Kânîsostîkwâw

In the Rocky Mountains Foothills in northeast BC, west of the mighty Peace River, or Saagii Nachii—the Big River, as known by the Dane-zaa, who are the first peoples of this region—rests Kânîsostîkwâw. Kânîsostîkwâw is a Cree phrase that translates as the “Two Mountains That Sit Together,” also known as the Twin Sister Mountains. These magnificent mountains represent a vast and diverse cultural landscape of the past and living histories of the Danezaa, Cree, Saulteau, and other Indigenous Peoples. Cultural records from archaeological studies reveal a density of prehistoric material residue, such as obsidian blades and scrapers, scattered throughout Kânîsostîkwâw. Oral history interviews have verified the locations of unrecorded pictographs, petroglyphs, ceremonial places, teepee rings, and graves near or on the mountains. The cultural treasures and ancestors at Kânîsostîkwâw were…