Aboriginal Communities in the Regional Municipality of Wood

Buffalo today

Mikisew Cree First Nation (MCFN)

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN)

Fort McKay First Nation

Fort McMurray 468 First Nation

Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation (CPDFN)

2

First Nations

3

Métis Locals

Local 125

Local 63

Local 1935 and 2020

Local 780

Local 214

Local 193

4

Fort McKay First Nation • Chief: Jim Boucher

• Fort McKay residents are of Dene, Cree and Métis ancestry (FMFN 1994). The Dene living in Fort McKay are closely related to K’ai tailé Dene in Fort Chipewyan and other Dene peoples in the Athabasca region (Coutu and Hoffman-Mercredi 2002). With the addition of 9,308 ha of Treaty Land Entitlement reserve lands in 2006, Fort McKay First Nation now has seven reserves (INAC website 2006b). Reserve lands are located across the river from and surrounding the community of Fort McKay. Two reserves are located in the Birch Mountains along the shores of Buffalo (Namur) and Moose (Gardiner) Lakes. In December 2007, Fort McKay had 630 registered members, with about half of them living off reserve (INAC website 2006a).

• http://www.ramp-alberta.org/people/aboriginal/aboriginal+communities+today.aspx

5

Mikisew Cree First Nation

• Chief: Steve Courtoreille

• Mikisew Cree First Nation is the largest First Nation in the RMWB with over 2,500 registered members. MCFN has nine reserves located north of Lake Athabasca and in the Peace-Athabasca Delta. The most populated reserves are the Dog Head and Allison Bay reserves near Fort Chipewyan, AB. Two other sizable reserves are located at Peace Point on the Peace River, and on the Athabasca River near the southeast corner of Wood Buffalo National Park (INAC website 2006a, MCFN website 1999).

• http://www.ramp-alberta.org/people/aboriginal/aboriginal+communities+today.aspx

6

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation

• Chief: Allan Adam

• The K’ái tailé Dene became Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation with the signing of Treaty 8 in 1899. ACFN Chief Laviolette made the first formal request that reserve lands be set aside for the exclusive use of ACFN members in 1922 (ICC 1998a). It was not until 1954 that ACFN IR 201 was “officially established” (ICC 1998a). ACFN currently has eight reserves in the Athabasca Delta and on the south shore of Lake Athabasca.

• http://www.ramp-alberta.org/people/aboriginal/aboriginal+communities+today.aspx

7

Fort McMurray 468

• Chief: Ronald Kreutzer

• Fort McMurray First Nation traces its ancestry to the Woodland and Plains Cree and also the Chipewyan and Beaver people of Alberta (FMcFN 2006). Fort McMurray First Nation signed adhesion to Treaty 8 in 1899, after which time the band was referred to as the “Cree-Chipewyan Band of Fort McMurray”. The band has four reserves. The Clearwater Reserve is located about 20 km east of Fort McMurray. The other three are located near Anzac on Gregoire Lake, approximately 50 km southeast of Fort McMurray. Gregoire Lake Reserve is the largest and most populated. The majority of Fort McMurray First Nation band members (68 percent) live off-reserve in Fort McMurray.

8

Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation

• Chief: Vern Janvier

• Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation is comprised of Athabascan (Dene) speaking people who live in the community of Janvier situated 100 km southeast of Fort McMurray. Many of the original families who formed this community came from the Garson Lake and Lac La Loche area of Saskatchewan. This First Nation has three reserves located in Janvier, on Cowper Lake and on Winefred Lake. About 300 members currently live on the reserve in Janvier. Chipewyan Prairie was the last band to sign Treaty 8 in 1922 (Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation 2005).

9

Métis

• The RMWB lies within MNA Regions I and V, and includes:

– Métis Local 125 (Fort Chipewyan)

– Métis Local 63 (Fort McKay)

• Population approx. 80

– Métis Local 1935 and 2020 (both in Fort McMurray)

• Population of 1935: Approx. 300 members

– Métis Local 780 (Anzac)

– Métis Local 214 (Janvier)

– Métis Local 193 (Conklin)

Treaty 8 - Introduction

First negotiated in late June 1899, Treaty 8 embraced an area in northwestern Canada of some 840,000 square kilometres -- more than three and a half times the size of Great Britain. At the time, it was not only the largest land settlement undertaken by the Canadian government with First Nations, but also the first to recognize that the "aboriginal title" of Indians and Métis are co-existent.

Although the original treaty is now a century old, its impact on the daily lives of First Nations and Métis peoples is no less significant than on the day it was first signed. Treaty 8 is very much a living document. It provides the basis for continuing relations between Natives of the Athabasca and the rest of Canada.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/treaty8/index-e.html

Treaty 8 - Purpose

Since Confederation in 1867, the Canadian government had pursued a policy of recognizing Native land claims only when the lands they occupied were required for settlement or development. The Athabasca region in Canada's northwestern interior was no exception. For more than two centuries, British and Canadian parties had explored the region and carefully inventoried its natural resources. Such was their diligence that, by the late 1880s, the federal government was well aware of the extent of the tar sands and was calling the petroleum field "inexhaustible" and "the most extensive ... in America, if not the world."

Reports of destitute Natives in the northwest were circulating around Ottawa for more than 20 years following Confederation. However, federal authorities only began to show an interest in settling the land claims of Athabasca's First Nations and Métis in the late 1890s. The government's change of heart coincided with the discovery of gold in the Yukon.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/treaty8/index-e.html

Treaty 8 – Making the Treaty

"Aboriginal title," wrote David Laird, the chairman of the Treaty 8 Commission, "is simply an admission that the Indians should not be deprived of their occupation rights without compensation and their formal consent."

Laird was in effect summing up a body of British law first laid out by King George III in his Royal Proclamation of 1763: "If at any Time any of the said Indians should be inclined to dispose of the said Lands the same shall be Purchased ... at some public Meeting or Assembly of the said Indians."

The compensation paid by the government during the first year of treaty negotiations for the surrender of Athabasca totalled more than $300,000. In return, the Commission enrolled 2,217 Indians under the terms of the Treaty and distributed scrip to 1,243 Métis.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/treaty8/index-e.html

Treaty 8 – Issues

The federal government had a good knowledge of the extent of Athabasca's natural resources at the time of treaty signing, but knew next to nothing about the customs and manners of the First Nations in the area. The Treaty Commissioners were not even sure where Native communities would be located or how many people they might expect to enter into treaty or take scrip.

Unfortunately, despite promises made by the Commissioners during the treaty negotiations, the government's main interest in the Athabasca has changed little over the last century. Most of its attention has focused on the economic integration of the region, often at the expense of the Native community even if it meant breaking its Treaty commitments.

Archival records document the government's on-going commitments to the Treaty, its changes in Treaty policy and its interpretation of the Treaty's terms.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/treaty8/index-e.html