Isabelle Sunrise tried hiding her tears from her daughters when they drove through the Kátł’odeeche First Nation near Hay River, N.W.T., and saw the destruction left by a wildfire.
“As I drove home yesterday for the first time, like I couldn’t keep it in, my heart sank,” she said. “I started tearing up. By the time I got home, I was kind of sobbing, but I didn’t wanna let my girls see but they heard me.”
The community was evacuated on May 14 as a wildfire burned out-of-control nearby. Days later, it engulfed part of the reserve.
The 300 KFN members spent the next
