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WITSET, B.C. — Fifty-three-year-old Butch Dennis drives slowly along a frozen road in the Witset First Nation village, stopping to acknowledge two kids who are watching a lucky friend motor about on a pint-sized snowmobile.

“Look at the little guy here on the Ski-Doo, eh,” says Dennis, a Wet’suwet’en from the Gitumden clan who moved to Witset (also known as Moricetown) at age 15. “This is the future right here.”

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Dennis knows everyone in every home: What clan they belong to, their clan house and whether they are working.

He is proud of the reserve, and happy to point out its many band-owned and -operated features. A new health centre, a freshly paved road, seniors’ programs, a child-care facility, a learning centre, a sawmill, a gas bar, a firehall, a museum, an RV park and, soon, a tax-free cannabis retail store.

“I think we have a pretty awesome reserve,” he says. “We have a firehall, we have clean running water, we have programs to learn our language and we have meal programs for the youth and the elders. The elders get free cut firewood.”