T’Sou-ke First Nation is located 36 kilometres west of Victoria, near the town of Sooke, on the south coast of Vancouver Island. In the Nation’s SENĆOŦEN dialect, “T’Sou-ke” is the name of the Stickleback fish that lives in the estuary of the Sooke River. Contact with Europeans through the Hudson’s Bay Company saw the name changed first to “Soke” and then to “Sooke” — the anglicized version now used for the neighbouring town, river, basin and main road alike.
T’Sou-ke Nation’s traditional territory centres on Spring Salmon Place (KWL-UCHUN), the Sooke River, along with Face Mountain and Sacred Mountain, regarded as spiritual and sacred places for the T’Sou-ke people. Their territory extends across deMamiel, Charters, Ayum and Muir Creeks and the Jordan River, where the Nation’s Fisheries Program continues to steward seafood and habitat today.
T’Sou-ke Nation has become a national leader in renewable energy, recognized as the most solar-intensive community in Canada, and welcomes visitors each summer to the Spring Salmon Place Campground within Sooke Potholes Regional Park, where the Sooke River carves its pools and canyons through the Sooke Hills.
371 (as of June 2026)