Cultural chasm : a 1960s hydro development and the Tsay Keh Dene native community of northern British Columbia
Date
1992
Authors
Koyl, Mary Christina
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Abstract
This thesis identifies the "cultural chasm" between an isolated Athabascan community in northern British Columbia and the government representatives with whom it came in contact during construction of the Bennett Dam in the 1960s. The process of relocating these semi-traditional Athabascan people to make way for the dam was characterized by an overwhelming gap in communication for all concerned. Relocation was the sole option considered by government. While representatives of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and the British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority attempted to achieve what they believed was an appropriate balance for this Native community and visited it several times to identify lands in exchange for those which were flooded, their words were not comprehended. When their ancestral lands came under water as far as the eye could see and the wildlife, integral to their lifestyle, were drowning around them, the Native community was devastated. No words could adequately prepare them for what ensued. In fact, this hydro development project was so major that everyone associated with it had difficulty grasping or foreseeing the full range of its environmental impacts.
This thesis argues that a major reason why this Native community could not comprehend what was happening -- why some of its members still do not know what happened -- is an unbridgeable "cultural chasm" between the two worlds. Although they heard words describing construction of the dam, they could not believe anyone would want to, or could, do such a thing. To violate nature on this scale for a power source of which they had no knowledge or need was beyond their comprehension. To compound this problem, the first of a series of floods occurred in Spring, a season during which the Native community moves gently in its surroundings so as not to disturb Nature in the process of rebirth.
To explore and substantiate the notion of this "cultural chasm", this thesis draws upon personal interviews with members of this Native community, known today as the Tsay Keh Dene Band, and anthropologic information relating to the unique worldview of northern hunting peoples. It also uses information from the British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Province of British Columbia files, newspapers and other sources. This information provides the context for understanding the Native and non-Native realities around this event. Both stories are almost overwhelmingly different because they each mirror a vastly different worldview.
This flooding, although of catastrophic proportions for the Native people, represents but one in a continuum of events affecting this isolated Native community. This paper examines these events, which began with the first contact with white explorers, fur traders, prospectors and missionaries and culminated in a far reaching paternalistic federal government policy which resulted in residential schools and the attempt to segregate Native peoples onto government owned reserve lands. The difficulties currently faced by the Tsay Keh Dene people, who are working hard to resolve them, mirror these events and the social and economic issues faced by most Native communities.
An analysis of how First Nations peoples have been treated within the Canadian framework is at the national forefront. We are learning that western society has ignored minority interests in the pursuit of the short-term common good, which in this case translated into low cost hydroelectric power. We have tended not to want to see the consequences of this approach for the minorities concerned and we still do not carefully weigh the full impact on minority groups as part of a balanced decision-making process. By documenting what happened in the case of the Tsay Keh Dene people, this thesis should contribute to a greater knowledge and appreciation of the full range of longer-term costs -- cultural, and economic and emotional -- of mega projects affecting isolated Native peoples.
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UN SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities