Situated on the southern shore of Turnor Lake in northern Saskatchewan, this small community sits roughly 35 miles east of La Loche and is reached from Highway 155 via Highway 909. The area carries the Woods Cree name ministiko-sâkahikanihk, and the lake itself was formerly known as Island Lake, or Lac des Isles in French. The community is made up of two distinct parts: the Northern Hamlet of Turnor Lake and Turnor Lake 193B, which belongs to the Birch Narrows Dene Nation. According to the 2021 Census, the hamlet had a population of 154 people occupying 44 of its 60 private dwellings, covering a land area of 5.07 square kilometres at a density of around 30.4 people per square kilometre. The combined population of both parts of the community was recorded at 598 in the 2011 Census.
Human presence around Birch Narrows dates back at least to 1895, when five families, roughly 25 people, were recorded living there. By 1911, a Catholic priest from La Loche, Father Penard, noted six or seven families at the location he called le Detroit du Bouleau. A chapel was constructed in 1938 by Father Ducharme, and in 1966 the residents of Clear Lake, a settlement with around 60 people in 1944, were relocated to Turnor Lake. The Birch Narrows Dene Nation holds territory across three separate sites: Turnor Lake 193B at 296.7 hectares adjoining the hamlet, Churchill Lake 193A at 159.8 hectares near the historic Clear Lake site at the junction of Churchill Lake and Frobisher Lake, and Turnor Lake 194 at approximately 2,445.9 hectares on Peter Pond Lake east of Dillon. As of June 2012, the nation had 409 members living on reserve and a further 299 off reserve, and it is affiliated with the Meadow Lake Tribal Council.