Tsek'ene

— Located in Fort Ware, B.C., the Kwadacha Nation is an off-the-grid remote community more than 570 kilometres north of Prince George. Home of the Tsek’ene people, the community has an estimated population of 380, and approximately 80 homes. Due to its remote location, the community has traditionally relied on costly diesel generators to provide electricity, and propane for heat.

— The Kwadacha are one of three Tsek’ene-speaking nations, who collectively refer to themselves as the Tsek’ene Dene. Their presence in the northern Rocky Mountain Trench dates back millennia, to the earliest known inhabitants in the province. The other Tsek’ene Nations — the Tsay Keh Dene and Mcleod Lake First Nation lived to the south on the Finlay — a river that once forked and wound together like a cluster of noodles. But to think of the Tsek’ene Dene (Tsek’ene for people) as three separate nations, before the dam came, would be wrong.