Watch Places That Make Us Strong Video
T’akú Tlatsini (Places that Make Us Strong) Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area
We are the Taku River Tlingit. Our relationship to our territory is sacred, and over millennia it has made us who we are. The T’akú River has always taken care of us as we take care of it – the T’akú is our promise to future generations.
Tlingit law affirms our responsibility to protect and care for the T’akú and all that live and thrive there, and through reciprocity, the T’akú supports us as healthy Tlingit, today and forever into the future. We are strong partly because our lands and waters depend upon us; stewarding our lands and waters is an essential part of being Tlingit and of Lingít Kusteeyí (Tlingit way of living).
It is our responsibility to pass on healthy land so that the Tlingit remain healthy and
survive forever. Therefore, we have a responsibility to pass Tlingit Laws which shall
protect our Traditional Territory and way of life.
Taku River Tlingit Constitution
Based on generations of our knowledge, decades of research, and extensive community discussions, in 2009 the Taku River Tlingit released our Tlatsini Vision map that identifies those areas needing protection to ensure our cultural resilience as a people including through ensuring our land, waters, fish and wildlife remain healthy and strong.
This map was used to support our work with BC in developing the 2011 Atlin Taku Land Use Plan, and some of the Tlatsini lands were protected but we were unable to protect vast areas of Tlatsini lands and waters at that time.
The T’akú Tlatsini Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (T’akú IPCA) is founded upon our 2009 Tlatsini Vision with updates based on additional community engagement between 2019 and 2023, with on-going engagement as we seek to advance the T’akú IPCA. The Clan Directors Council and Clan Leaders declared the T’akú IPCA publicly in January 2024.
That Taku IPCA is a fair, responsible and respectful mapped vision for the Taku watershed that ensures our wild salmon, wildlife and culture remain resilient while allowing for responsible development of some areas when our consent is provided (see Map below).
To achieve our Tlatsini Vision, T’akú IPCA protects critical landscapes while providing for a diversified economic future. It includes protecting 60% of the T’akú watershed, including our salmon rivers and spawning areas, and landscapes needed for wildlife, for clean water, and for Lingít Kusteeyí. These landscapes are appropriate for a diversity of non-extractive developments such as tourism, research and restoration. The T’akú IPCA provides opportunities for respectful mineral and other development in specially managed landscapes covering 40% of the T’akú watershed. These specially managed areas include vast landscapes of the highest mineral potential.
We invite those interested in economic development to work with us in respect of our laws, standards and protocols that will ensure developments are undertaken in sustainable and honorable ways for a shared and thriving future.
2009 Tlatsini (Places That Make Us Strong) Vision
In 2009, the Lands Department undertook an ambitious project to develop a territory-wide land protection plan that reflects our Tlingit kusteeyï (way of life) and supports the needs of the fish and wildlife we share our lands with. This culminated in the Tlatsini (Places That Make Us Strong) Vision for Land Protection which outlines areas of high ecological and cultural value.
