River meant dependence, isolation, alienation, and illness. When it became clear that the environmental impacts of the dam would render land unlivable to local Aboriginal groups who were dependent on the hereditary sites, the British Columbia government offered a settlement. For $1.7 million the British Columbia government purchased fourteen thousand acres of land, including timber and mineral rights, and bought out approximately one hundred and fifty individuals and families securing the rights to the land. Of those one hundred and fifty, roughly one third were members of the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation. Outside of relocation, Aboriginal hunting and fishing grounds around the Fort Grahame and Finlay Forks areas were severely impacted by ecological change. Many species of fish as well as mountain caribou and muskrats were no longer available for Aboriginal consumption or traditional use. These changes to First Nations independence through fur trade and the relocation of many Aboriginals to new reserves caused an influx in demand for government assistance through welfare. Between 1965 and 1970, social assistance provided by the Provincial government to Aboriginal groups in the areas surrounding the Bennett Dam increased by 300 percent. The devastating impact of the dam is documented in detail in a doctoral dissertation by Daniel Sims, a Tsay Keh Dene First Nation member. As recently as October 2008, the Kwadacha First Nation, another Aboriginal group residing in the Fort Ware area located at the north end of the Finlay Reach of Lake Williston, reached a settlement with the British Columbia government and BC Hydro over damages suffered during construction and operation of the dam and Williston Lake. The settlement included a $15 million lump-sum payment and annual payments of $1.6 million adjusted for inflation. Local residents When the government, controlled by the Social Credit Party of British Columbia, dammed the Peace River to generate hydroelectricity it had already set into motion a series of social changes in the surrounding communities. These social changes had positive effects for workers who flocked to the area to secure jobs and economic opportunities unavailable elsewhere. It also had negative effects for residents who lived in the surrounding areas prior to the dam's construction. British Columbia Premier W. A. C. Bennett saw growing communities when he envisioned the damming of the Peace River in 1952. In 1964, his vision would be validated as a result of the "instant town" of Mackenzie, where thousands of individuals