Wet'suwet'en are a First Nations

First Nations

First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...

 people who live on the Bulkley River

Bulkley River

The Bulkley River in British Columbia is a major tributary of the Skeena River. The Bulkley is 257 km long with a drainage basin covering 12,400 km²....

 and around Broman Lake and Francois Lake

Francois Lake

François Lake is a lake located in British Columbia about 30 kilometers south of Burns Lake and 10 kilometers west of Fraser Lake. The lake is 110 kilometers long and is the second longest natural lake entirely within British Columbia after Babine Lake. Nadina River is the inflow of the lake at the...

 in the northwestern Central Interior of British Columbia

British Columbia Interior

The British Columbia Interior or BC Interior or Interior of British Columbia, usually referred to only as the Interior, is one of the three main regions of the Canadian province of British Columbia, the other two being the Lower Mainland, which comprises the overlapping areas of Greater Vancouver...

. The name they call themselves, Wet'suwet'en, means ″People of the Wa Dzun Kwuh River″.

The Wet'suwet'en are a branch of the Dakelh

Dakelh

The Dakelh or Carrier are the indigenous people of a large portion of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada.Most Carrier call themselves Dakelh, meaning "people who go around by boat"...

 or Carrier people, and in combination with the Babine

Babine

In its broader sense, Babine refers to the Athabascan Indians who speak the Babine dialect of the Babine-Witsuwit'en language in the vicinity of the Babine River, Babine Lake, Trembleur Lake, and Takla Lake in the central interior of British Columbia, Canada....

 people have been referred to as the Western Carrier. They speak Witsuwit'en, a dialect of the Babine-Witsuwit'en

Babine-Witsuwit'en

-External links:****** Note, however, that the Carrier-speaking region is marked incorrectly on this map and that Babine-Witsuwit'en is not indicated. The area around Babine Lake and Takla Lake, included in the Dakelh region on the map, is actually Babine speaking...

 language which, like its sister language Carrier

Carrier language

The Carrier language is a Northern Athabaskan language. It is named after the Dakelh people, a First Nations people of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, for whom Carrier is the usual English name. People who are referred to as Carrier speak two related languages. One,...

, is a member of the Athabaskan

Athabaskan languages

Athabaskan or Athabascan is a large group of indigenous peoples of North America, located in two main Southern and Northern groups in western North America, and of their language family...

 family.

Their oral history, called kungax, recounts that their ancestral village, Dizkle or Dzilke, once stood upstream from the Bulkley Canyon.