Artefacts reveal new insights to history

Last updated: 6 September 2022

Deep in British Columbia, Canada, archaeologists have unearthed artefacts that could shed light on how and when humans migrated and settled across the Americas over 15,000 years ago.

They believe that Tatichek Lake was located on one of three major migration routes that brought humans all the way from Alaska to the southwest of the United States. 

A project led by the Cheslatta Carrier Nation with our funding support aims to recover and preserve sites near the lake that were revealed after wildfires spread through the area in 2018. 

To date, over a hundred significant archaeological sites have been identified and registered at Tatichek. Over 30,000 artefacts including arrowheads, spear points and stone tools have been recovered and recorded, some over 12,000 years old. 

Parallel archaeological work at nearby Cheslatta Lake has also salvaged a significant number of human remains that were eroded from an ancient burial ground.  Carbon dating has confirmed these remains to be over 5,000 years old, making them some of the oldest, intact human remains ever found in the British Columbia Interior. 

Resuming research to resolve “unfinished business”

To the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, this project is “unfinished business”. 

In 1951, Alcan began constructing the Kenney Dam, a project that ultimately displaced the  Cheslatta community. At the time, Alcan provided $5,000 for the University of British Columbia to conduct an emergency expedition to document areas in the dam project’s flood zone. 

But the team’s work was cut short just a year later when the dam flooded the series of seven large lakes and rivers. Cheslatta Carrier Nation estimates that more than 95% of the archeological sites that were mapped were lost forever when they were inundated. 

Although we can never replace the resources and records that were lost then, the Tatichek  project is one small step towards documenting the sites that remain, and learning as much as we can about their history and cultural significance. 

Cheslatta Carrier Nation is currently designing the Cheslatta Archives, Repository and Learning Centre in which all of its archives, cultural material and project artefacts can be safely stored and displayed.  The Centre will house the entire project database, artefact analysis data, site maps and all relevant reports. These will eventually be available to the public through an online portal.   

“Cheslatta is committed to share, which we feel it is our responsibility, to contribute to the overall knowledge of the earliest record of the human race in the Americas. The former Tatichek village sites are the most significant archaeology sites remaining after the Nechako Reservoir was created in 1952,” said Cheslatta Carrier Nation Chief Corrina Leween. 

“We are pleased that Rio Tinto is helping us continue our ‘unfinished business’ that started with the construction of the Kenney Dam. With this support from Rio Tinto, the Cheslatta Carrier Nation is now able to expand their knowledge of our ancestors and of the ancient human use and occupation within the Cheslatta Territory.”

Sponsoring vital discoveries

When the Cheslatta Carrier Nation approached us to co-fund this major project, we were eager to support their work. 

Cheslatta Carrier Nation is leading the research, which we are contributing C$3.2 million towards – the first archaeological project of this magnitude that we have sponsored in North America. 

The Cheslatta Peoples’ first contact with Europeans resulted in a series of epidemics and introduced deadly diseases beginning with Smallpox in 1838, which decimated Cheslatta’s largest villages at Tatichek, claiming hundreds of victims.  The project team hopes that the dig will offer evidence for when and how this may have happened.  The literal translation of Tatichek means “sick water”. 

“It’s really important for us to support the communities where we operate and being alongside Cheslatta with the Tatichek project is something that is unique. The project will benefit the Cheslatta community and all local Indigenous communities and is one way we are working towards reconciliation,” said Claudine Gagnon, General Manager, Communities & Social Performance.