The Tlowitsis Nation, formerly the Klowitsis Tribe, is located in the Queen Charlotte Strait-Johnstone Strait area between Vancouver Island and the BC mainland
The Tlowitsis are a British Columbia First Nation of 450 registered members. Our traditional territories span the coastal area of Northern Vancouver Island, Johnstone Strait and adjacent mainland inlets. From time immemorial until the 1960s, we occupied numerous sites throughout these lands. Seasonal travel routes, food processing locations, burial and cultural sites and other named places extend across the entire territory. Kalagwees, located on Turnour Island, was our primary winter residence.
The Tlowitsis were displaced from Kalagwees in the late 1960s, leading our people to be culturally and physically separated from our traditional territories. Since then, we have been a First Nation without a formal community to call home, and limited opportunities have been available to our people to take an active role in their community. We had been searching for lands to establish a new community since the 1980s.
In the spring of 2018, the Tlowitsis finalized the purchase of a 635-acre property in the Strathcona Regional District, just south of Campbell River. It is here that we will be establishing a new home community for our citizens, known as Nenagwas, or “a place to come home to” in English.