First Nations in British Columbia and Alberta vowed to fight plans to build a new hydro dam near Fort St. John in northeastern B.C., a band chief said Monday.

The huge dam under the B.C. government's Site C project would flood a valley 80 kilometres long, as well as homes and a highway, local residents and ranchers in the Peace River area said.

Roland Wilson, chief of the West Moberly First Nation in B.C., said local First Nations are still paying the price for the two huge hydro dams the province built on the Peace River in the 1960s.

"We've lost thousands of resources with fish and wildlife," he told CBC News Monday. "Our gravesites have been submerged under water — also traditional sites and spiritual sites."

"We're saying no to Site C," he said. He did not say how the First Nations planned to fight the proposed dam.

Part of the B.C. government's green plan announced Friday included serious consideration of the massive Site C dam on the Peace River as a source of clean, cheap electricity.

First Nations in British Columbia and Alberta vowed to fight plans to build a new hydro dam near Fort St. John in northeastern B.C., a band chief said Monday.

The huge dam under the B.C. government's Site C project would flood a valley 80 kilometres long, as well as homes and a highway, local residents and ranchers in the Peace River area said.

Roland Wilson, chief of the West Moberly First Nation in B.C., said local First Nations are still paying the price for the two huge hydro dams the province built on the Peace River in the 1960s.

"We've lost thousands of resources with fish and wildlife," he told CBC News Monday. "Our gravesites have been submerged under water — also traditional sites and spiritual sites."

"We're saying no to Site C," he said. He did not say how the First Nations planned to fight the proposed dam.

Part of the B.C. government's green plan announced Friday included serious consideration of the massive Site C dam on the Peace River as a source of clean, cheap electricity. '); // ]]>

But Pat Marcel, an elder with the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in Alberta, said his people, living near the river, are also opposed to the proposed dam.

"The Peace River's going to be dammed one more time and that will totally destroy our way of life again," he said Monday.

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell has promised extensive public consultations regarding the controversial dam that will include First Nations people and the province of Alberta.