Director of Lands and Resources

Chief Glenn Bennett

Message from the Director of Lands and Resources

For thousands of years, our people have had a unique and intimate connection to the land. Our oral histories, the stories of our elders, and even personal stories and experiences from our own pasts highlight the depth of this connection in different ways. Today we continue to practice our traditions and create new stories with our families as we explore, harvest, and learn more about the lands and resources of our Territory.

These lands and resources have shaped our community. The land has made us strong, providing a natural vantage point to build our community and take our place as the tollkeepers of the canyon. The resources have provided us with sustenance, feeding our people for millennia. Combined, these things have provided something special: a spiritual connection to one another and our home.

We are hunters, gatherers, fishers, and trappers. We look for changes in the environment that tell us what we need to know. I am thrilled to see that the Kitselas Lands and Resources Department has created a magazine that showcases our traditional ways alongside our Nation’s stewardship.

I hope you enjoy this magazine and have a bountiful oolichan harvest season.

Thla bois k’m da luh! We are waiting for oolichans!

Welcome to the first edition of Nii, a new magazine produced by the Kitselas Lands and Resources Department! In Sm’algyax, “Nii” means “see” and we couldn’t think of a more appropriate title.

With Nii, we are establishing interactive and entertaining publication that encourages Kitselas community members to participate by sharing their pictures and stories. Nii is not a report, but it will be a way that we can share some of KLRD’s work in a more engaging way.

Like the seasons, the release of new editions of Nii will not fall on the same date year-to-year. However, we aim to release subsequent editions during specific harvests, covering seasonally relevant topics. This edition, Haliisuuah, means the month of the oolichans, and features stories on KLRD’s eulachon eDNA monitoring project as well as some fun facts about mountain goats. Nii is something we want everyone to see and enjoy—a special place for the community to celebrate one another and the bounty that the Kitselas Lahkhyuup provides. In Nii, Readers will see the lands and the resources of the Kitselas Territory, but more importantly, they will see themselves, their friends, and neighbours. As we move forward with new editions, we want you to show off, and I encourage all readers to submit photos and stories and other ideas for us to feature!

Thank you to our extremely dedicated KLRD team, whose hard work forms the basis for some of our features this season. I also want to recognize our other contributors for this edition: Dwayne Riddler, the Seymour Family and Wai Wah Environmental.