Beaver Lake Cree Nation facts for kids
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| Land | |
|---|---|
| Main reserve | Beaver Lake 131 |
| Other reserve(s) | |
| Land area | 62.42 km2 |
| Population | |
| On reserve | 398 |
| Off reserve | 776 |
| Total population | 1210 |
| Government | |
| Chief | Germaine Anderson |
| Council size | 3 |
| Tribal Council | |
| Tribal Chiefs Ventures Incorporated (fr) | |
The Beaver Lake Cree Nation is a First Nations group located about 105 kilometers (65 miles) northeast of Edmonton, Alberta. They are part of the Cree people and live near Lac La Biche, Alberta, where their main office is. Their traditional lands are covered by Treaty 6, an agreement signed a long time ago.
The Canadian government has set aside two areas of land, called reserves, for the Beaver Lake Cree Nation. These are Beaver Lake Indian Reserve No. 131 and Blue Quills First Nation Indian Reserve. The Blue Quills reserve is shared with five other First Nations groups: Cold Lake First Nations, Frog Lake First Nation, Heart Lake First Nation, Kehewin Cree Nation, and Saddle Lake Cree Nation.
The Beaver Lake Cree Nation calls themselves Nîhithaw, which means Woodland Cree or Wood Cree. They speak a dialect of the Cree language, which is part of the Algonquian language family. In 2012, their population was about 1,054 people, with many living off-reserve.
The governments of Alberta and Canada have allowed many projects, like oil and gas drilling, forestry, and mining, on the traditional lands of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation. These lands are a large part of northeast Alberta and are outside the official reserves. The Beaver Lake Cree Nation is worried about the "cumulative effect" of all these projects. This means they are concerned about how all the different developments together are harming their land.
In 2008, the Beaver Lake Cree Nation took the governments of Alberta and Canada to court. They said that by allowing so much development, the governments were breaking the promise made in Treaty 6 in 1876. This promise said the Beaver Lake Cree could "hunt, fish and trap forever" on their lands. In 2013, a court supported the Beaver Lake Cree Nation's right to challenge these developments.
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History of the Beaver Lake Cree
The Cree people slowly moved westward from the areas around Hudson Bay and James Bay. We don't know exactly when the Cree arrived in the Lac la Biche area, but old pottery found there shows they were in this region in the 1500s. This pottery, called Clearwater Lake Punctate, is believed to be from the ancestors of the Cree people. It has been found in many places, including on Amisk Lake in Saskatchewan. Amisk means "beaver" in Cree.
Life on the Fur Trade Routes
The traditional lands of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation were important stops on the old fur trade routes. These routes connected the rich Athabasca region to Hudson Bay. Explorers like David Thompson and George Simpson used the Beaver River route.
David Thompson set up a trading post on Red Deers Lake (now Lac La Biche) in 1798-99. He wrote about the Cree people, their customs, and the forest. He noted that the area had "plenteous supply of white fish and beaver." There was a lot of competition between the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company for furs.
The Cree were one of the largest Indigenous groups in Canada. Their territory stretched from the Hudson-James Bay region to the Rocky Mountains. This included the Beaver, Athabasca, and Peace River basins.
Missionaries came to Lac la Biche in 1853 and visited the Cree near Beaver Lake by 1856. The Blue Quill's Indian Residential School in Lac La Biche opened in 1862. It was one of the first residential schools in Alberta.
Treaty 6 and Land Rights
Chief Pee-Yas-See-Wah-We-Cha-Koot, also known as Pee-ay-sis, signed an agreement to Treaty 6 at Fort Pitt on September 9, 1876. He signed for the Beaver Lake Band No. 131. Through Treaty 6, the Beaver Lake Cree Nation was given reserve land. They were also given the right to hunt and fish forever on a much larger area, which was their traditional hunting grounds.
The Beaver Lake Cree Nation is concerned that about 17,000 approved oil sands projects will make it impossible for their people to hunt and fish. This would affect the 920 members of the band and future generations.
A report found that the Beaver Lake Cree Nation still practices Traditional Land Use (TLU) activities. This means they hunt, trap, fish, pick berries, and gather plants throughout their region. These lands also have important historical, cultural, and spiritual sites. Whitefish was a very important food for the Wood Cree, and they lived in areas where whitefish were plentiful, like Lac la Biche.
Chief Peayasis and the Treaty
Peayasis (1824–1899) was a chief of the Peayasis band at Lac La Biche. He was born to Joseph Ladoucoeur dit Desjarlais and Josephte Suzette Cardinal. Peayasis signed his band to Treaty 6 in 1876. However, his band did not get a reserve until 1911, when they were assigned land at Beaver Lake.
Peayasis led his band in the 1885 Métis Resistance, also known as the North-West Rebellion. After the government stopped the rebellion, some members of the Lac La Biche band were removed from lists that gave them yearly payments. This led some members to leave the treaty and seek Métis Scrip, which was a different kind of land or money grant.
Protecting Their Land: Oil Sands and the Environment
The Beaver Lake Cree Nation lives in an area rich in oil sands. This has attracted many industries. However, the Nation has strongly opposed these developments. The governments of Alberta and Canada have allowed about 300 projects, with 19,000 individual permits, for oil and gas, forestry, and mining. These projects are on the Beaver Lake Cree Nation's core traditional lands, which cover a large part of northeast Alberta.
Many environmentalists support the Beaver Lake Cree Nation's efforts to protect their treaty rights and lands from oil sands development. Environmentalist David Suzuki explained that the Beaver Lake Cree Nation's lands are very large and overlap with the oil sands. He noted that the area already has many oil and gas sites, seismic lines (paths cut for exploration), pipelines, and roads. This has broken up the wild land into small pieces, which threatens animals like the boreal woodland caribou that cannot adapt to these changes.
The Beaver Lake Cree Nation's fight against oil and gas development has been featured in the work of Naomi Klein. Her book, This Changes Everything, and the film of the same name, highlight the Beaver Lake Cree Nation's concerns about treaties, rights, pollution, and sustainability.
Legal Status: Cumulative Ecological Effects
The Beaver Lake Cree Nation is fighting the "cumulative effect" of all these projects on their traditional territory. They argue that the governments of Alberta and Canada have failed to manage the overall environmental effects. This, they say, breaks the promise in Treaty 6 that the Beaver Lake Cree could "hunt, fish and trap forever." In 2013, a court agreed that the Beaver Lake Cree Nation had the right to challenge the governments on this issue.
Most of the permits for development were given by the province of Alberta, but the federal government also gave some. The Beaver Lake Cree Nation is seeking payment for losing their hunting and fishing rights because of the "cumulative effects" of oil sands and other industries like mining and forestry.
The Beaver Lake Cree are part of a legal dispute over this development on their Treaty lands. In 2008, they made a declaration saying they are the rightful caretakers of these lands. This led to a lawsuit in 2012 against the governments of Alberta and Canada. The lawsuit claims that by allowing development without the band's permission, the governments have broken their treaty rights.
The Kétuskéno Declaration
On May 14, 2008, the Beaver Lake Cree released the "Kétuskéno Declaration." This declaration stated their role as caretakers of their traditional territories. They started a legal action to make sure their rights to hunt, trap, and fish, which are protected by the Canadian Constitution, are recognized. They also wanted to protect the environment of their lands. They said that development from oil sands, forestry, and local government was harming their 1876 treaty rights.
Friends and Supporters: The Co-operative Group
The Co-operative Group, a large business from the UK, supported the Beaver Lake Cree Nation. They had a campaign called 'Toxic Fuels' from 2008 to 2012. This campaign was against developing fossil fuels like tar sands that cause a lot of pollution. The Co-operative Group learned about the Beaver Lake Cree Nation's concerns through the 2008 Kétuskéno Declaration.
Colin Baines, a manager at The Co-operative Group, said the Beaver Lake Cree Nation's legal action was "perhaps the best chance we have to stop tar sands expansion." Their support helped make the legal challenge known around the world. The Co-operative Group helped the Chief and other members of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation travel to London in 2009. They held a protest outside the Canadian Embassy, which got a lot of media attention.
In 2009, a team from the BBC visited Beaver Lake to make a program called 'Tar Wars'. This program was shown in the UK and globally. The Co-operative Group also raised or donated over $400,000 CAD to help with the Beaver Lake Cree Nation's legal case. They also funded research on how oil sands development affects endangered woodland caribou.
UK companies like BP and Shell are very active in the Athabasca oil sands. The Co-operative Group used the Beaver Lake Cree Nation's case to raise concerns at meetings of these companies. They pointed out that local communities were being affected by pollution and habitat loss, which broke their treaty rights.
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