This new Stop of Interest sign in the Bulkley Stikine district is part of a kiosk designed in part by the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, SEDA and Alcan.

The name Ootsa Lake is derived from a Dakelh word pronounced “yoot-soo” which means “very low down” or “way down towards the water.” Its shores were home to the Cheslatta Dakelh (Carrier) for many generations, until 1952 when the Kenny Dam flooded their hunting and fishing grounds and their homes.

In 1952, the Kenny Dam was constructed on the Nechako River to service the new Alcan aluminum smelter at Kitimat, resulting in the creation of the Nechako Reservoir and the relocation of over 75 families. The damming also linked the rivers and lakes of Ootsa, Intata, Whitesail, Chelaslie, Tetachuck, Tahtsa and Natalkuz into the reservoir with a surface area of over 90,000 hectares. The water of these lakes and rivers was diverted westward to the Pacific Ocean, instead of eastward to the Fraser River.

The Nechako Chronicle newsaper in 1952 printed an obituary for “the ageless and mighty Nechako River”, saying that the new dam “has destroyed forever a thing of beauty and of divine creation.”

A controversy arose in the 1990s resulting in court challenges, over what is called the Kemano Completion Project whereby the extent of the flooded area of the Nechako Reservoir would be increased to augment hydro electric power generation.

Resources:

Cheslatta Nation’s court case over the Kemano hydro project:
http://www.firstnationsdrum.com/politics/fall98_pol.htm

Book about Kemano completion project controversy:
Bev Christensen, Too Good to be True: Alcan’s Kemano Completion Project, Talonbooks, 1995.