The Caretaker Area of the Xeni Gwet'in First Nation (honey gwe-teen) is in the Chilko River Watershed, in the Tsilhqot'in Territory (tsil-kote-een), west of the Fraser River. Nemiah Valley is approximately 250 kilometers west of Williams Lake. The Valley is 60 minutes by air from Vancouver and is historically an isolated area. It has only been within the last ten years that access to our community has been opened with better, year round roads and telecommunications services. Because, in part, of the geographical isolation, our traditions and culture are relatively intact with many of our community members speaking Tsilhqot'in as their first language and living in traditional ways. Long ago wagon and team horses were used for travel. It would take up to a week on the road to get to Williams Lake.
The main objective of the Xeni Gwet'in is to maintain their Caretaker Area as an intact wilderness as declared in their Nemiah Aboriginal Wilderness Preserve, August 23, 1989 and their ?Elegesi Qiyus Wild Horse Preserve declared June 6, 2002
There are six destination wilderness lodges with private airports throughout the Caretaker area.
Xeni Gwet'in First Nation is one of six Tsilhqot'in communities. The other Tsilhqot'in communities include: Tsi Del Del (Alexis Creek Indian Band), Tl'etinqoxt'in (Anaham Indian Band), Tl'esqoxt'in (Toosey Indian Band), Yunesit'in (Stone Indian Band), and ?Esdilagh (Alexandria Indian Band). The Tsilhqot'in communities are neighboured by the Nuxalk along the Pacific Coast, the Southern Carrier to the north, Northern Secwepemc to the east and the Lillooet to the south.
Our goal is to maintain the unconquered wilderness of our traditional territory and to minimize disturbances to wildlife. We support non-motorized commercial tourism access to the back country and avoidance of key wildlife habitats.