Investing with Hagwilget Village Council

Standing on the gently rolling hill in the midst of Tse-kya today and looking west into the jagged coast mountains with the haughty Rocher Deboule peaks looming to the left, it may be easy to forget that the village is named after, and owes its existence to, a rock in the river one thousand metres below. It might be even harder to know this since, improbably, the great rock is no longer here, having been purposely removed by others almost thirty years before.

As a person stands on the hill it is easy to be overwhelmed by the beauty of the place, arguably one of the most majestic locations in the region. The location though is more significant for the events which have happened here and for the people who have chosen to make it their home. This book tells the story of the strong and persistent people who live at Tse-Kya.

[The Wa Dzun Kwuh before the rock in the center was removed - approx. 1919 by T.W.S. Parsons]

[Old Village of Tse-kya located at the bottom of the canyon - approx. 1910]

The village name of Tse-kya signifies base of rock in the Wet'suwet'en language. It has also been call Hagwilget as its is known in Gitksan, meaning place of the quiet people. Tse-kya is located in central British Columbia about two hundred miles or three hundred twenty five kilometers inland from the coast. It and the area to the east and south comprise the territories of the Wet'suwet'en.

The location stands at the transition between the mild and wet coastal climate of the Skeena River valley and the drier, more extreme interior. The red cedar and hemlock which blanket the coastal mountains give way here to pine and spruce on the northern slopes and popular and willow on the southern.

The people who live in this countryside call themselves Wet'suwet'en, or people of the Wa Dzun Kwuh River. Their territories reach far to the south including Ootsa Lake, to the east to parts of Francois Lake, and to the Telkwa Pass and the headwaters of the Zymoetz River, as well as the basin of the Bulkley River.

The countryside through which the people traditionally journeyed when not at Tse-kya is mostly a great plateau, a country of gentle hills studded with lakes and radiant meadows of wild roses and waving peavine. The lakes hold an abundance of fish-trout and whitefish-and in the friendly forests roam deer, black bear and caribou.