Celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Day at Tse’k’wa

The North Peace was one of many communities celebrating on June 21, honoring the culture and history of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit.

Braxtyn explores the entrance to the cave at Tse’k’wa.

The community was invited to Tse'k'wa on Friday afternoon to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day while enjoying the Doig River Drummers, a demonstration from Archaeology Field School students, and a free BBQ lunch.

“We’re taking this opportunity to celebrate, whether its being indigenous or being treaty people and showing off what we found during our archeology field school,” said Alyssa Currie with the Tse'k'wa Heritage Society. “The most exciting thing we found was micro blades, which are exactly what they sound like, but they’re a pretty advanced form of stone tool technology.”

This year alone, over 150 micro blades were discovered at Tse’k’wa by Anthropology Senior Instructor Dr. Farid Rahemtulla and students, with more than 100 coming from one archeological excavation site. “At some point, somebody, or a group of people were sitting here thousands of years ago and making the micro blades,” said Rahemtulla. “We did find obsidian too, which was very close to the obsidian that was found at Tse’k’wa in 2022, which we sent to a friend of ours whose an expert. We can chemically source obsidian, because we know where most of the sources are, and she sourced it to the central coast of B.C.”

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“On National Indigenous Peoples Day, we celebrate the rich histories, traditions and cultures of Indigenous Peoples who call British Columbia home,” said Premier David Eby in a statement issued on June 21. “Today, we celebrate the many ways in which the diversity, achievements and resilience of Indigenous Peoples continue to shape our province for the better. As we celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day, I encourage everyone to take time to listen, learn and join the many celebrations honoring Indigenous cultures, traditions, languages and histories.”

Tse’k’wa is one of few archaeological sites here in northern British Columbia that can be dated before 11,000 years ago, and one of the even fewer with a well-preserved stratigraphic record of human activities according to their website.

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