Kaska

The Kaska or Kaska Dena are a First Nations people living mainly in northern British Columbia and the southeastern Yukon in Canada. The Kaska language originally spoken by the Kaska is an Athabaskan language.

Kaska Dena communities and First Nations include:

• Ross River, Yukon (Ross River Dena Council)
• Watson Lake, Yukon and Upper Liard, Yukon (Liard River First Nation)
• Good Hope Lake, British Columbia (Dease River First Nation)
• Lower Post, British Columbia near Watson Lake (Lower Post First Nation)
• Fort Ware, British Columbia (Kwadacha First Nation)

Kaska Dena also live in British Columbia communities of Fireside and Muncho Lake, between Watson Lake and Fort Nelson, British Columbia along the Alaska Highway.

By one account, the name of the asbestos-mining ghost town Cassiar, is believed to be a variant of Kaska, the town being named for the Kaska people; by another account, the word the name Cassiar derives from is a Kaska word either for a black bird, or for the fibrous asbestos ore upon which the town was built.

The text in this article excerpt is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Kaska”.