-Indigenous people-procuring natural resources
9

development within the boundaries of their traditional territories into the twenty first
century.
The Reserve System of Land Occupancy

Traditionally, the Tsay Keh Dene had a migratory culture-moving upon,
through, and over the land in family groups, seasonally and systematically harvesting
subsistence resources. When the Canadian government created and imposed the
reserve system upon First Nations in western Canada, the Tsay Keh, like many others,
were forced into a very alien form of community living which presented sudden and
major challenges to their culture and identity. For the Tsay Keh, living as a sedentary
group in predetermined locations resulted in fundamentally negative outcomes that
were previously unknown within their culture. Social diseases previously unknown
within Indigenous cultures became problematic. Drug and alcohol abuse increased in
these new living conditions within the reservation.
Families unaccustomed to restricted territorial boundaries were forced to live
within constant and immediate contact with one another, which, in tum, produced
serious frictions between them. Congregation outside the Reserves became illegal,
and extended families became separated and estranged which resulted in massive and
systemic cultural breakdown. Kinship bonds and relationships eroded as a result of
familial populations who became isolated, virtually confined to their respective
reserves, yet placed into previously unknown enforced proximity. The resulting
confusion about personal and cultural identity is an issue still prevalent today.

10

Along with the introduction of the reserve concept, the Federal government
imposed a Chief and Council system. This internal governance structure contradicted
the previous cultural form of Tsay Keh political and leadership models that had
consisted of family headmen, each of whom was elected to speak for a traditional and
heredity area. This Aboriginal system had allowed and promoted direct and interrelational control and management of respective territories to one another.
Subsequently, with the imposition of the reserve system of governance, these
synergistic structures were lost-which further undermined Tsay Keh selfdetermination.
Traditional Tsay Keh cultural practices steadily weakened and eventually
broke down. Everyday routines, hereditary arts, and even elemental tasks such as
food gathering were becoming obsolete. The Tsay Keh people, habitually accustomed
to active physical lifestyles, fulfilling traditional roles in a hunting and gathering
society, became more and more accustomed and dependent on sedentary living with
the influx of non-Aboriginal practices and material goods. These changes contributed
to major negative health effects. Diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and anemia
are some side effects of moving away from consuming traditional sustenance and
becoming more sedentary. Consequently, such dramatic, imposed changes furthered
Tsay Keh resentment towards the colonial Canadian governments, culture, and social
policies.
The Residential School's Impact
Every demographic of the Tsay Keh community has and continues to suffer
numerous side effects from residential school experiences. Through informal
11

discussions with Tsay Keh community members it surfaced that from the late 1950s
until the closing of Lejac School in Fraser Lake in 1976, Tsay Keh children and youth
were taken away from their parents and families, and placed in residential schools.
These children were effectively removed from every cultural and environmental
feature familiar to them, and relocated into government-controlled, religion-based
schools operated specifically and only for First Nations students.
The Canadian society considered Tsay Keh villages not only remote, but also
primitive and without amenities or infrastructure. Without relegated institutions such
as schools, the Canadian government imposed a countrywide mandate of available
education, and removed First Nations children to centralized schools, often hundreds
of miles from their villages. Tsay Keh children were taken from their homes and sent
to Lejac School, a remote live-in facility. Behind this enforced education system was
a Canadian government policy to encourage and facilitate assimilation of these
children into the dominant society. It was a policy that had catastrophic consequences
for the Tsay Keh people, the effects of which continue to this day.
Side effects of residential schools within the Tsay Keh population are varied.
Removal ofTsay Keh youth into the residential school system effectively removed
the upcoming generation(s) from their community; traditional lessons in cultural
norms and decision-making processes suffered or failed to be passed down. This left
the Tsay Keh less able to determine their own futures, unable to sustain a culture that
had been, in pre-colonial times, entirely self-sufficient and self-determining.
Due to the separation of parents and children, there are layered generations of
parents with compromised parenting skills. As a consequence of being taken away
12

from their own, many Tsay Keh endured a childhood that was absent of trustworthy
role models, and without traditional Tsay Keh guidance and spirituality. To this day,
there remains a tangible grief in the parental generations who were isolated and
robbed of their roles as both educators and loving parents when their children were
taken from them.
Their children suffer as well, some irreparably so. At the hands of strangers,
Tsay Keh children were severely punished for being Indian in any way, and their
personal identities were destroyed in the process. Even their food was vilified; their
diet was restricted to a menu foreign to their traditional game-rich diet. Major
epidemics of previously unknown infectious illnesses such as measles, influenza, and
tuberculosis that swept the Northwest also surfaced in the Lejac residential school to
claim many young victims.
Wounds of this magnitude had resounding and pronounced, long-term effects
on all Indigenous communities, including the Tsay Keh Dene. Once back in their own
communities, the confusion of the children was magnified by an inability to be
understood by Elders, parents, and relations. Because Sekani, their mother language,
was forbidden at the residential schools, a chasm developed in the possible
communication between those who were left behind in the community and those who
were removed to the schools. The ability to communicate verbally had emotional
consequences; a major element of cultural knowledge and identity had been erased.
To this day, Tsay Keh lineage structures continue to suffer the effects of
broken familial traditions and lines. Within these affected generations, there are
elements of social and cultural dysfunction. Social diseases such as alcoholism and
13

drug use plague the Tsay Keh people. The entire community has had to pay for the
consequences of the sudden absence of the young generations who were taken from
them and subjected to the residential schools' environment of isolation, loneliness,
ridicule, and harassment.
The trials and horror of the enforced residential school system resulted from
the Canadian government's notion that the younger generation could and should be
made to be someone and/or something other than Tsay Keh Dene. It is only logical
and reasonable, therefore, that within the Tsay Keh community there remains an
underlying resentment for not only the Canadian government, but also for nonAboriginal Canadian people and institutions who supported policies of assimilation.
Significantly, this resentment-grounded in personal and cultural instability-creates
within the community a palpable feeling of difference from other Canadians.
Tsay Keh members today are conflicted when it comes to understanding their
own identities. After decades of being taught to feel shame for their culture, ways,
language and lifestyle, the United Nation's proclamation in the 1990s as the "Decade
of Indigenous Peoples" has created a vortex of confusion. Suddenly, within a few
decades, Aboriginal people were expected to feel pride for their heritage and for
themselves. This paradoxical position could not and cannot be rectified simply-or
quickly.

14

W.A.C. Bennett Dam- The Williston Reservoir
Perpetually, the Tsay Keh Dene find themselves in a position of watching
their traditional territory being exploited for its natural resources. As Coates and
Morrison (1992) contend, for" ... the last three decades, southerners have once again
discovered the untapped potential in these vast lands, and have rushed to develop the
hydroelectric, mineral and timber resources in the sub-artie zones." (p. 2) There has
been a cyclical rotation ofharvesting the resource wealth of the Tsay Keh territory.
Currently, hydroelectric projects, timber harvesting along with mineral exploration
and development have become the region's economic development focus.
One of the most recent examples of Canadian government and B.C. economic
developments to affect the Tsay Keh was the creation of the Williston Reservoir as
part of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam. Named after a former B.C. premier, the dam began
construction in 1963 and was online and producing power by 1968. Currently, the
Tsay Keh are located on a reserve at the northern tip of this man-made lake (defined
as a body of water qualified by a fluctuating depth).

15

Figure 1.1: Overview of Tsay Keh Dene Traditional Territory
Tsay Keh Dene Traditional Territory
Legend
-

e

Towns & Vilages

- - Rough Road

Gravel Road

· ·· · · · Trail

..

Overgrown Road

La kes & RNers

c::::J Traditional Temtory Boundary
"'

80

Source: Tsay Keh Dene Land and Resource Department
GIS Analyst: Dana Schwehr

When the governments began this monumental project, the Tsay Keh people
(or Ingineka Band) did not have fair warning or proper understanding of what was
going to happen to their land in the future due to the construction of Williston
Reservoir. The dramatically altered landscape created by the W.A.C. Bennett Dam
and the Williston Reservoir resulted in profound cultural, physical, and mental stress
for the people whose home it had once been.

16

Before the flooding, the land that became the Williston Lake Reservoir was
home to many families who lived at Fort Grahame. The flooding and exodus from
Fort Grahame striated and segregated families from one another and fragmented the
overall community lifestyle the Tsay Keh peoples shared. Some families chose to
move to Ft. Ware, while others were moved to either the Parsnip or Ingineka reserves.
Where there had been one large community, now there were three fragmented
communities, all living within a landscape suddenly and completely altered andredefined.
When the flooding first started to consume their land, the water came so
quickly that many people were unable to remove their belongings from their
dwellings. The community was in shock, and once again, as a result of the nonAboriginal need of a particular commodity, and the subsequent appropriation of their
lands, the Tsay Keh' s sense of their own future was unclear and seemingly
jeopardized.
The impact was immediate and devastating. With the flooding of the Rocky
Mountain Trench, wildlife migration routes, hunting areas, and culturally significant
areas such as burial sites were submerged-forever lost. The effects on the Tsay Keh
people could not and cannot be quantified. The new man-made lake created an alien
landscape that forever separated the Tsay Keh from the land they had inhabited since
time immemorial; not only was the face of that land changed land forever, the Tsay
Keh Dene were changed.
The familial ecosystems that the Tsay Keh had been accustomed to for
millennia were altered suddenly and drastically; the new massive lake began creating
17

huge amounts of latent energy, and the entire landscape was thrust into ecological
chaos. Animals, migrations, and weather patterns that the Tsay Keh could once
forecast, no longer applied. The changes in the local and regional geography made it
very difficult for the Tsay Keh to endure with the surety they once had in a known
and reliable habitat.
Massive bodies of water such as Williston Reservoir have been scientifically
proven to generate natural energy such as storms and dynamic temperature changes
which generate airborne water particles that influence changing weather patterns
within the immediate and surrounding regions. During the last decade, the location of
the reserve has resulted in previously unknown respiratory problems for the Tsay Keh
people.
The unnatural rise-and-fall pattern of the reservoir' s water levels creates hydro
electricity, but it also produces massive amounts of fine beach sands when the water
level is low- a phenomena which has a demonstrable two-fold effect. "Approaching
Tsay Keh Dene Village at sunset in early June, I saw what looked like a thick bank of
fog hanging above the community on an otherwise clear evening. Within the village,
fine, silty particles of dust created a thick accumulation on window screens."

18

Figure 1.2: Dust Storm over the Williston Reservoir

Source: (costumecupboardmamablogspot.com)

Air quality in the village ofTsay Keh deteriorates when Williston's water
level is low. Fine sands combine with high winds generated by the large body of
water, and enormous dust storms drastically reduce overall air quality. This
phenomenon has been observed and documented by outsiders to the community:
The management of industrial reservoirs for hydroelectric energy can
cause severe impacts to surrounding communities. This study examines the
generation of dust along the northern foreshore zones of Williston Reservoir
in northern British Columbia. The dust is generated in the spring when the
reservoir levels are low and impacts a relocated First Nations' village (Tsay
Keh) at the north end of the reservoir. Data were gathered to provide an
overview of the physical conditions that contribute to the dust problem [and]
assess[ ed] a large-scale and complex problem with respect to dust
management along a large reservoir. Methods for dust control include shortand long-term solutions that integrate the use of native vegetation along the
foreshore zones of the reservoir. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed)
Erosion is a grave concern for the residents of Tsay Keh. High winds and fluctuating
water levels erode the shoreline an estimated 12-feet-a-year in some areas. Re19

vegetation projects have been unsuccessful due to the powerful erosion forces. A
possible solution-creating an artificial island to stem the erosion-remains untried.
Aware of the health implications, B.C. Hydro, a Crown Corporation, has attempted to
mitigate dust problem using tilling and furrowing, but these strategies are temporary.
Consistently over the years, the incidence of asthma and respiratory illnesses
within the Tsay Keh peoples has increased. "No one has suffered as much from dust
storms as the Tsay Keh Dene people at the far north end of Finlay Reach" (cited in
Arocena, p. 571). At this time, the only known solution to the dust problem would be
to maintain high water levels, which is not a feasible option for B.C. Hydro.
In Baker's study (2000), 80% of the band members interviewed "indicated
that the dust storms were responsible for adverse health effects such as eye irritation,
respiratory tract problems, and skin rashes." Questions concerning the future of the
Tsay Keh community and their on-going health issues continue. The consequences of
ongoing air quality issues can be summarized as the Tsay Keh's 1) increased
resentment towards outside, non-Tsay Keh influences, particularly B.C. Hydro; and,
2) escalating dissatisfaction and mistrust of the Williston Reservoir as a viable
habitation site. Though it is a demonstrably problematic location, it is the only site
being offered by governments within the currently active Tsay Keh treaty process.
Road Construction on Tsay Keh Territory

The creation of the town of Mackenzie in the mid 1960s at the southern end of
the Williston Reservoir added more pressure on the Tsay Keh people, their lands and
its health. The town of Mackenzie was created to facilitate the growing B.C. pulp and
20

lumber industry. Tsay Keh Dene, Kwadacha First Nation, and McLeod Lake Indian
Band territory all lay within the Mackenzie Timber Supply area, and therefore were
been included as part of the pulp and lumber industries' sources.
As a result of the massive quantity of raw timber and wood fibre needed to
feed these industries, the forests in this region were clearcut. Consequently, due to the
extreme habitat destruction and changes in ecosystems, many species of animals were
displaced. In addition, in order to get to the marketable timber within this territory,
hundreds of kilometers of main and spur roads were built, allowing access to and
exploitation by other natural resource industries, including mining.
Expanding industry access to Tsay Keh has also expanded accessibility for
other user groups. Sport hunters and other recreationalists are able now to use
industry roads to access remote hunting territories which were previously inaccessible
to outsiders. Today the Tsay Keh territory has been depleted of once plentiful game;
whereby, it has become increasingly difficult for Tsay Keh hunters to provide
sustenance for their own families. Tsay Keh hunters and families cannot go to areas
and camps that have been used by their ancestors for generations because the space
has been occupied by modern camps catering to sport hunters whose activities are
primarily recreational and not based on subsistence needs. Increasingly, Tsay Keh
people are getting pushed out of their own territory by outsider influences and
exploitation.
Beyond the obvious consequence of damaging local pristine ecosystems
with roads and industry, the reality is that First Nations usually receive little or no
financial compensation for what are considerable losses to their socio-economic,
21

cultural, and territorial losses. The scars on their land are constant reminders to the
Tsay Keh of a foreign, invasive, and aggressive market economy and its ruthless
exploitation of the resources within their territory.

The British Columbia Treaty Process
For 17 years, the Tsay Keh have been ensconced in a six-stage treaty process
and are currently in Stage Four of the process. In this process:
The three parties examine in detail the issues identified in the framework
agreement, with the goal of reaching an agreement in principle. The
agreement in principle identifies and defines a range of rights and obligations,
and forms the basis for the treaty. The parties also begin to plan for
implementation of the treaty.
(www. gov. be.calarr/treaty/negotiatinglsixstage.htrnl)
These issues usually concern the amount of land and cash settlements that the
governments are willing to offer to the First Nation with whom they are negotiating.
If the parties reach a mutual level of satisfaction on the terms of the treaty, they will
draw up an agreement in principle defining and identifing each party' s range of rights
and obligations, thus forming the basis of a final and successful treaty.
However, treaty negotiation is currently at a standstill due to a dispute over
the allocation of land that the B.C. government is prepared to assign to the Tsay Keh,
but which the Tsay Keh cannot accept. The B.C. government has come to the table
offering a land settlement of which the total area equals a mere five percent of Tsay
Keh's traditional territory. This particular five-percent plot ofland has no resource
value for future economic opportunities, as opposed to the remaining 95% claimed by
the Tsay Keh. Exploration and technological investigations have proven that the
larger percentage of land contains marketable resources including large and rich

22

mineral belts, and/or considerable timber value. Furthermore, the land offered by the
government includes the reserve lands already occupied by the community. Though
the offering includes a small area outside these reserve lands, the overall size of the
offering would limit the economic endeavours the Tsay Keh could reasonably pursue.
One benefit of this settlement process could be that the Tsay Keh would be
granted "fee simple" land ownership. The First Nation would own their land in the
same terms as the rest of Canadians, including paying property taxes. The lands would
be owned outright by the the band and its members, and therefore could be offered for
re-sale at the discretion of the landowners. The Tsay Keh, however, are no longer
sure that the B.C. treaty process will ever give them fair settlement, and that issue has
brought up questions about the future of the negotiation.
It is important to recognize the overriding fact that, from the Tsay Keh point

of view, the amount ofland offered for settlement does not constitute a negotiation as
much as it shows that the provincial and federal governments do not understand Tsay
Keh traditional economies, the people's relationship with the land, their culture of
harvesting, or their future within Canadian economics and markets. Their principle
argument, moreover, is that, historically, the Tsay Keh never signed over or
surrendered their land to any government or agency, yet they now find themselves, as
a First Nation, in the process of fighting to "get it back" from governments that has
laid claims to ownership of their lands.

23

The Tsay Keh Response

In Tsay Keh territory at present, there is serious emphasis on preserving the
Tsay Keh Elders' knowledge. These Elders hold thousands of years of accumulated
wisdom about survival and land use-vital knowledge that can assist the present and
future generations. Part of moving forward for the Tsay Keh is to have this
knowledge archived in a meaningful, accessible, and useful format. At a time when
First Nations in Canada are regaining some recognition of rights and ownership of
land and resources, the need to preserve local and historic data about the land and the
people who use it becomes critical.
Historic and ethnographic information about a culture is fundamental to the
vibrancy of that culture and its communities. For First Nations whose languages,
teachings and views are continually challenged and undermined by outside
perspectives, preservation of Indigenous knowledge is a means to ensuring future
generations in First Nations communities such as Tsay Keh will retain healthy
identities and relations. When First Nations negotiate with government and industry
about land use or territorial boundaries, they require a strong and defensible case.
Developing and owning an archival information system that has been created with
their specific community needs in mind will help the Tsay Keh achieve that goal.

24

CHAPTER TWO: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Tsay Keh's traditional territory and home is being ravaged by outside industry
and therefore understanding and preserving Tsay Keh' s perception of place is
essential to the building of this database technology. As anthropologist Keith Basso
(1996) has written, exploration of Indigenous concepts of place is critical.
In this unsettled age, when large portions of the earth' s surface are
being ravaged by industrialism, when the continents Indigenous people are
being forcibly uprooted by wanton encroachments upon their homelands ...
mounting major legal efforts to secure permanent protection for sacred sites
now controlled by federal agencies . . . attachments to geographical localities
contribute fundamentally to the formation of personal and social identities ...
(p. 53)
In this chapter I review some of the literature concerning the Indigenous
concept of place, Indigenous knowledge, and the mapping of Indigenous knowledge. I
focused on the linkages between these three domains in Tsay Keh Dene thought. In
documenting the creation of the Tsay Keh Online database, I employed their concepts
and perceptions of place and show how this differs from non-Indigenous
perspectives. It is through examining the literature that I have formed the framework
for creating an online database tailored to be the most beneficial to the Tsay Keh
Dene people.

Sense of Place
The foundational theory of the sense of place which I use in this paper is
developed by Basso (1996), which he describes as a
concept of dwelling [that] assigns importance to the form of
consciousness with which individuals perceive and apprehend geographic
space. More precisely, dwelling is said to consist in the multiple "lived
25

relationships" that people maintain with places, for it is solely by virtue of
these relationships that space acquires meaning. (p. 54)
During extensive conversations with Tsay Keh Community members, it
became very obvious to me that there is a tangible difference of the understanding
and comprehension of"place" between non-Indigenous thought and Indigenous
worldviews. In Senses of Place, authors Feld and Basso (1996) suggest define the
Indigenous sense of place in much the same manner as other scholars have:
The terrain covered here includes the relation of sensation to emplacement;
the experiential and expressive ways places are known, imagined, yearned for,
held, remembered, voiced, lived, contested, and struggled over; and the
multiple ways places are metonymically and metaphorically tied to identities
(Feld and Basso, p. 11).
As Gregory Cajete (1994), scholar and educator from the Santa Clara Pueblo,
has observed, "Native people traditionally perceive themselves as embedded in a web
of dynamic and mutually-respectful relationships among all of the natural features
and phenomena of their homelands." (p, 178) For the Tsay Keh Dene people, the
concept of place is what inextricably ties their current existence with their past. Their
concept of place, therefore, must be addressed not only by the data and/or content
parameters ofuse for this database system, but also by the needs of the people which
dictated this project's creation. The distinguished Kiowa-Cherokee scholar, N. Scott
Momaday (1994), provided a structure for my understanding about how Indigenous
peoples construct their sense of place in relationship to the value they place upon their
lands:
From the time the Indian first set foot upon this continent, he centered
his life in the natural world. He is deeply invested in the earth, committed to it
both in his consciousness and in his instinct. The sense of place is paramount.
Only in reference to the earth can he persist in his identity. (p. 1)

26

I

With years of experience with the lands, waters, and mountains of their
traditional territory, the Tsay Keh Dene know not only what it means to use all facets
of those lands respectfully, but also they know how to protect the lands from further
negative exploitation. This consciousness of Tsay Keh traditional territory-their
Indigenous sense of place-becomes a means towards preserving their lands for
future Tsay Keh Dene.
In the past, First Nations values have not been incorporated into the equation
of land management in British Columbia. These conflicting views of what the land
represents are an ongoing topic of conversation and debate in both provincial and
federal courts today. As Hugh Brody (2004) asserts about neighboring Tsay Keh
communities in north central British Columbia, "Treaties and trap lines encircle the
Indians with legal and territorial limits. At the same time, potential settlement and
resources have become the subjects of a new northern mythology." (p. 115)
Currently, as experienced since the early 1960s, there is a massive amount of interest
in the natural resources in Tsay Keh traditional territory. Industry and government
neither perceive nor acknowledge that the Tsay Keh territory is someone's home and
source of economy, but see that space as a conduit to wealth and economic prosperity.
The necessity and timeliness of preserving the traditional knowledge,
identities, and memories of the Tsay Keh is paramount for their future--a
foundational impetus to this project. As anthropologist Julie Cruikshank (2000) has
written,
. .. articulating past and present connections to place has taken on a
fresh importance during an era of protracted land claim negotiations. Again,

27

older people describe the relation between humans and land differently than
do the younger men and women directly engaged in these negotiations. (p. 16)
Cajete' s (1994) understanding of the value oflndigenous traditional
knowledge is not dissimilar from Cruikshank' s:
The force flows all ways between the human, spiritual and natural
worlds that support and are supported by world views of our people, culture,
knowing and living. Accumulated knowledge within Indigenous groups
around the world represents a body of ancient thought, experience, and action
as a vital storehouse of environmental wisdom. (p. 78)
Following Cajete's ideas, I believe Canada's current resource management
strategies are based primarily on the Western science paradigm and do not
incorporate traditional Indigenous knowledge, rather, these management strategies
incorporate values that promote contemporary local and regional economics.
Acknowledging other stakeholders on the land, such as First Nations and wildlife
values, will both relieve conflicts and preserve regional biodiversity.
Throughout my employment with the Tsay Keh Land and Resource
Department, I have listened to community Elders speak about their traditional
territory. When retelling stories passed on from ancestral fathers and mothers, and
adding anecdotes from their own lives and experiences on the land, they quantify
their intense connection to place. Neal McLeod (2007), an educator and poet of Cree
and Swedish descent, succinctly expressed a similar relationship between the land and
the Cree people: "Cree collective memory is anchored in places and landscape." (p.
19) The Tsay Keh Dene hold this same value in their concept of place.
The Tsay Keh's relationship with their traditional territory has been eroding
since the early 1800s, when Samuel Black, a Canadian fur trader-explorer, began
28

using community members as guides within the region as a result of the Hudson's
Bay Company's emerging commercial interest in Tsay Keh territory.
More recent industrial activity in the territory included a catastrophic project
driven by the Government of British Columbia: the W.A.C. Bennett Dam built in the
mid-1960s. The dam, as I outlined in the previous chapter, permanently altered the
relationship and interaction the Tsay Keh had with their land. Williston Reservoir
flooded a total of 1761 square kilometers of traditional Tsay Keh territory. The
destruction of the physical region has produced far-reaching consequences for the
people who had for centuries habituated and bonded with the landscape-a landscape
which now permanently lies at the bottom of an enormous body ofwater.
The flood that created Williston Reservoir not only submerged the land, but it
also Tsay Keh knowledge and sense of place, essentially diluting memories of the
peoples' historic past. Ongoing industrial degradation from outside sources
emphasizes the critical need to capture and retain Tsay Keh's territory. Their
relationship with place can be quantified with community data on a specialized
database.
As Basso (1996) contends, "places possess a marked capacity for triggering
acts of self-reflection, inspiring thoughts about who one presently is, or memories of
who one used to be, or musing on who one might become." (p. 55) For Tsay Keh
Elders, the land or "place" holds the same ability to bring back memories and stories
about particular places, and, as it is true for the Apache, the Tsay Keh are "always
thinking-thinking of place-centered narratives, thinking ofthe ancestors who first

29

gave them voice, and thinking of how to apply them to circumstances in their own
lives." (Basso, 1996, p. 80)
In the past five decades these memories or the muses that spawn memories
about Tsay Keh's history on the land and their concept of place are threatened with
being erased by industry harvesting the land for its natural resources.

Indigenous Knowledge
The Tsay Keh have developed a specific and distinct set of ways to navigate
efficiently through their lives in a climate and geography which outsiders would deem
inhospitable at times. D. Michael Warren (1991) advocates that,
Indigenous knowledge (IK) is local knowledge that is unique to a
specific culture or society. IK contrasts with the international knowledge
system generated by universities, research institutions and private firms . It is
the basis for local-level decision making in agriculture, health care, food
preparation, education, natural-resource management, and a host of other
activities in rural communities. (p. 21)
Embracing Warren's perspective of Indigenous knowledge centered in locality
of places, knowledge and experiences from the past provide an understanding ofhow
the Tsay Keh had the necessary skill sets to overcome environmental obstacles and
thrive on the land throughout a millennia of interactions on their lands.
Tsay Keh traditional territory is geographically situated on one of the last
extensive tracts of merchanable timber in northern British Columbia as well as a vast
mineral belt. The Tsay Keh have watched their forests being harvested for decades,
witnessing sacred areas and habitats that they have depended on for spiritual and
physical sustenance, being destroyed. Low global dollar-values have produced
soaring global gold prices, with increased industrial activity and pressure to Tsay Keh
30

land. Industrial pressures and exploitation have brought and continue to bring tangible
changes to Tsay Keh territory that can be observed daily.
In her work, Recovering the Sacred, Anishinaabekwe ( Oj ibwe) author and
activist, Winona LaDuke (2005), describes how American First Nation people feel
about their relationship with governments, mirroring my understanding of how Tsay
Keh feel about their relationship and treatment by the Canadian Government:
Debates on how the past is understood and what the future might
bring have bearing on genetic research, reclamation of mining sites, reparation
ofbroken treaties, and reconciliation between descendants of murderers and
their victims. At stake is nothing less than the ecological integrity of the land
base and the physical and social health ofNative Americans throughout the
continent. In the end there is no absence of irony: the integrity of what is
sacred to Native Americans will be determined by the government that has
been responsible for doing everything in its power to destroy Native American
cultures. (p. ii)
LaDuke's (2005) quote encapsulates many lived experiences of the Tsay Keh
as well. Traditional knowledge is not solely a system ofknowledge; it is also "seated
in a way oflife [based on] cumulative culturally transmitted knowledge about
particular environments" (cited in Kendrick eta!, p. 187). Tsay Keh Elders know this
geographical region from years of interactions within this traditional territory, making
knowledge both experiential and cumulative. There remains only eight to twelve
surviving Tsay Keh Elders. The Tsay Keh's traditions and knowledge are on the
verge ofbeing lost.
Furthermore, the side effects of local industrial development are degrading
Tsay Keh Indigenous knowledge and perceptions of "place." When viewed from the
air, Tsay Keh traditional territory is a grid of roads leading to logging blocks and
mines. Industrial developments have affected notable changes on both humans and
31

animals within the territory. Habitat destruction by industry and over harvesting of
game by outside hunters have made the Tsay Keh traditional-life difficult to sustain.
Tsay Keh Dene hunters speak about how difficult it is to find game. As
traditional food sources decrease due to exploitation, hunters need sources other than
'old' knowledge to locate traditional food sources to feed their families and
community. For the Tsay Keh, "the act of eating wild meat is the culmination of the
whole array of practices and social relations ... practices that are deeply rooted in a
complex set ofbeliefs and values." (Nadasdy, 2003:76) This developed database is
set to capture information that will help to preserve land-based information for all
Tsay Keh Dene and their families; thus, helping to sustain their livelihood as well as
maintaining that knowledge for their children.
Henrietta Mann (2002), a Northern Cheyenne woman who teaches at the
Native Studies Department at Montana State University, succinctly defines my
understanding of how Tsay Keh interpret their relationship with the Earth:
Over the time we have here, we have built cultural ways on and about
this land. We have our own respected versions of how we came to be. These
origin stories-that we emerged or fell from the sky or were brought forth-connect us to the land and establish our realities, our belief systems. We have
spiritual responsibilities to renew the Earth and we do this through our
ceremonies so that our Mother, the Earth, can continue to support us.
Mutuality and respect are part of our tradition-give and take. Somewhere
along the way, I hope people will learn that you can't just take, that you have
to give back to the land. (Mann as cited in: LaDuke, p. 15)
Over the past two years, I have had the good fortune to go out onto the land
with Elders. Tsay Keh Elders recall, with great reverence, memories of their
traditional territory before it evolved into a maze of roads, cutblocks, and mine sites.

32

Tsay Keh Elders worry about the future and wonder what will happen to the Tsay
Keh culture and traditions as industry continually exploits their lands.
Mapping Indigenous Knowledge

Providing a method for visually representing space-based knowledge was at
the forefront in the development of the Tsay Keh database project. The use of
mapping and mapping technology for the preservation of Indigenous knowledge is a
formidable way to prove and establish the use and occupancy of a place to provincial
governments, in this case the Tsay Keh Territory. A key feature of the Tsay Keh data
management system is the use of Google Earth to visually represent information. The
use of satellite imagery and mapping allows for the representation of cultural and
historical information in a way that will make the Tsay Keh Territory accessible to
different demographics for a range of purposes including education.
In a discussion of maps as a way of understanding Indigenous peoples, Brody
(2004) succinctly summarizes the values of mapping projects such as this one:
Yet, some peoples who have lived with, or within, colonial frontiers
have managed to survive - sometimes with great difficulty, in extremes of
poverty and with persistent disregard for their rights. And to establish their
claims, the foundations for their rights, they find that they need to have their
histories heard and acknowledged. For peoples whose records are in the form
of spoken accounts, mythic narratives, songs and ritual dances, this is no easy
task: it means translating one kind of knowledge into another. To be seen and
heard, they have to find ways of showing and explaining knowledge in ways
that make sense to both their own Elders and the colonial powers that they
have to convince. Hence, the importance and power of maps. (p.xiv)
The mapping component of this database has the potential to bridge gaps
between varying demographics in the Tsay Keh community. Elders will be able to use

33

the digital map as a reference point that, in turn, can articulate important information
from the past that may help their Nation navigate in the future.
For hunters and gatherers of the Tsay Keh community, this database may
detail disseminating ways and places where harvesting of food occurred in the past.
The mapping technology built into this database allows Tsay Keh members/users to
manipulate information on their own terms, by using categories which include local
names, traditional resources, seasonal movements, activities, and special places.
John Graham and Karim-Aly Kassam (1997) outline the values of database
management that are commensurate with those that support this research project' s
goals and objectives:
Interest in documenting or mapping Indigenous knowledge is
utilitarian in that it is seen as; (1) providing solutions to environmental crisis
propelled by an industrial civilization; (2) another empirical guide to
sustainable development planning; (3) a means of exerting Aboriginal control
over resources or asserting a land claim; (4) a means of transferring aspects of
knowledge to younger generations using the tools of the secular education
system and making it available to local schools. (p. 128)
Electronic mapping of Indigenous knowledge has the potential to be the
connective tissue that will help Tsay Keh carry on into the future with their culture
intact. This database is essentially a living library that can be increased as data
becomes available and amalgamated into the existing map.
First Nations such as the Tsay Keh have had parts of their history written
about by ethnographers and historians, although as Basso (1996) claims,
ethnographers inquiries about these cultures "have been notably less inclined to
examine the elaborate arrays of conceptual and expressive instruments, ideas, beliefs,
stories, and songs with which community members produce and display coherent
34

understanding ... " (p. 54). Without this kind of understanding, the picture of a distinct
culture is in effect incomplete and does not relay the magnitude of multiple layers that
make the culture unique.
Hugh Brody (2004), author of Maps and Dreams, wrote about the Beaver
Indians who are territorial/boundary neighbors as well as related through kinship ties
to the Tsay Keh. Brody writes about a common history and experience of the
respective First Nations in the region. As he asserts, these Nations have "histories that
are not being heard and that maps need to be created and seen by the public. The job
of making the invisible visible is as important as ever." (p. xiii)
Collating Tsay Keh information/knowledge into an efficient database platform
has the potential to make Tsay Keh more visible concerning ideas and concepts about
their respective landscapes and their connection to them, as well as being a powerful
legal tool for future negotiations on their traditional territory. Proving a geographic
area's significance can be the difference between a landscape being harvested for its
natural resource value or being preserved for its cultural value. Historically, Tsay Keh
have not had their knowledge harnessed within an efficient technology-a shortfall
which has left them reacting to government/industry referrals. A referral is a
document administered by government ministries that go to people or groups that
have an interest in an area (ie. First Nations.) Often the given time to respond to
referrals expires before Tsay Keh can react.

35

Bridging Gaps

Exploring literature concerning Indigenous concepts of Place, Knowledge,
and Mapping Knowledge informs this database project and emphasizes the
importance of knowledge capture for First Nations communities. The overarching
fact which emerged through a review of the available literature on building
community archival systems, was that there is very little applicable literature for
developing a technology such as the Tsay Keh Community Knowledge database. This
literature review potentially provides readers-including web developers-a viable
context for understanding how to develop technology that is culturally relevant and
specific to the needs of each community.
Examining the concept of Place from an Indigenous perspective has
highlighted fundamental differences in how various cultures perceive what land and
its geography means to each culture. The Governments of Canada, and various nonIndigenous industries view the Sub-Artie region of the Tsay Keh traditional territory
as a hinterland whose the primary value is to provide for the extraction of natural
resources for economic gain. This definition of the Tsay Keh territory is the source of
ongoing conflict because the Tsay Keh Dene view their land as much more than a
means for large-scale economic development.
The Tsay Keh are not against all industrial development, on the contrary, they
understand that for a rural area, industry is a bridge to a healthy community through
employment opportunities and education. The Tsay Keh want their values and
traditional knowledge taken into account in decision-making processes surrounding

36

natural resource development. Their value system encompasses implementation of
harvesting practices that which incorporate and use optimum sustainable means.
This literature survey of ideas about Indigenous knowledge quantifies the
differences that exist between non-Aboriginal cultures and Indigenous Knowledge. It
is accepted knowledge that First Nations people were on the continent ofNorth
America millennia before the first non-native explorers and settlers arrived. For the
last five hundred years, the relationship between Aboriginal people and these new
arrivals have left the First Peoples clinging to the last vestiges of their cultures.
The point here is that, in times of change, when acknowledgement of
Indigenous peoples and their rights is being generated from world organizations such
as the United Nations and through the Canadian Constitution, Aboriginal people need
to preserve and assert their knowledge through self-determined policies and
collaborative management strategies. The Tsay Keh' s online database will be an
effective tool for the use and dissemination of traditional knowledge that will enhance
their rights and claims.
Mapping Tsay Keh knowledge is the most distinct feature of the Tsay Keh online
database. As the review of Indigenous knowledge literature attests, there are major
gaps between non-Indigenous societies and Aboriginal peoples. Primarily, these gaps
are expressed in education levels (including literacy) and how people learn. We have
to remain cognizant that for Aboriginal peoples, education is often based on oral
teaching and that conventional North American education paradigms are foreign.
Significantly, these gaps in learning/ teaching paradigms are being bridged-and are
moving into the future-with projects such as this on-line database.
37

Populating knowledge maps with attributes like Sekani place names, sacred
sites, traditional medicine and harvesting areas, and trail systems will preserve critical
knowledge for future Tsay Keh generations as well as invigorate pride in the Tsay
Keh community.

38

Chapter Three: Methodology
While research is commonly viewed as a relationship between the researcher
and the researched, there is also a third party to consider: a supervising committee.
Ultimately, this means that I follow two sets of ethical guidelines: as a Master's
student, I am required to follow the ethics set out by the University ofNorthern
British Columbia; as an employee ofTsay Keh Dene, I must adhere to the cultural
processes and expectations required by this community.
In theory, we come to a place of understanding the research; in practice, we

perform the research by way of rehearsing inquiries and articulating our questions
before we engage. There is a spiritual connection through the appropriate use of
language (Ramsden, 2002, p. 117). In the context ofTsay Keh, for many attributes of
their culture and traditions cannot be translated easiliy in English. Significantly, as
noted by Anderson and Gallini (1998), for research carried out in Indigenous
communities,
. .. researchers must have an understanding of cultural awareness- a
beginning step towards understanding that there is a difference; cultural
sensitivity alerts students to the legitimacy of difference and begins a process
of self exploration as the powerful bearers of their own life experience and
realities and the impact this may have on others; cultural safety is that
outcome which enables safe service to be define by those that receive the
service; and intellectual property rights - prevents the widespread copying of
new inventions or creative works. (p. 1)
Herein lies the importance of entering into a relationship and building trust with
communities. Within this relationship Cree academic and educator, Verna Kirkness,
and co-author Ray Barnhart (2001) articulate four essential ideas fundamental to

39

many approaches in conducting research in Indigenous communities known as The
Four Rs. (p. 48; cited by Thomson Rivers University)
My own theoretical approach, research methodology, and ethics incorporate these
ideas in the following ways:
•

Respect- within this project, I have respect for the land and the people of
Tsay Keh who are teaching me and from whom I am learning;

•

Relationship--! recognize that all things, people and places are interconnected
and things that are animate are imbued with spirit;

•

Responsibility-! ensure that my involvement with the project and sharing
what I know is beneficial to the community; and

•

Reciprocity-! embrace giving back through modem technology by
advancing the opportunity to blend old knowledge and new information for
future generations with that technology.

The purpose of this Master's Project is driven and bound by an Indigenous
knowledge paradigm. This project follows research techniques that allow the qualities
ofTsay Keh knowledge and traditions to be at the forefront of the database, including
the written material, as a deliverable product.
There are numerous ways of interpreting a world and how it exists. An
Indigenous worldview often differs from a non-Indigenous perception of that world.
"Through colonialism," writes Sioux author, historian and activist, Vine Deloria, Jr.
(1997), "the notion of a single worldview has become hegemonic, making other
worldviews and interpretations of the world invalid or regarded as superstitious
imagination." (p. 74) The Tsay Keh worldview places a high value the lands that
sustain their people and way of life.
This mapping project captures the values of Indigenous knowledge,
particularly centering on the Tsay Keh's worldview in relation to their place on the
40

land. It focuses on the people's interconnectedness with their lands and waters, which
the Tsay Keh Dene express as part of their way of knowing and understanding place.
Since the early 1930s, the Tsay Keh have been forced by the Canadian and
British Columbia government agencies, residential schools, and the Church, to look at
the world through a colonial lens. Decades of acculturation at the behest of these
dominant societal powers have left Tsay Keh grasping to hold on to the last vestiges
of their culture. These influences altered the Tsay Keh as a people-changing their
culture, territories, and language-by quantifiable and measurable degrees of loss.
These losses, concomitant with what does survive, emphasize the need to preserve as
many facets of the Tsay Keh culture that modem tools can support.
Throughout my research for this project, I engaged Tsay Keh Dene' s
knowledge and their worldview philosophy. Tsay Keh Dene traditional knowledge
guided my project as I incorporated "The Four Rs " (Resp ect, Relationship,
Responsibility, and Reciprocity) into my methodology, providing opportunity to

dialogue with the Tsay Keh regarding perspectives and knowledge. This dialogue
became my veritable rite of passage within this research journey. As I have always
maintained, it is my highest priority that this project delivers maximum benefit to the
Tsay Keh Community. I believe using The Four Rs has guided this journey.
Indigenous Research Methods

One of many key values to Indigenous research is perhaps the way knowledge
can be accessed, utilized and/or transformed. Kovach (2009) highlighted the idea that
there has been much discussion for the use of Indigenous research frameworks, the
41

significance of incorporating a decolonizing lens within Indigenous inquiry, and
insight into how tribal epistemologies under-gird tribal based approaches to research
(Kovach, 2009). Maori educator Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Marie Battiste, a Mi'Kmaq
educator and academic leader, and Henderson have all argued that culture has to be
viewed as a domain of struggle where the production and transmission of knowledge
is always a contested process. (Battiste and Henderson, 2000; Tuhiwai Smith, 1999.)
In Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage: A Global Challenge, Battiste
(2000) affirms that "most Indigenous scholars choose to view every way of life from
two different but complementary perspectives: first as a manifestation of human
knowledge, heritage, and consciousness, and second, as a mode of ecological order."
(p. 35)
An example that comes to mind is the way in which Indigenous people view

the connection between land and language. According to Tina Fraser (2009), a Maori
scholar fluent in her language, "Kei rota I te whenua te reo Maori-The language is
embedded in the land." elaborating further, she contends that, it is impossible to
separate the two. In Research is Ceremony, author Shawn Wilson (2008) claims that
Indigenous people and Indigenous researchers themselves do not own knowledge and
that knowledge is to be shared. Implicitly, my research process subscribed to that
idea- this project was, and continues to be, for the community. Furthermore, the
project was specifically and essentially driven by the community's immediate and
future needs. Ownership of Tsay Keh knowledge belongs to the people who
experienced life on the land, and shared their stories through an oral history that
preserved their memories.

42

Wilson also speaks of relationality and relational accountability, which is the
importance of relationships in the research process. This research project has
advocated a major emphasis on establishing and upholding an open and transparent
process, along with a trusting relationship between the community and myself in the
role of a researcher. Since the inception of this project, I made it a priority to share
information and to communicate with the Tsay Keh Dene.
In the beginning of this project, some Elders and knowledge holders were
concerned about the safety of their knowledge, and that I, as the researcher, needed to
always be respectfully cognizant of how important knowledge is to Indigenous
peoples. To ease this friction, it was and remains necessary for me: 1) to show my
commitment to addressing their concerns about knowledge safety, and, 2) to have
maintained that commitment throughout the project. This required a parallel
commitment from my colleague, Will Cadell of Spark Geo, whom I partered with for
the creation of the online database.
As Louise Grenier (1998) writes in Working with Indigenous Knowledge,
"Indigenous knowledge is dynamic and new knowledge is continuously added."(p. 1).
Grenier adds context and a framework to this database project. The fact that the Tsay
Key community-based environmental monitoring program is gathering current
information on the overall environmental health of the territory and the wildlife
within and on that territory, reflects Grenier's assertion of dynamicism in the fluidity
of Indigenous knowledge. Tsay Keh knowledge continues to develop and use new
methods for preserving that knowledge.

43

Another key point that both Wilson (2008) and Grenier (1998) make is that
the researcher must always be cognizant of the intricacies of Indigenous cultures,
especially the cultures with whom they are working, and allow those intricacies to
steer their research. Kovach (2009) elaborates "An Indigenous research framework
acts as a nest, encompassing the range of qualities influencing the process and content
of the research journey."(p. 42).
Tuhiwai Smith (1999) and Shawn Wilson (2008) provide the researcher with
methods and frameworks to carry out Indigenous research in an ethical manner.
These authors have extensive experience not only out on the land, but also within the
community with the people about whom they write. During my research, I used
ideologies set forward by both these scholars to ensure ethical integrity in my
research project. Because I also share these authors' philosophy about active
research, I spent time out on the land doing fieldwork with Tsay Keh Elders and

knowledge holders under the auspices of my employment for Tsay Keh. This active
research contributed not only to my knowledge and understanding oflocal issues and
needs, but also to the strategies employed in information management.
Geography and Cartography

I remember when there were no roads here. Now there is roads that
have opened our territory to everyone .. .too much pressure. Derek, I worry
that the land will not support our children in the future. (Personal
Communication: Tsay Keh Dene Elder Ray Izony, 2011.)

When creating this specialized product for the Tsay Keh Dene, I considered
many factors that make their community dynamic to itself. Of critical consideration
was the low level of literacy among Aboriginal peoples, and that Indigenous
44

communities often do not have the same literacy levels as the status quo in other parts
of Canada. These lower literacy levels in First Nations communities are a result of
many factors, not the least of which is the fact that First Nation communities were
originally oral cultures. The gap between status quo and First Nations communities is
narrowing however, with the introduction of western education and immersion in the
English language.
This research project also considered that Tsay Keh members may or may not
be familiar with Internet technology, and could well require training and tutorial
sessions. With these considerations, this archival database logically required to be an
intuitive system, ensuring accessibility and ease of use to all people including
community members as well as academics; therefore, even for community members
with lower literacy levels and or a low level of computer literacy, this database
technology is a useful application. They will receive tutorials on the use of the
application, and will be able to use the navigation of the map as a way of
communicating knowledge with others-a primary goal of this project.
The archival system will be used by many different demographics in the Tsay
Keh community; therefore, this system needed to incorporate multiple forms of
media. The use of maps (Google Earth) became a key media feature in this electronic
database. Campbell (2000) explains the purposes of electronic maps as a conduit of
information storage:
Maps are not limited only to showing information about physical and
cultural features on the earth's surface. They are also used to show
distributions of more abstract features, such as the flow of trade, the use of
communications, the extent of political influence, or the areas occupied by
peoples of various races, languages, or religions. (p. 4)
45

The Google Earth interface is a paramount feature of this database, and it is
what separates it from other off-the-shelf content management systems: Google Earth
allows for the spatial representation of Tsay Keh data. When logging into the Tsay
Keh database a user can browse spatial archives on a screen that is set to a satellite
image of the geographic area ofthe Tsay Keh territory. A user can open and navigate
to sites that have had data logged with coordinates included, or navigate freely
throughout the map screen.
When a user finds an area of interest that has a marker on it showing that there
is data logged for that site, they can left click and get more information. Progressing
to a new screen, the user will find more information about the area; including stories,
pictures, monitoring information and video. The technology's zoom function allows
the users to navigate the scale in which they can see the area. At first, for an Elder this
technology is quite overwhelming-by the mere action of holding down the curser
down and moving the mouse, the map moves. Users quickly realize that they can
navigate the Earth's surface through controlled, simple hand movements.
Mapping can be a powerful tool for Indiginous communities to better manage
their resources, plan for the future, record and employ local knowledge, raise
awareness about areas of concern in their environmental and social landscape, and
communicate their priorities and concerns to external agencies or government
officials.
Illustrating and cataloguing Tsay Keh's historical and cultural knowledge
through Google Earth enables this database to not only be elemental, but also
instrumental in proving land use by the Tsay Keh; thereby, bolstering proof of
46

occupancy when there are conflicting views between the peoples and the provincial
and federal governments. As Tobias (2000) asserts "mapping always gives rise to a
heightened awareness of Aboriginal rights that have been denied, and an increased
willingness to be involved in strategies to right long-standing injustices."(p. 35).
Oral History

The online database that I have developed is an archival system (oral history
tool) to hold Tsay Keh community information. It has been designed to aid in efforts
to preserve their culture,and to assist them in present day and future negotiations. The
archival system is a split database that stores both 1) information that can be spatially
referenced through a coordinate system and be put on a map (place-based
information), and 2) information that is broad and cannot be placed on a map (nonplace based).
The non-spatial part of the database was designed specifically for Treaty
related documents. An example of this data is Hudson's Bay Journals that have
entries about Tsay Keh. A critical component to the design of this technology is that it
caches Tsay Keh oral traditions and history in a professional setting and community
accessible environment that is considered legally defensible when used as support in a
land use and occupancy claim.
A critical part of creating this database was to set protocols/guidelines for the
inputting of data. It was critical that there be a rigid structure of what information can
be logged, what sources can be used, and proper documentation about the data

47

source(s). Of critical importance was understanding how to process oral histories in
the usefulness of this database.
The range of records described as oral histories include personal
reminiscences, structured interviews, and recordings of contemporary thoughts
or events-all intended to be saved for future generations. The products of
oral history projects may take the form of transforming the original tape
recordings to edited tapes, transcriptions, translations, re-wordings, summaries
and interpretations. These records reflect the interests and perspectives of the
narrators. (Association of Canadian Archivists, 2007, p. 6)
In the last few decades, a handful of Tsay Keh community members have had the
insight to record narratives from Elders and other knowledge holders onto cassette
tape for future use. These recordings recount various topics and concern different
areas of their Tsay Keh traditional territory. At the time many of these recordings
were made, there was still very little recognition of aboriginal rights and title. These
tapes are now emerging as the valuable resources that they were intended to be. As
times and transcription technologies evolve, the tapes can be transcribed. Their
usefulness in proving land use and occupancy of the area cannot be underestimated,
as Terry Tobias (2000) explains,
First Nations peoples carry maps of their homelands in their heads. For
most people, these mental images are embroidered with intricate detail and
knowledge, based on the communities oral history and the individuals direct
relationship to the traditional territory and its resources. (p. 35)
This explanation of relationship and respect to a traditional territory is parallel
to what I have experienced with my time with Tsay Keh Elders. Their knowledge of
the land and its history is remarkable for its extensiveness and detail.
In Aboriginal Oral Traditions , Renee Hulan and Renate Eigenbrod ( 1998)
elaborate on the values of Indigenous knowledge: "Oral traditions are distinct ways of
knowing and the means by which knowledge is reproduced, preserved, and conveyed
48

from generation to generation." (p. 121 ). For the Tsay Keh, stories and anecdotes
about their traditional territory have been the means for survival and a way of
understanding their relationship with the land since time immemorial. Elders hold
stories with extreme reverence--these stories are the teachings that we need to learn
from before it is too late.
The Tsay Keh are acutely aware that they need to utilize and preserve their
traditional knowledge of the Elders before it is too late. As Kimberly Blaeser (1999)
writes: "Through speaking, hearing, and retelling, we reaffirm our relationship with
our nations, our tribal communities, our family networks. We begin to understand our
position in the long history of our people" (p. 54) As many authors have noted in
various research studies, oral traditions are a way of knowing a people's past. The
Tsay Keh Dene have been an oral-based culture, reliant on the spoken word to diffuse
their unique culture to the younger generations. This database spatially orients stories
as well as their geographic locations and thus, fortifies the Tsay Keh's ties to their
immediate environment and traditional ways oflife.
Preservation of this information is essential as the Elder generations dwindle
and the upcoming generations, victims of colonization through residential schools and
Canadian policy, assume a leading role in the community. The creation of this
database will bridge gaps in cultural and environmental knowledge, as well as
provide the Tsay Keh community with scientific data necessary to leagally defend
their territory against encroaching industrial and governmental pressure.

49

Ethical Considerations
As mentioned, I incorporate the Four Rs of the Indigenous methodologyRespect, Reciprocity, Relationship, and Responsibility. As Kovach (2009) states,
"Indigenous inquiry is a relational methodology: its methods are dependent upon
deep respect for those (or that) which it will involve, and those (or that) which will
feel its consequence." (p. 174) The researcher must be committed to conducting
ethical research, which means being personally responsible for protecting the group
or community who agree to participate in the research project.
In terms of this research project, I have been and am committed to being
respectful, sensitive, and cognisant of the needs of the Tsay Keh. In the past,
Indigenous communities including Tsay Keh have had negative experiences with
researchers mining information from their lives, then leaving very little in the way of
tangible benefits.

Knowledge Safety
As noted earlier in this paper, many First Nations have trust issues with
Western Research (ers) as well as apprehension around technology, specifically with
the topic of having their information accessed through the web. These were issues
that I addressed early in the project. It was critical for the Tsay Keh to be comfortable
with the process ofhaving this database accessible through the web, and be assured of
the safety and security of their knowledge. Data is at the forefront of the product
development.

50

Will Cadel and myself set up a series of three focus group meetings comprised
of a cross section ofTsay Keh demographics in become familiarized with the
community's concerns about the project. The first meeting was to scope out the data
management needs from the community perspective, as well as any issues about the
development of this community knowledge database. Our second community focus
group meeting was to take what we understood from the first meeting and make a
database model, with all the different functionality, for community review. The
feedback from this meeting provided Will and myself with enough information to go
back to the drawing table and create the actual application. In the final meeting we
took our rendering of the Tsay Keh Database to the community for final review and
do touch ups before launching the product on the web.
There are two main safegaurds promoting the security of this online database,
rendering it nearly impossible to penetrate: 1) controlled access-- as a communitymember-only--password and user name protected and, 2) a robust firewall protects
the database from being accessed by unauthorized users.
To "talk around," in Tsay Keh terms, one hears that the provincial and private
economics outweigh the concerns of First Nations, which are frequently centered on
the environment. It is commonly believed within the Tsay Keh community that
research concerning their territory, interests, and ecosystems are biased to the benefit
of industrial interests. The object and goal of previous research in the Tsay Keh
traditional territory-often orchestrated by the B.C. government and/or a specific
industry-often focused on finding results that would often support industry and/or
government. The goals and objectives of this database project is to benefit the Tsay
51

Keh community with a viable and useful tool designed specifically without influence
of outside interests. This database will reinforce cultural bonds by offering easy
access to real factors and quantifiable data.
Developing trust and building rapport are critical steps in the social research
process; the process must be entered into and carried out with openness and honesty.
Success of this project was necessarily determined by pre-educating all participants in
the project-builders as well as users-in order to facilitate the integral requirements
of the community and to facilitate the unique needs of the client group. Determining
both the frameworks and the style of interface formation with the user-group is
essential in any custom-built project, and it was essential to this project.
Without Tsay Keh participation and approval, I knew the project would fail
entirely. I needed to identify Tsay Keh Dene community values pertaining to the
capturing of Tsay Keh information and to predetermine what were their requirements
for information safety. To safeguard this project, I held a series of meetings with a
cross section of the community prior to launching the creation of the database. These
meetings built comfort around the project, and I received approval from the
community to move forward.
As I have indicated, past research that has been performed within the Tsay
Keh community has resulted in feelings of reluctance and apprehension on part of the
community members to participate in other research projects. By providing a
thorough presentation of my research findings and its conclusions provides
transparency in how I conducted research within the Tsay Keh community. While
meeting both university requirements, as well as my goal of conducting ethical
52

research using Indigenous methods that place value on building relationships, this
objective will be achieved. I understand the imperative for the Tsay Keh to have
closure on this project, to feel confident that the project deliverables are transparent,
and that I successfully achieved the goals and objectives set forth in this research
project.
In summary, this project squarely invested in Indigenous worldviews and
research methodologies. This project' s research framework was imbedded with Tsay
Keh ways of knowing the world. I always remained cognizant of my position in
creating the research project, and that this research project is for the benefit of the
Tsay Keh Dene Community. For the Tsay Keh community, respect and reciprocity
are foundational deliverables of this Master' s project.

53

Chapter Four: Tsay Keh Dene Online Database:
Benefits of the Project for the People

The benefits of an online database for the Tsay Keh are vast and can be
quantified in many tangible ways. The common adage "knowledge is power" is very
potent and meaningful within First Nations communities today. First Nations are
forceful about having their value systems and voice recognized concerning their
respective traditional territories in Canada. These voices and values have been
suppressed for over a century, since the fur trade became less profitable and the
colonial presence became comfortable navigating in these lands without the
assistance of the Indigenous people who called the region "home." The benefits of
having a secure and efficient data management system, designed around Tsay Keh
specific needs, can be defined into three categories: culture, geography and
economics.
Culture

The Tsay Keh traditional territory or the land that it represents is interpreted
and defined differently by various groups of people. One interpretation of this Subartie area is that of a hinterland available for the harvest of its natural resources. The
perpendicular interpretation is that this land has the likeness of a Mother or provider,
for a community of people and the ecosystems within it. For Tsay Keh, "Places
possess an emotional significance that contributes profoundly to our identity as
individual human beings: we all must belong somewhere to be complete persons."
(Jordon-Bychkov and Domosh, 2002, p. 1). As a result of colonial policy and

54

economics, the Tsay Keh culture has been eroding as obviously as the shoreline of the
Williston Reservoir.
The local geography of the Tsay Keh territory is made up of high peaked
mountains and pristine rivers and lakes that have long provided spiritual and
nutritional health to the Tsay Keh. This landscape sculpted the Tsay Keh culture by
creating meaning and texture for the people by providing everything they needed to
survive and thrive in a sometimes inhospitable environment. Unfortunately, for
decades these lands have been put out to tender by outsiders. For the people, their
own Tsay Keh traditional stories are becoming unfamiliar and unattached as the
landscape changes; stories are losing luster and validity.
The Tsay Keh were masters of survival and have understood and managed
local ecosystems, making observations of changes and reacting accordingly. Animal
populations were inventoried yearly, and modifications would be made to harvesting
practices when an area needed to be rejuvenated. Traditional practices have lost
potency as a result of changes to the land by non-Indigenous technology.
The degradation to the Tsay Keh territory is vast, and has had severe

consequences to traditional sustenance gathering and Tsay Keh traditions. There is
only a small group of a generation of knowledge holders left in Tsay Keh. This group
of Elders has memories and stories about their territory that need to be captured and
nurtured for future generations.
Many people in British Columbia are not cognizant of where and how their
electricity is created. The Tsay Keh people are acutely aware of how this power

55

source was created by the W.A.C. Dam and the resulting Williston Reservoir, and
suffer daily from the damage incurred by it-physically, emotionally, and
environmentally. The flooding of their territory to facilitate British Columbia's
electrical needs has affected them to degrees hard to conceive, and have cemented
perpetual ill feelings towards B.C. Hydro and the British Columbia government.
The last 4 7 years have been a constant state of turmoil for the Tsay Keh
people as they have to deal with the ongoing cumulative effects of the reservoir. As
mentioned earlier in this paper, there are many negative consequences for Tsay Keh
well-being- including poor air quality, water pollution, heavy winds, erratic
weather-and most significantly, cultural displacement and drowning of memories
about their traditional landscapes.

Tsay Keh Response
The external forces discussed in this paper have left the people of Tsay Keh
disorientated in today's world and with many unanswered questions about how their
people are going to adapt to the economic and social climate of the day. With bills
being amended in the Canadian Constitution to acknowledge aboriginal rights and
title, along with the recent global phenomena of the United Nations acknowledging
aboriginal peoples, Canada has been forced to listen to First Nations optimism. There
remain many obstacles to be overcome before the Tsay Keh people will reach
equilibrium within their community.
Information management and modem technology to preserve Tsay Keh
community knowledge is a formidable step towards helping the Tsay Keh community
56

move forward. Community members will be able to access their culture by logging
into the Tsay Keh Online database, virtually visiting areas they have not been to in a
long time. Furthermore, users can also access community stories , and see what has
happened to their territory in the past as well as what is happening in the present. The
database will be easily accessed from home as well as being a learning tool in both
schools and the courts.

Geography
The geographies of the north are changing rapidly; regions of natural resource
abundance are being depleted at an unprecedented rate. With projects such as B.C.
Hydro's Site C dam (located east of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam) in the docket for
development, and the Enbridge Pipeline being a possible and near reality, close
scrutiny of the effects of mega projects and industry are of the utmost importance to
the preservation, longevity and sustainability of northern landscapes and Indigenous
cultures. Without due diligence, governments of British Columbia and Canada are
allowing unsustainable developments to take place.
A current example of unsustainable practices in north central British
Columbia is fracking, a very controversial practice used in the reclamation of raw oil.
Though fracking appeared to be a highly promising process, it has been allowed to
occur in massive areas, without the completion of a full-scale environmental
assessment. A fracking development is in close proximity to the Tsay Keh territory
and uses water from local rivers that feed into the Williston Reservoir. As CBC News
(July 29, 2011) reported:
57

Northern B.C. fracking for shale gas is a booming, billion-dollar
industry that's growing rapidly with the full support of Premier Christy Clark.
B.C. Independent MLA Vicki Huntington said she welcomed the news of the
two federal reviews, but questioned why the provincial government had not
made a similar move, since natural resources are a provincial responsibility.
No public consultation was required for the license because it will
draw a maximum of3 .65 million cubic metres of water per year, well below
the 10 million cubic metres per year required to trigger an environmental
assessment, according to the statement. B.C. is already providing gas
companies with 78 million cubic metres a year of water from rivers, creeks
and streams on short-term permits . ..
But critics are concerned the controversial process has been approved
without serious public consultation. They say the process requires too much
water and leaves toxic waste water behind. (CBC News, July 29, 2011)
Fracking in north central British Columbia suggests that the British Columbia
government needs to reassess the practice of fracking and refocus on balancing
economic development strategies with environmental risk.
Tsay Keh Response
Traditional Tsay Keh transportation and trade corridors were made up of
intricate trail systems combined with local rivers and lakes. Many of these trails led to
camps, hunting areas, and/or sacred sites, but are now either under the Williston
Reservoir or severed by roadways developed for industrial use. As the local
geography represented by the mountains, rivers, and lakes is further eroded by
development, it becomes more difficult for the continuation of the Tsay Keh culture
and way of life.
Elders have memories of these transportation networks and have started to use
mapping technologies to preserve this knowledge. Place names reflect local attributes
such as a geologic, a landscape, or an animal feature, and carry great reverence to the
Tsay Keh Elders who know the stories of the respective area and have had personal
58

experiences within the location. Tsay Keh place names that mark the territory are
proof that they both used and occupied their traditional territory.
The Tsay Keh database is connected to Google Earth. This technology allows
the representation ofTsay Keh knowledge in a visual interface that makes it
accessible to different demographics within the Tsay Keh community. The mapping
feature can recall and restore memories, helping repair and preserve the traditional
Tsay Keh worldview and way of life. The preservation of local data can be used in
many ways, including assisting in future land use planning efforts, as a tool to
manage local animal diversity, and to support overall ecosystem health.

Economics
The Tsay Keh were traditionally a hunter-gatherer society. With the
introduction of industry into their territory, their society also began to rely on wage
labour. In the beginning, Tsay Keh participation in regional employment was mainly
seasonal and allowed time for the maintenance of traditional occupations such as
subsistence hunting and trapping. Following the ebbs and flows of British Columbia
economics over time, a component of the Tsay Keh community was able to secure
employment with industry.
Today, the Tsay Keh community is either employed by their Band carrying
out governmental services, maintenance of housing and community infrastructure, or
working seasonal positions for B.C. Hydro. This irregular pattern of employment in
the Tsay Keh community has developed a dependency on British Columbia Social

59

Assistance programs to bridge gaps in employment, and as a result, perpetuated many
social problems within the community, such as substance abuse.
In the Tsay Keh village, there are many factors to be considered in the local
economic structure: remoteness of community, education levels, employment
opportunities, and the effects from all the changes their culture has been subjected to
by the government of Canada and the needs of natural resource developers.
Tsay Keh Response

The Tsay Keh are making strides to create and control a new future for their
community as they strive to reinvigorate their former strength as a people. As noted
earlier, the Tsay Keh territory continues to be under pressure from industrial
development such as logging, and the mineral exploration and mining sectors. The
Tsay Keh are now in a position to leverage their historical ties to the land and their
current reality which has suffered the effects from past development.
To that end the Tsay Keh leadership is focusing on developing communityrelevant education programs that target placements in local jobs and opportunities.
The Tsay Keh are in active negotiations with industries operating on their traditional
territory, and working towards ensuring a fair settlement of compensation for the
disturbances inflicted on the people and their rights. Compensation terms are broad.
From these negotiations, the Tsay Key could achieve significant gains such as
revenue sharing and compensation payments, education and training opportunities,
and employment positions within the developers' industries.

60

The Tsay Keh have hired outside non-band member professionals to assist
them in reaching their goals of self-government, self-determination, and selfsustainability. The Tsay Keh are striving to meet many of their challenges head-onsuch as focusing on community member's health and education, and createing a work
force that that will be able to participate in meaningful employment and engagement
in local and regional economics.
In the last decade, remote northern communities have had increased access to
computers and the internet. The Tsay Keh realized that as part of moving forward,
they need to engage with new computer technologies to help them meet their present
and future community objectives. Increased Internet access has allowed Tsay Keh to
harness technologies that will ultimately connect them with the outside world and
make communication efficient. Computer applications such as automated referral
management systems and computer databases to inventory community information
are powerful tools for Tsay Keh to engage with industry and governments, and these,
in tum, will ensure fair communication and results.
Conclusion

The process of developing and documenting this online data management
system for the Tsay Keh has highlighted many dynamic issues and external forces
that First Nations communities have contended with and need acknowledgement. The
original objective of this project for me, as an employee of the Tsay Keh, was to
develop a repository for community information. In the early stages of this project's
development, I quickly realized that in order to create something that would be
61

effective for the needs of the Tsay Keh I would have to have a strong understanding
of the data itself, how it needed to be accessed, how history was to be incorporated,
and what an efficient data management system could do to help the trajectory of their
future. Archival technology and highlighting both the struggles and the community
strengths of the Tsay Keh people guided the trajectory of this project which has had
as its goal and objective to assist the positive future overall health and well-being of
the Tsay Keh Dene.

"Knowledge is Power "

62

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