Vancouver Information and Newspaper

VICTORIA, B.C. – More than four decades after their homes, burial grounds and hunting territories were flooded over to create a dam, members of a B.C. First Nation have been compensated.

In 1967, the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation was forced from their Fort Grahame home in the Peace River Valley to make way for the W.A.C. Bennett Dam and the massive Williston Reservoir.

The agreement between the B.C. government, B.C. Hydro and the First Nation will give the native band a one-time payment of $20.9 million and annual payments of $2 million for as long as power is produced at the facility.

B.C. Aboriginal Relations Minister George Abbott says the agreement marks the closure of a difficult chapter in the communities history.

The native band launched legal action in 1999 against the province and B.C. Hydro for infringement of aboriginal rights and three years later the two sides began negotiations to address the impacts of the damages.

The Tsay Keh Dene’s main community is now at the northern end of the Williston Reservoir, which was created by the construction of the dam and is the largest body of water in British Columbia.