Kaska Dena
The Kaska or Kaska Dena are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group living mainly in northern British Columbia and the southeastern Yukon in Canada. The Kaska language, originally spoken by the Kaska, is an Athabaskan language. The Kaska Dena constituted five local bands: Tu tcogotena (Tu’tcogotena) or Tu cho gha nugga dhal (″Big Water Dwellers″) are the Dena people that occupy the Tucho (Frances Lake) and the Tucho Tue (Frances River) area stretching to the Hyland and Smith rivers. They hunted also the Too-Ti (Liard) and Tucho Tue (Dease River) areas. Also known as McDame Post Kaska or Fort McDame Kaska because they traded at the McDame Post (Fort McDame) trading post (at the mouth of McDame Creek into the Dease River); also referred to as Frances Lake Kaska in some sources. Ki stagotena (Ki’stagotena) or Tsetotena (Tsay tow tena) (″Mountain Dwellers″) dominated the south and south east of the Natitu a gotena Kaska. Their traditional range included the valleys of the Dease River south from Net I tue to the northern part of Dease Lake where a natural divide separated them from the inland neighbours. Ki stagotena living along Duna za (McDames), meaning “pure place where