File 420-2-2
Ottawa, March 11, 1943.
TO: Mr. D. J. Allen
Report on Registered Trap Line
In Alberta
While I was in Ottawa during the latter part of December and early January, Mr. Laight was unable to see the Indians from the Lake St. Ann or Wabamun reserves as we had anticipated he would and arrange for meetings with them, and the provincial fieldmen in order that applications might be taken for registered traplines. Very few of the Indians returned to the reserves for Christmas or New Years because many of them were employed in the lumber camps and mines and as fur was bringing a good price those who were trapping remained on their lines. However when I returned to Alberta I was able to see nearly all the provincial fieldmen during January and February who are in charge of the trap line registrations in the various districts where the Indians trap. These men seemed very willing in most cases to reserve for registrations this coming summer, the stress where the Indians have been trapping for years past. They have agreed to be present at the treaty payments in July when all the Indians are assembled by bands and at that time take the applications. This would seem to be the best time to ensure a complete registration of all the Indians who are interested in trapping in the Edmonton and Saddle Lake Agencies.
During the course of my stay in Alberta – had numerous talks with Mr. Heustis the Game Commissioner and with Mr. Forsland, the Game Superintendent. The latter has always been very sympathetic toward the Indians and has done everything in his power to provide them with adequate trapping territory. The former, when I first approached him in November about Indian trap lines, did not seem to be altogether favourably inclined toward the native trapper. However, before leaving Alberta the latter part of February I believe I can report a change in the Commissioner’s attitude. For instance in the Lac La Biche district where the country is over crowded with trappers and whites have been registering comparatively large areas at the expense of the native trapper, Mr. Heustis informed me that he was going to review the situation in the area with his chief timber inspector in charge of the district, to see if more country could be made available for the native trapper, possibly by the cancellation or reduction in area or some of the white lines. I feel sure that he can now see the advisability of keeping the Indian lines in blocks or segregated from the other trappers and will be more prone to make concessions to use in order to achieve this result than her was some months ago. He would like to see us organise some groups of Indians along lines similar to the beaver trapping preserves in Quebec and Ontario and I believe would be willing to turn over some areas to us for that purpose.
There are several areas south of Lesser Slave Lake and north of, or about the same latitude as Edmonton that might lend themselves to a development of this kind. They vary in area from one hundred to a thousand square miles and most of them are rather heavily trapped at the present time. Some of them are adjacent to settled country and would
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be more or less vulnerable to poaching. None of them are large enough in themselves to warrant the employment of a full time supervisor but with the co-operation of the field staff of the provincial game branch or forestry branch a local supervisor might be employed to oversee several projects. He could have one of more of the local trappers on each preserve act under him as resident wardens or tallymen and be responsible for the observance of the game regulations.
In the Lac La Biche district an area of approximately 350 square miles immediately east of the Beaver Lake Indian Reserve would probably lend itself to the development of muskrats and beaver. This tract is well watered and includes twelve or fifteen lakes from four to twenty square miles in areas. Developed and improved with the construction of water control features this area would be capable of producing an annual crop of at least 50,000 muskrats according to reports of past performance. It was also at one time a good beaver country although at present there are very few if any beaver in the district. The area is now heavily trapped by Indians halfbreeds and whites with the result that fur of any kind is far from abundant and the individual catches have been declining in value in recent years.
The Indians from the Alexis Reserve at Lake St. Ann are divided into two groups with about twenty-five families in each group. One group has trapped north of Whitecourt for a great many years and an area of approximately 450 square miles is being held in reserve for registration for them by the local provincial timber inspector. This area is their traditional hunting ground and is drained by the Sakwatamau River and Christmas Creek flowing south to the Athabaska River. At one time it was a good beaver country and for the past two or three years due to provincial closed seasons, the beaver have been slowly increasing. Other fur has been fairly plentiful and there are several lakes on the area that have provided the Indians with fish. Muskrats are scattered and for the most part subsist in the small streams and lakes. Fire has done a considerable amount of damage in some parts of the district but there are still extensive areas of green timber, some of which are now being logged off. Beaver would undoubtedly come back into this area if given the necessary protection by the local trappers. There are a few white trappers located on the outskirts of the area but the Treaty Indians cover most of the interior although there may be a few halfbreeds trapping with them.
The country south of Chip Lake and west and north of the Pembina River has been trapped for many years by the other group of the Lake St Ann Indians. Some of the Indians from the Wabaman Reserve also trap this area but not as extensively or in as large numbers as those from Lake St. Ann because the former obtain a larger proportion of their income from farming activities than do the latter. The local provincial timber inspector is holding this area in reserve for Indian applications to be made next summer. Very few whites are in the area although they have been encroaching on the west and south sides for the past few years and restricting the native trappers’ activities to some extent. This is another district that if given protection would
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probably produce beaver in numbers much greater than it has during the past ten or fifteen years. Beaver are reported to be increasing in some parts of the district due to the closed seasons that have been in effect for several years past. Other fur is not overly plentiful but many of the Indians have been securing a part of their living by work on the farms during the summer and fall and at times in the logging camps in the winter.
Chip Lake is reported to have been an excellent rat lake some time ago but of late years has been heavily overtrapped. I was told by an old resident that in some years one could walk around the lake, which has a shore line of approximately fifty miles, by stepping from one rat house to another without ever having to touch the ice. This is probably an exaggeration but it indicates that at one time the lake was a good producer of muskrats. The water level of the lake is reported to remain fairly constant throughout the year and the level from year to year remains about the same. The lake is comparatively shallow and supports a good growth of marsh vegetation which extends out into the lake for considerable distance from the shore line. From the foregoing it would appear that the lake could again be made to produce a very substantial yearly crop of muskrats if a rigid control over the trapping was established. A dam at the outlet of the lake would improve conditions for the muskrats by flooding adjacent marshes and thereby increasing the available food supply. From fifteen to twenty thousand rats are reported to have been the annual take before the whites began to settle the adjacent country and trappers became so numerous as the have been in recent years. Many of the Indians from the Alexis and Wabamun reserves used to make the lake the scene of the spring hunt and a few of these people still secure a part of their muskrat catch from the lake.
Cooking Lake, thirty miles southeast of Edmonton is another possible muskrat and beaver development that was reported on in my memorandum dated January 5th, 1943.
In the Lesser Slave Lake Agency Constable Skeed reported two areas that might lend themselves to development. In the Birch Hills district immediately to the south of the Wood Buffalo Park is some well watered beaver country amply provided with substantial quantities of feed. Beaver are already on the increase in this district and would soon respond to an organized attempt at closer protection. Some years ago muskrats were very numerous along the lower reaches of the Wabasca River and in the sloughs and lakes located in the flat country on both sides of the river for a distance of thirty five or forty miles south from where it empties into the Peace. If these areas were worthy of development, the department could expect a considerable measure of cooperation from the province as the Game Commissioner intimated that the provincial government is anxious to assist in any project of this kind.
The non-treaty Indians at Rocky Mountain House are divided into two main groups, the Crees comprising about thirty-five or forty families with more or less permanent settlements along the Baptiste River, and the Chipawas with their main settlement of about thirty families along the Nordegg River. Another group of Chipewas, approximately twenty families, and part of the same band were located last winter in the country south west of Whitecourt. This latter
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group is under the leadership of one John O’Chese, a man well on in years and a bit of a religious fanatic who believes that he and his band have the God given right to hunt and trap at any time and at any place regardless of game regulations or closed seasons. Naturally this has caused the provincial game branch a considerable amount of grief and this particular group of Indians have been accused of cleaning out the game in several districts.
As soon as the spring farming operations commence in the settled country east of the Saskatchewan River, most of the people from the settlements along the Baptiste and Nordegg Rivers move out to the farms with their families where they are employed by the farmers from then until the harvest is competed in the fall. Then they move back to their settlements and spend the winter hunting and trapping. In recent years some of them have obtained winter employment in the lumber camps and mines.
Forty or fifty years ago the hunting and trapping range of these people covered quite an extensive area but gradually as the country to the east became settled and as forest preserves, game sanctuaries and parks were established to the north, west and south the country available to them for hunting and trapping became very restricted. Now practically all their hunting and trapping is done south of the Brazeau River and north and west of the Saskatchewan River to the east boundary of the Rocky Mountain Forest Reserve. Even this comparatively small area is being reduced in size by settlement along the north and west bank of the Saskatchewan and by encroaching white trappers south of the Brazeau River, and along the eastern boundary of the forest reserve.
In order to reserve this small remaining tract to these non-treaty Indians, the Game Commissioner has offered to include it next fall in the area open for registered trap lines with the understanding that an attempt is made this summer to have the Indians make out applications for trap lines that will pretty well blanket the area. Mr. Henry Stelfox of Rocky Mountain House is probably more familiar with the history of these people and knows them better than any other person and has acted on behalf of the Department to distribute relief to them. He can assist very materially in making out individual applications for registered line and has offered to help in any way he can.
It will probably be found that included in the Cree group there are several families of half breeds. It is also reported that there a few treaty Indians from Hobbema, Wabamun and Frog Lake in Alberta and from Battleford and Maple Creek in Saskatchewan, who are also included in this group, as well as one or two families who originated in Montana. This band is not as closely knit as the group on the Nordegg River and are, according to Stelfox, more recent arrivals in the district, although some of them have been living in the neighbourhood of the Baptiste River for the past forty or fifty years. The height of land between the Baptiste and Nordegg Rivers acts as the dividing line between the Cree and Chipawa hunting grounds with the Crees keeping to the south side of this line.
The Chipawas have made the Nordegg and Brazeau Rivers their headquarters for a good many generations, some reports indicating that these people have lived in this district for the past two or three hundred years. They have not mixed much with the Crees on the Baptiste and on
Indian Affairs. (RG 10, Volume 6733, file 420-2-2 2)
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the whole keep pretty well to themselves. Some years ago before the country between the Brazeau and the Pembina Rivers was made an elk preserve, the Chipawas hunted and trapped over this district as far east as the Saskatchewan River and west to the east boundary of the Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve. They were forced out of this country when it was made an elk preserve and have since confined their hunting and trapping activities to the area south of the Brazeau and north of the height of land between the Nordegg and Baptiste Rivers. This has left them very little available trapping country which has been further decreased by several white trappers moving in among them.
These intruding white trappers have established themselves within the last three or four years so that no difficulty is anticipated in establishing the Indian’s prior rights to registration. Mr. Huestis has assured me that in the case of a white trap line being registered in Indian country, if the Indian’s prior right to the line can be established, the white line will be cancelled and the Indian given his registrations.
Probably a great many of the lines now registered to whites and in some cases those registered to halfbreeds, if reviewed would be found to be encroaching on traditional Indian hunting ground. The sooner these encroachments are discovered the easier they will be to adjust to the satisfaction of the Indian trapper. Many of the white trappers are making improvements to their lines, building cabins, cutting trails and in some cases putting in small dams, The more improvements of this kind a trapper has made on a line, the more difficult it will be to move him.
In the Lesser Slave Lake Agency, Constable Skeed is in a position to look after these encroachments and with the help of the provincial fieldmen will see that the Indian rights are protected. In many cases the Indian who has lost country to encroaching whites will not complain on his own accord but rather will simply crowd into country being trapped by members of his own bands. This has been customary for many years past and is one of the reasons that the native trapper is in such a bad way today as far as available trapping country is concerned.
In the Saddle Lake and Edmonton Agencies the agents necessarily must give most of their attention to the Indians on the reserves where farming and stock raising are the principle sources of revenue. The Indians who depend almost entirely upon trapping for a livelihood are living at some distance from the agent’s headquarters and he is unable to keep in very close touch with them because of his other duties. They are the ones who are suffering most from restricted trapping areas and who need closer supervision for the protection of their trapping interests. Practically every Indian trap line in these two agencies should be reviewed while the province is willing to make adjustments and before encroaching white trappers become too firmly established.
None of the Indians in Edmonton agency has secured any registered trap lines as yet and when the applications are made out next summer it will be possible to include their traditional tapping grounds in the original applications. Several white trappers have already registered over some of this country but with the help and co-operation
Indian Affairs. (RG 10, Volume 6733, file 420-2-2 2)
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of the provincial fieldmen it should be possible to secure an adequate amount of trapping ground for most of these people.
Fifteen or twenty Indians in the Saddle Lake Agency have already secured their registered line but only two or three of these have been able to obtain enough country or their traditional territory to insure them a satisfactory income from fur and game. All the others who have secured registered lines have been crowded into areas that only average about twenty square miles per trapper, which is entirely too small an area upon which an Indian can support himself and his family from the revenue he receives from fur and game. Mr. Huestis has promised to review the lines in this district and before the trapping season opens next fall, at least some of these people should have a better opportunity to trap than they did last winter.
An opportunity is afforded at the present time when there is a scarcity of manpower in the lumber camps and minds all the way across Canada, as well as the demand for men in the armed services and in munition work, to press the claims of the native trapper for more trapping country and to weed out some of the able bodied white trappers who are comparative newcomers to Indian territory, and put them to work at more useful and necessary employment.
If, under intelligent supervision, the taking of fur was left almost entirely to the native trapper with a minimum of interreference from white trappers, very definite benefits would secure to the supply of fur and fame throughout the country. It is a well established fact that the native trapper when free from competition by white trappers or intruding native trappers from other districts, is by nature a conservationist. He will not intentionally clean out the fur and game from his area but will always leave enough seed stock to provide for the future. It is only when he has been forced by circumstances over which has had no control that his country has become depleted of fur and game.
A great deal of work remains to be done in Alberta before the Indians become firmly established on registered lines that are extensive enough to provide them with a sufficient amount of fur with which to support themselves and their families in a state of comparative comfort. As previously stated many of the lines now registered should be reviewed in order to ascertain whether the Indian trapper has been provided with his traditional hunting ground or whether this ground has been pre-empted by white trappers.
It appears evident to the writer from his experience of the past four months in Alberta, and this also applies to Saskatchewan and Manitoba as well when they adopt a comprehensive policy of registered trap lines, that a representative of this department who is familiar with conditions under which the Indian has to earn his living by hunting and trapping should be in close touch with the provincial game and forestry branches and their field staffs. Under the present policy of Alberta government, decisions made by the head office of the game branch or based on recommendations made by the fieldmen regarding the justness of a
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trapper's claim to territory. Unless there is someone to put forward the Indian side of the case in an argument with a white trapper, the former is very liable to lose out regardless of the merits of his claim, because in most cases the more aggressive white trapper is better able to make a convincing plea.
I would, therefore recommend that a qualified representative of this department should be present when the annuity payments are being made in June and July in the Onion Lake, Edmonton and Saddle Lake Agencies. In most places representatives of the provincial field staff of the game branch will be in attendance and application for registered trap lines and areas for the Indian will be taken at that time. After these meetings have been completed the department’s representative should proceed to Rocky Mountain House and in co-operation with Mr. Henry Stelfox and the local provincial fieldmen, organize the non-treaty Indians of this district on registered lines in the area suggested by the Game Commissioner.
J.L. Grew
J. L. Grew
Indian Affairs. (RG 10, Volume 6733, file 420-2-2 2)
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