Taku River Tlingit First Nation in Atlin, B.C., puts traditional place names on the map

In First Nation communities, a name is more than a name.

A name holds connection to the land, or a link to ancestors who shared the land before.

Since March, the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, based in Atlin, B.C., has reclaimed 13 traditional names of places of significance within their traditional territory.

"We started the process four or five years ago," said Charmaine Thom, spokesperson for the Taku River Tlingit First Nation (TRTFN). "It's quite an achievement for our First Nation to have seen it come to get the go-ahead."

The 13 Tlingit names will be added to all B.C.-issued provincial maps, according to Thom — something she said is quite significant.

"It's recognition to TRTFN, and acknowledging our original place names," she said. "I think it's important that we acknowledge not just the time spent to just get them on the map, but it's also time spent with all the history that was gathered over the last 40 years."

The 13 names are: 

Thom said the First Nation's heritage department is in the process of reclaiming more traditional Tlingit names around the area.

"Hopefully this will go a little quicker than the six years it took to get these together," she said.

"And when I say six years I'm sure it's way more. I mean, there's people in our heritage department that's been working on some of the names throughout the territory for time immemorial."

The B.C. government didn't respond to CBC's request for comment about the Tlingit names before publication.

Taku River Tlingit elder Wayne Carlick is proud to see his First Nation reclaim the names.

"I think that's awesome," he told CBC News. "We have names going back on our lands that, traditionally, it should have never been changed. People should have just learned our language and started calling the names of our places."

Carlick said having the opportunity to share the Tlingit language on a provincial map is a way to show the rest of Canada how rich and significant their Indigenous culture is.