Tahltan Central Council

Who We Are

History of the Tahltan Central Council

resources of Tahltan traditional territory through pursuing sustainable economic development, and to strengthen the cultural wellness of the Tahltan Community by promoting traditional values based on the concepts of caring, sharing, cooperation, truth, honour, fairness and above all, respect. The board of the TCC is comprised of one representative from each of the ten Tahltan families; the executive consists of a Chairperson, Vice-Chair, and Secretary-Treasurer. The executive is elected, for two year terms, at the annual general meetings (AGM) held each summer; the family representatives are nominated by the families each year and elected/ratified at the AGM.

The guiding principle of the Tahltan Central Council remains the Declaration of the Tahltan Tribe. In 1910, as part of a growing movement to assert First Nations rights on the coast and the southern interior of BC, the chief of the Tahltan Nation, Chief Nanok along with 80 other members of the tribe signed the declaration. The document claims sovereignty over Tahltan land and declares any land interests concerning the traditional territory of the Tahltan Nation to be settled directly with the Tahltan people. It represents a legal declaration of rights of Tahltan individuals to the Canadian government and British monarch. Tahltans have yet to extinguish their Aboriginal title by any other legal process.

History of the Tahltan people

The Tahltan people have occupied their territories around the upper reaches of the Stikine River in what is now northwestern British Columbia since time immemorial. The relationship between the people and the land, as with many indigenous peoples, is one marked by a deep respect for the land as provider and a strongly held belief that the people are keepers of the land. The Tahltan belong to the land. This prevailing attitude has led to a symbiotic relationship in which the Tahltan people look to the land for sustenance, guidance, and healing. Traditional Tahltan governance was organized around the family/clan system. All decisions affecting Tahltans were made through meetings and councils, and every Tahltan was allowed to express their views and concerns.

Primarily a hunting and trapping people, the Tahltan fostered inter-tribal trade with neighbouring tribes exchanging items such as fish, furs and obsidian, useful for making tools and weapons. In fact, the Tahltan people held a significant position in as middlemen in the pre and post-contact trading industry of northern BC. The Stikine River supported trade that took place between coastal nations and interior nations. The first contact with Europeans came in 1838 when Robert Campbell of the Hudsons Bay Company arrived with intentions on setting up operations in the territory.

In the early 1900s, the population of the Tahltan Nation was devastated by smallpox, measles, influenza and tuberculosis; diseases introduced by European explorers to which the Tahltan people had no natural immunity. At its lowest point, the Tahltan population numbered under 300 people. This extreme population decrease, coupled with the new enforcement of governmental policies, forced the Tahltan people to leave their established villages sites for a more central location along the Stikine River. The discovery of gold in the Yukon supported the creation of a larger village site along the banks of the Stikine River. At the beginning of the 19th century the Tahltan Nation played host to over 5000 potential prospectors, as their village became an official stopping point on the river way towards the Yukon Klondike.