Dene Kʼéh Kusān

Dene K’éh Kusān is encompassed by the lands that are called Dena Kēyeh, the 'people's country', alive with the memories and spirit of the Kaska Dena. The Kaska Dena are an unceded Nation of people who have lived in their ancestral lands since time immemorial and have survived, thrived, and created a culture in this place.

Archaeological sites found within the Kaska Dena Ancestral Territory suggest that the cultural areas in southeast Yukon and northern BC were occupied for at least the last 7,500 years. The earliest peoples in the Kaska Ancestral Territory came equipped with tools, and a way of life adapted to hunting and surviving in the cold tundra environment.

The entire Kaska Dena population is connected through our language where there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility from our five dialects in the different regions of our ancestral territory. The Kaska have two matrilineal moieties, called Crow and Wolf, often referred to as clans, that guided their kin relations with the surrounding communities.

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Dena Kēyeh are 240,000 square kilometres (sqkm) of landscape which countless generations of Kaska have called home. Kaska homelands in British Columbia are outlined white and the homelands in southeast Yukon and the southwestern corner of the Northwest Territories are outlined in grey.

Get the most out of your experience, check out the legend in the bottom left corner of the map, find out your location in relation to the ancestral territory by using the buttons in the lower right of the map, or use the arrows in the top right corner to view the map full screen.

The Kaska Dena Ancestral Territory in British Columbia is vast, and there is a great deal of variation in the landscape. There are barren mountain summits, glaciers, plains, plateaus, thin and thick forests, wetlands, lakes, and rivers and streams, all unevenly distributed over 100,000 sqkm of northern British Columbia.

Get the most out of your experience, click on the icons on the map to see photos of some of the diverse landscape features within the Kaska Dena Ancestral Territory.

In British Columbia, Kaska Dena Nation communities are the Dease River First Nation in Good Hope Lake, the Daylu Dena Council in Lower Post, and the Kwadacha First Nation in Fort Ware. The proximity of the communities to major river systems demonstrates the importance of rivers for the Kaska people in trade, travel and sustenance.

Dene K’éh Kusān in the Kaska language means “Always Will be There”. Measuring approximately 40,000 sqkm (~4,000,000 ha) in the core of the Kaska Ancestral Territory in British Columbia, it is situated wholly within the Makenzie River Basin and includes portions of 5 ecoregions, 13 ecosections, 10 major watersheds, 4 biogeoclimatic zones, and provides connectivity to 14 provincial protected areas.

• 52% of the Liard Basin
• 38% of the Northern Canadian Rocky Mountains
• 38 % of the Hyland Highland
• 16% of the Boreal Mountains and Plateau
• 1 % of the Muskwa Plateau

Get the most out of your experience, click on the points on the map to see photos that depict these ecoregions within the Dene K’éh Kusān.

• 99% of the Rabbit River
• 68% of the Toad River
• 66% of the Kechika River
• 35% of the Liard River
• 24% of the Dease River
• 19% of the Finlay River
• 18% of the Beaver River
• 0.6% of the Fort Nelson River
• 0.01% of the Stikine River
• 0.5% of the Pitman River

Dene K’éh Kusān represents a significant refugia for intact boreal ecosystems and their animals and plants, providing the benefits associated as mitigations for climate change. Dene K’éh Kusān provides connectivity to 14 provincial protected areas and adds an important puzzle piece to the  Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) conservation initiative . Check out the map legend in the bottom left corner for more information on the boundaries shown.

Connectivity across the landscape, specifically large intact northern refugia such as Dene K’éh Kusān, provides resiliency for ecosystems in the face of climate change. For the Kaska Dena Ancestral Territory in British Columbia, the annual temperature has increased from 1.0–1.6°C (MOE 2016; Data Range 1900—2013). Other climate changes expected to occur include changes in total precipitation amounts and types of precipitation (rain vs. snow), changes to water peak and low flows, and a higher pace of changes occurring in the Ancestral Territory versus southern Canada. Climate change is expected to cause changes in the distribution and abundance of vegetation, fish, and wildlife.

The Kaska Dena see the importance of expansive contiguous remote wilderness as benchmarks for resilient forests, carbon sequestration, and protected ecosystems. Some of the key climate change strategies for protected areas are the maintenance of functioning ecosystems and ensuring the movements of species within and outside of protected areas. Dene K’éh Kusān will provide additional protection for wilderness, intact ecosystems and sensitive species.

Get the most out of your experience, click on the protected areas on the map to learn the name of the park, protected area, or ecological reserve.

Dene K’éh Kusān represents the spiritual and cultural core of the Ancestral Territory of the Kaska Dena in British Columbia. The Indigenous knowledge and science-based Conservation Analysis provides a biological and cultural justification for the protection of Dene K’éh Kusān. The protection of Dene K’éh Kusān is based on the need to conserve ecosystem services, preserve the Kaska way of life, protect special, and sensitive ecological sites; ancient, historical, and cultural sites; spiritual, social, and economic areas; and revive our customary laws and our role as Kaska land stewards. Boundaries have been established to focus the proposed area within the exclusive use area of the Ancestral Territory to reduce potential concerns with neighbouring First Nations It also has been developed recognizing existing and potential resource development, and the boundaries were developed to reduce conflicts with these sectors.

Overall, the establishment of Dene K’éh Kusān will provide additional protection or representation for wilderness, intact ecosystems and sensitive species. Woodland caribou (whūdzī) are a culturally important and high profile species of the north. Dene K’éh Kusān is a caribou stronghold and will provide retention of seasonal ranges across elevations for up to 7 herds.

• 86% of the Rabbit Herd Range
• 84% of the Frog Herd Range
• 53% of the Gataga Herd Range
• 49% of the Horseranch Herd Range
• 39% of the Liard Plateau Herd Range
• 24% of the Muskwa Herd Range
• 4% of the Finlay Herd Range

There are a number of species at risk (COSEWIC) which occur or have the potential to be found within Dene K’éh Kusān, including (SC = Special Concern | T = Threatened | E = Endangered):

• Bull Trout SC (2019)
• Short-eared Owl SC (2012)
• Wood Bison T (2003)
• Canada Warbler T (2010)
• Olive-sided Flycatcher T (2010)
• Rusty Blackbird SC (2009)
• Peregrine Falcon, Anatum Subspecies SC (2012)
• Wolverine, Luscus Subspecies SC (2018)
• Porsild’s Bryum T (2011)
• Barn Swallow T (2017)
• Northern Myotis E (2014)
• Collared Pika SC (2017)
• Cutthroat Trout, Lewisi Subspecies SC (2010)
• Hotwater Physa E (2003)
• Woodland Caribou (Northern Mountain Population) SC (2005)
• Grizzly Bear SC (2018)

Dene K’éh Kusān is an area that is central to the core spiritual and cultural landscape and is critical to the sustainability of Kaska cultural well-being. It is an area which supports the criteria of Title as laid out by the Supreme Court of Canada. However, maintaining and enhancing both a resource development and conservation economy is paramount to the Kaska Dena.

To support and grow these economies, Dene K’éh Kusān boundaries have been established recognizing existing and potential resource development, and a conservation economy, that will reduce conflicts and provide a balance with these economic opportunities. The Kaska Dena have made considerations to forestry, subsurface development, existing land uses, guide outfitting and other conservation economies during the planning of Dene K’éh Kusān. The three First Nations Woodland Licences within Dene K’éh Kusān will provide jobs in sustainable forestry. Boundaries of Dene K’éh Kusān were designed to capture the largest contiguous core are of the territory while avoiding or minimizing overlap with existing dispositions. In addressing fee simple lands or leases, the parcels identified will be netted out due to exemptions to Right of Ways and proximity to settlement areas. The Kaska Dena are supportive of the existing guide outfitting territories and recognize it has been an activity providing long-term economic opportunities for Kaska members, communities, and non-Kaska communities and families for generations. It is our approach to have guide outfitting infrastructure, activities and authorizations included as an ongoing activity with renewable authorizations. It is with this same view that Adventure Tourism, and Registered Traplines for the commercial sale of fur are incorporated into the management of Dene K’éh Kusān.

Dene K’éh Kusān will provide an opportunity to pursue a green economy, to build capacity, expand our knowledge of the environmental, our heritage, and offset the potential effects of climate change, as well as help revive our languages.

As a means to protect Dene K’éh Kusān, the Kaska Dena of British Columbia will institute a law called the Kaska Protected Area Law, a subset of sacred laws – ā’ī, to protect their Aboriginal Rights, and the area within Dene K’éh Kusān to govern the relationship between the Kaska Dena and their lands and waters. The structure of co-management is envisioned to be through existing government to government agreements. It is with this view that the Kaska are working towards the designation of the proposed area as a Conservancy. Under the provincial protected areas legislation, Dene K’éh Kusān is an area which supports the criteria of Title as laid out by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Dane Nan Ye Dāh is a program designed to train the next generation of land managers who will be the ones implementing our co-management and governance models. Guardians are trained to work in the areas of wildlife, forestry, mining management, ecosystem monitoring, archaeology, climate change, water management, and include the incorporation of traditional knowledge into all of our work. Dane Nan Ye Dāh program represents important connections between the social, cultural, environmental, and economic well-being of the Kaska Dena.

We’re asking the provincial government to work jointly with us to ensure that Kaska Dena Ancestral Territory:

• Does not suffer the devastating effects of climate change and biodiversity loss we’re seeing across British Columbia, Canada and around the world.
• Remains intact, which is critical to preserving Kaska peoples’ material, cultural and spiritual lives.
• Continues to shelter caribou, a species struggling to feed itself and breed in other parts of the province.
• Sustains and creates economic opportunities for Kaska and others in northern communities.
• Becomes a world-class protected area for all British Columbians to explore and enjoy.