Our Story

Dakelh and Sekani peoples have a long history together and as neighbours. We share traditional cultural values, clan systems, the potlatch or baht’lats system, and hereditary roles. We all recognize our inherent responsibilities to our lands and territories and its wellbeing.

There is great benefit to working as a collective as opposed to individual Nations. Through the Carrier Sekani First Nations Society (CSFN), seven Nations are working together to demand that our rights and titles to our land be respected. This has resulted in many successful government-to-government agreements.

The first agreement, the Collaboration Agreement, was signed between the CSFN and the Province of British Columbia in 2015. It was a direct result of a judicial review submitted by Nak’azdli and Nadleh – and supported by Saik’uz, Stellat’en, Takla, Tl’azt’en, and Ts’il Kaz Koh – to address the cumulative impacts of forestry, mining, and pipeline development on lands in British Columbia.

The second agreement, the Environmental Social and Cultural Initiatives Agreement, was signed between the CSFN and the Province in 2016. It was negotiated because the Collaboration Agreement did not include critical socio-cultural topics. The Environmental Social and Cultural Initiatives Agreement includes environmental stewardship funds and social funds dedicated to education, skills and training, and cultural and language programming.

The third agreement was signed in 2017. This was the Whubats’ut’en Nus Whetee Agreement, also known as the “Interim Pathway Forward Agreement” or Pathway Forward 1.0. This built on the previous two agreements, and included topics such as stewardship, forestry, mining, economic development, socio-cultural funding, and governance. Several bridging agreements and amendments were put in place to this time-limited agreement.

The fourth agreement, Pathway Forward 2.0 (PFA 2.0), was signed in 2019 and amended in 2020 and 2022. This picked up where the Interim Pathway Forward Agreement left off. It provides funding to continue socio-cultural programming and includes important topics such as internal community governance and collective decision making. PFA 2.0 continues to address the impacts of forestry in British Columbia. It also provides funds for economic development, both for our people to start businesses and for our Nations to build partnerships. The CSFNs are currently working on implementing the Pathway Forward 2.0.

The next steps will be further agreements that build towards our self-determination, decision making, and title in our territories.

History