Lower Post and wildlife

Our first stop was the Kaska Dene First Nation band office at Lower Post, 20 km south of Watson Lake just inside the border of British Columbia. We were here to see the remains of the former Lower Post Indian Residential School (1951-1975), take photographs and video, and see if we could speak to some local Lower Post Band members who had attended the school. This was to be Chris's portion of the trip. He has worked for the past 5 years as Indian and Northern Affairs Canada's lead researcher on the history of the Lower Post Indian Residential School. It was his first visit here and it was immediately clear the impact that just being at the site was having on him. Remarkably, the Lower Post Band office is actually housed in the former classroom block of the old residential school and this took Chris by surprise. I can only imagine the thoughts and images of dark times circling in his mind as he toured through the old classrooms and basement auditorium. It was an emotional morning punctuated by handshakes and conversation with band members who were the very individuals whose childhood experience Chris has dedicated half a decade to researching. I think he was pleased as we left Lower Post and headed up the Liard River (inset photo, confluence Dease and Liard rivers) toward Muncho Lake...

We were relieved to find the temperature had risen substantially and so the roads were bare and the tires found their grip once more. An improvement on the sliding around in the snow and slush the day before.

It was a banner day for wildlife - we saw several herd of wood bison and caribou, deer, eagles, hawks, including one with a claw full of mouse, a fox and, most exciting for me, we saw a black wolf, the first wolf either of us had ever seen.