THE HEIGHT OF THE LAND

Treaty 8 documents our Traditional Territory as being, "The lands within British Columbia commencing at the height of the land separating the Arctic and Pacific watersheds near Summit Lake, east, following that height of land to the border of British Columbia and Alberta, north, following the border to the Peace River, west, following the southern bank of the Peace River to Williston Lake, south, following the western bank of Williston Lake to the western bank of Manson Arm, south, along the west bank of Manson Arm, southwest and west, along the height of land between Manson River and Eklund Creek and Jackfish Crrek, southwest and west, along the height of land between the Nation River watershed and the Omineca River watershed, south and east, along the height of land separating the Arctic and Pacific watersheds to the commencement point.

SOURCES

Fraser, Simon. The Letters and Journals of Simon Fraser: 1806-1808. Edited by W. Kaye Lamb. Toronto: Macmillan, 1960.
Mackenzie, Sir Alexander. Voyages from Montreal... Edited by J. M. Garvin. Toronto: Radisson Society, 1927.
Black, Samuel. A Journal of a Voyage from Rocky Mountain Portage in Peace River to the Sources of Finlay’s Branch and to the North West Ward in Summer 1824. Edited by E. E. Rich. London: Hudson’s Bay Record Society, 1955.
Calverley, Dorthea H. (compiler) History of the Peace: Indians, Our Native People. Dawson Creek, B. C.: unpublished, 1973
Website developed and maintained by Nathan Paul Prince
a member of the McLeod Lake Indian Band
Created July 2006    Revised December 2008

McLeod Lake Tse'Khene First Nation
TRADITIONAL TERRITORY

When signing Treaty 8 with the Canadian government, our people had to show our Traditional Territory, where we hunted and fished with our families and friends, and traded with other First Nations and tribes. We were, primarily, a nomadic people following game from one side of the mountains to the other and only really settled when fur traders built establishments in our territory.

Diamond Jenness was the first to do an anthropological study of the Sekani Indians, using fur trader's journals such as those kept by Alexander mackenzie and Simon Fraser. These fur traders explored much of the regions of the Pacific Northwest and with theor journals helped map many of the locations of the different tribes between the years of 1794 and 1824.

The information available helped our people to map out not only what the white men considered to be our Traditional territory, but with our oral history we were able to show more precisely the lands we hunted, fought over and walked upon in our history.
our traditional territory
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