Notes

notes to introduction

1. 1 Indian Claims Commission, Inquiry into the Treaty Land Entitlement Claim of the Fort McKay First Nation (1995). http://iportal.usask.ca/docs/ICC/FortMckayEng.pdf.

2. 2 Tom Flanagan provides details regarding Fort McKay First Nation’s financial successes over the period in The Community Capitalism of the Fort McKay First Nation: A Case Study (Vancouver: Fraser Institute, 2018).

3. 3 For more on the Alberta government’s consultation policy, see Fort McKay Métis Nation, “The Fort McKay Métis Nation Position Paper on Consultation and Self Government” (Fort McKay: Fort McKay Métis Nation, 2021). This position paper by the Fort McKay Métis Nation Council is reproduced as an appendix in this book, which can be found on page 149. Also see Neil Reddekopp, “Theory and Practice in the Government of Alberta’s Consultation Policy,” Constitutional Forum 22, no. 1 (2013); Heather Devine, “The Alberta Dis-Advantage: Métis Issues and the Public Discourse in Wild Rose Country,” London Journal of Canadian Studies 26 (2010–11): 26–62.

4. 4 A good description of the different court decisions affecting Alberta Métis harvesters from the time is found in Devine, “The Alberta Dis-Advantage.”

5. 5 To learn more about Indigenous housing and homelessness, see Jesse Thistle, Indigenous Definition of Homelessness in Canada (Toronto: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press, 2017). Also see Peter Fortna, “How Much Longer? A Preliminary Assessment of Homelessness in Conklin, Alberta,” 2018, http://www.willowspringsss.com/blog/how-much-longer-homelessness-in-conklin-alberta.

6. 6 Many of these issues are described in Willow Springs Strategic Solutions, “2012 Fort McKay Métis Community Housing Needs Assessment,” (Fort McKay: Fort McKay Métis Community, 2012).

7. 7 Raffy Boudjikanian, “Breaking New Ground: Métis in Alberta Buy Their Land From Province For 1^st Time in Canada,” CBC News, March 28, 2018, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/metis-land-purchase-mckay-alberta-1.4596299.

8. 8 Bonita Lawrence, “Real” Indians and Others: Mixed-Blood Urban Native Peoples and Indigenous Nationhood, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004); Pamala D. Palmater, Beyond Blood: Rethinking Indigenous Identity, (Saskatoon: Purich Publishing Limited, 2011)

9. 9 A selection of these reports can be found at www.willowspringsss.com.

10. 10 It is important to note that the Alberta government did not publicly clarify how a Métis community might be recognized in the eyes of the government until late 2019 when it made its “Métis Credible Assertion: Process and Criteria” public. Alberta, Métis Credible Assertion: Process and Criteria, December 13, 2019, updated in 2023, https://open.alberta.ca/publications/metis-credible-assertion-process-and-criteria.

11. 11 For example, see Chris Andersen, Métis: Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Peoplehood (Vancouver: UBC Press 2014).

12. 12 Lavoie, “The Right to be Heard,” 1215–1219.

13. 13 Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation of Alberta Local #125 v. Alberta, 2016 ABQB 713.

14. 14 Lavoie, “The Right to Be Heard,” 1213.

15. 15 Alberta, “Credible Assertion.”

16. 16 Alberta, “Métis Organization Establishes Right to Consultation,” 13 February 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200929224333/https://ibftoday.ca/ab-government-metis-organization-establishes-right-to-consultation//

17. 17 Métis Nation of Alberta, “Ratified Constitution of the Otipemisiwak Government,” November 22, 2022. https://albertametis.com/app/uploads/2023/09/Otipemisiwak_Metis_Government_Constitution.pdf.

18. 18 Robert Alexander Innes, Elder Brother and the Law of the People (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba, 2013); Robert Alexander Innes, “Multicultural Bands on the Northern Plans and the Notion of ‘Tribal’ Histories,” in Finding a Way to the Heart: Feminist Writings on Aboriginal and Women’s History in Canada, eds., Robin Jarvis Brownlie and Valerie J. Korinek (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2012). Also see Brenda L. Gunn, “Defining Métis People as a People: Moving Beyond the Indian/Metis Dichotomy,” Dalhousie Law Journal 38 (2015) 2: 413–46; Patricia Sawchuk, “The Creation of a Non-Status Indian Population in Alberta: The Interchangeability of Status of Métis and Indians and its Effects on Future Métis Claims,” in Métis Association of Alberta, Origins of the Alberta Métis: Land Claims Research Project, 1978–79 (Edmonton: Métis Association of Alberta, March 30, 1979); Trudy Nicks, “Mary Anne’s Dilemma: The Ethnohistory of an Ambivalent Identity,” Canadian Ethnic Studies 12, no. 2 (1985): 103–14. Trudy Nicks and Kenneth Morgan, “Grande Cache: The Historic Development of an Indigenous Métis Population,” in The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Métis in North America, eds. Jacqueline Peterson and Jennifer S.H. Brown (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1985). This topic is dealt with more fully in the manuscript’s epilogue and appendix.

19. 19 Kenichi Matsui and Arthur J. Ray, “Delimiting Métis Economic Communities in the Environs of Ft McMurray: A Preliminary Analysis Based on Hudson’s Bay Company Records,” in Fort McMurray: Historic and Contemporary Rights-Bearing Métis Community, Tim Clark, Dermot O’Connor, and Peter Fortna (Fort McMurray: McMurray Métis, 2015); Nicole St-Onge, “Early Forefathers to the Athabasca Métis: Long-Term North West Company Employees,” in The Long Journey Home of a Forgotten People: Métis Identities & Family Histories, ed. Ute Lischke and David T. McNab (Waterloo: Sir Wilfred Laurier Press, 2010); Stantec, A Historical Profile of the Northeast Alberta Area’s Mixed European–Indian or Mixed European–Inuit Ancestry Community (Ottawa: Department of Justice, 2005).

20. 20 For example, see David Leonard and Beverly Whalen, eds., On the North Trail: The Treaty 8 Diary of O.C. Edwards (Edmonton: Alberta Records and Publication Board, 1998), 53. For additional context, see Patricia McCormack, Fort Chipewyan and the Shaping of Canadian History, 1788–1920s (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2010), 16–17. See also Patricia A. McCormack, “How the (North) West Was Won: Development and Underdevelopment in the Fort Chipewyan Region” (PhD diss., University of Alberta, 1984).

21. 21 Gerhard Ens, “Taking Treaty 8 Scrip, 1899–1900: A Quantitative Portrait of Northern Alberta Métis Communities,” in Treaty 8 Revisited: Selected Papers of the 1999 Centennial Conference, ed. Duff Crerar and Jaroslav Petryshyn (Grand Prairie: Grand Prairie Regional College, 1999–2000), 252. See also Neil Reddekopp and Patricia Bartko, “Distinction without a Difference? Treaty and Scrip in 1899” in Treaty 8 Revisited, 213–28; Reddekopp, “Research Summary”; Trudy Nicks, “Mary Anne’s Dilemma.”

22. 22 J. R. Miller, “From Riel to the Metis,” Canadian Historical Review 96, no. 1 (1988): 19. For more about the multiculturalism and Indigenous communities in the West, see Robert Alexander Innes, “Multicultural Bands on the Northern Plans and the Notion of ‘Tribal’ Histories” in Finding a Way to the Heart: Feminist Writings on Aboriginal and Women’s History in Canada, eds. Robin Jarvis Brownlie and Valerie J. Korinek (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2012).

23. 23 Ian McKay, “The Liberal Order Framework: A Prospectus for a Reconnaissance of Canadian History,” Canadian Historical Review 4, no. 81 (December 2000): 620.

24. 24 McKay, “The Liberal Order Framework,” 636–37. This desire to exert control over new territories is also described by Patricia McCormack as “internal colonialism” where Indigenous sovereignty is challenged and ultimately overcome by a dominating state. See “Canadian Nation-building: A Pretty Name for Internal Colonialism. Presented at Nation Building, British Association for Canadian Studies 25th Annual Conference, April 11–14, 2000, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Also see Damien Short, “Reconciliation and the Problem of Internal Colonialism,” Journal Intercultural Studies 26, no. 3 (August 2005): 267–82.

25. 25 Patrick Wolfe, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native,” Journal of Genocide Research 8, no. 4 (2006). Also see Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 1998); Lorenzo Veracini, Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010).  For Canadian context see Cole Harris, A Bounded Land: Reflections on Settler Colonialism in Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2020).

26. 26 Allan Greer, “Settler Colonialism and Beyond,” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 30 (2020): 61–86. Also see the articles in Extracting Home in the Oil Sands: Settler Colonialism and Environmental Change in Subarctic Canada, eds. Clinton N. Westman, Tara L. Joly, and Lena Gross (London and New York: Routledge, 2020).

27. 27 For an excellent discussion of the uses and limits of genealogical data, see Heather Devine, The People Who Own Themselves: Aboriginal Ethnogenesis in a Canadian Family, 1660–1900 (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2004). Also see Brenda Macdougall, One of the Family: Métis Culture in Nineteenth-Century Northwestern Saskatchewan (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2010); Emilie Pigeon, Nicole St-Onge, and Brenda Macdougall, “A Social Network of Hunters?: Métis Mobility and New Approaches in History” (Canadian Historical Association, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/12366703/A_Social_Network_of_Hunters_Metis_Mobility_and_New_Methodological_Approaches_in_History.

28. 28 Gerhard Ens and Joe Sawchuk, From New People to New Nations: Aspects of Métis History and Identity from the Eighteenth to Twenty-First Centuries (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016), 131–32.

29. 29 This process seems to mirror those described by Robert Alexander Innes in Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan, where a broad array of Indigenous people came together to form the Band. He effectively argues that all-encompassing “tribal histories” tend to downplay the multicultural nature of his Nation (as well as others) and fails to appreciate the fluidity that existed in the West before the treaties. See Robert Alexander Innes, Elder Brother and the Law of the People: Contemporary Kinship and Cowessess First Nation (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2013); Robert Alexander Innes, “Multicultural Bands on the Northern Plans and the Notion of ‘Tribal’ Histories,” in Finding a Way to the Heart: Feminist Writings on Aboriginal and Women’s History in Canada, eds. Robin Jarvis Brownlie and Valerie J. Korinek (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2012).

30. 30 Fort McKay Tribal Administration, “From Where We Stand: Traditional Land Use and Occupancy Study of the Fort McKay First Nation” (Fort McKay: Fort McKay Tribal Administration, 1983); James N. Tanner, C. Cormack Gates, and Bertha Ganter, Some Effects of Oil Sands Development on the Traditional Economy of Fort McKay (Fort McKay: Fort McKay Industrial Relations Corporation, 2001). For a broader discussion on the concept, see John Lutz, Makuk: A New History of Aboriginal–White Relations (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2009); Liam Haggarty, “Métis Welfare: A History of Economic Exchange in Northwest Saskatchewan, 1770–1870,” Saskatchewan History 61, no. 2 (2009): 7–17; Liam Haggarty, “Sharing and Exchange in Northwest Saskatchewan,” in Métis in Canada: History, Identity, Law, & Politics, ed. Christopher Adams, Gregg Dahl, and Ian Peach (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2013); Clark, O’Connor, and Fortna, “Fort McMurray: Historic and Contemporary Rights-Bearing Métis Community.”

31. 31 Dawn Balazs, “A Short Analysis of the Transfer of Natural Resources to Alberta in 1930 and a Preliminary Study of the Registered Trapline System,” (Treaty and Aboriginal Rights Research of the Indian Association of Alberta, March 1976).

32. 32 James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998) 4. For Canadian context, see Tina Loo, “High Modernism, Conflict, and the Nature of Change in Canada: A Look at Seeing Like a State,” Canadian Historical Review 1, no. 97 (March 2016); Tina Loo, “Disturbing the Peace: Environmental Change and the Scales of Justice on a Northern River,” Environmental History, Special Issue on Canada (October 2007); and Tina Loo, Moved by the State: Forced Relocation and Making a Good Life in Postwar Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019).

33. 33 Clinton N. Westman, Tara L. Joly, and Lena Gross, “Introduction: At Home in the Oil Sands,” in Extracting Home in the Oil Sands: Settler Colonialism and Environmental Change in Subarctic Canada eds. Clinton N. Westman, Tara L. Joly, and Lena Gross (London and New York: Routledge, 2020), 13. Also see John Sandlos and Arn Keeling, “Introduction: The Complex Legacy of Mining in Northern Canada,” in Mining and Communities in Northern Canada: History, Politics, and Memory, eds. John Sandlos, and Arn Keeling (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2015).

34. 34 Compare with Tina Loo, “Disturbing the Peace: Environmental Change and the Scales of Justice on a Northern River,” Environmental History, Special Issue on Canada (October 2007).

35. 35 For example, see “Fort McKay Community files,” PAA, ACC GR1979.0152, box 16, item 217.

36. 36 Patricia McCormack, Fort Chipewyan and the Shaping of Canadian History, 1788–1920s (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2010), 16–17. See also Patricia A. McCormack, “How the (North) West Was Won: Development and Underdevelopment in the Fort Chipewyan Region” (PhD diss., University of Alberta, 1984); James M. Parker, Emporium of the North: Fort Chipewyan and the Fur Trade to 1835 (Saskatoon: Canadian Plains Research Centre, 1987.

37. 37 Trudy Nicks and Kenneth Morgan, “Grande Cache: The Historic Development of an Indigenous Métis Population,” in The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Métis in North America, ed. Jacqueline Peterson and Jennifer S. H. Brown (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1985), 177.

38. 38 Nicks and Morgan, “Grande Cache,” 177.

39. 39 For a broader discussion about how oral history can be used in community-based history see Clark, O’Connor, and Fortna, “Fort McMurray: Historic and Contemporary Rights-Bearing Métis Community,” 10–12. For more on the role of oral history in decolonization, see Julie Cruikshank, “Oral Tradition and Oral History: Reviewing Some Issues,” Canadian Historical Review 75, no. 3 (1994): 403–18; P. Leavy, Oral History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011); and P. Thompson, The Voice of the Past: Oral History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). For epistemological, methodological, and legal debates regarding oral history and its uses, see Arthur J. Ray, Telling It to the Judge: Taking Native History to Court (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012). Also see A. Hoffman, “Reliability and Validity in Oral History,” in Oral History, ed. D. K. Dunaway and W. K. Baum (Plymouth: Altamira Press, 1984); Thompson, The Voice of the Past; Signa Daum Shanks, “Mamiskotamaw: Oral History, Indigenous Method, and Canadian Law in Three Books,” Indigenous Law Journal 3 (Fall 2004): 181–92; T. L. Charlton, L. E. Meyers, and R. Sharpless, History of Oral History: Foundations and Methodology (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007); and Leavy, Oral History.

40. 40 Craig Campbell, Alice Boucher, Mike Evans, Emma Faichney, Howard LaCorde, and Zachary Powder, Mihkwâkamiwi sîpîsis: Stories and Pictures from Métis Elders in Fort McKay (Edmonton: Canadian Circumpolar Institute, 2005), https://archive.org/details/uap_9781772122091.

41. 41 Fort McKay Tribal Administration, “From Where We Stand: Traditional Land Use and Occupancy Study of the Fort McKay First Nation” (Fort McKay: Fort McKay Tribal Administration, 1983); Fort McKay First Nations, There Is Still Survival Out There: A Traditional Land Use and Occupancy Study of the Fort McKay First Nations (Edmonton: Arctic Institute of North America, 1994). See also the earlier study, Edward W. Van Dyke, “Lives in Transition: The Ft. McKay Case” (Ponoka: Applied Research Associates Ltd., 1978).

42. 42 Fort McKay Industrial Relations Corporation, “Fort McKay Specific Assessment,” 2010, 1, https://fmsd.knowledgekeeper.ca/sites/default/files/fortmckay_home/documents/Fort%20McKay%20Specific%20Assessment%20-%20Final.zip.

43. 43 Human Environment Group (HEG), “Teck Frontier Mine Project: Fort McKay Métis Integrated Cultural Assessment” (Fort McKay: Fort McKay Métis Sustainability Centre, 2016), https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/5da3a4f0-f982-4f8e-af9b-cb00c39fb165/resource/5ef5883f-c8ca-43f0-a553-183aa9d35ee8/download/fort-mckay-metis-ica-final-march-4-2016.pdf.

44. 44 Fort McKay Industrial Relations Corporation, “The Fort McKay Cultural Heritage Assessment Baseline Pre-Development (1960s) to Current (2008), prepared as part of the Fort McKay Specific Assessment” (Fort McKay: Fort McKay Industrial Relations Corporation, 2010), https://fmsd.knowledgekeeper.ca/sites/default/files/fortmckay_home/documents/CHA%20Baseline.pdf. See also James N. Tanner, C. Cormack Gates, and Bertha Ganter, Some Effects of Oil Sands Development on the Traditional Economy of Fort McKay (Fort McKay: Fort McKay Industrial Relations Corporation, 2001).

45. 45 This is one of the reasons I have chosen to publish this book with the University of Calgary Press where it is available to download for anyone with interest in the work.

46. 46 Unless directly quoted, the author has chosen to use “Fort McKay” throughout the document instead of “Fort MacKay,” which is often used in official government documentation. This is because the community prefers the former spelling, and they are working with other levels of government to standardize this in all official correspondence. A detailed explanation of the spelling of Fort McKay can be found in Neil G. Reddekopp, “Post-1915 Additions to the Membership of the Fort McKay Band,” December 1994 (Indian Claims Commission, Inquiry into the Treaty Land Entitlement Claim of the Fort McKay First Nation, Exhibit 18, fn 2). For information on the community’s modern desire to change the name to “Fort McKay” in all government correspondence, see Shari Narine, “Request Made to Change Spelling of Fort MacKay,” Alberta Sweetgrass 19, no. 10 (2012), https://ammsa.com/publications/alberta-sweetgrass/request-made-change-spelling-fort-mackay.

notes to Chapter 1

1. 1 Nicole St-Onge, “Early Forefathers to the Athabasca Métis: Long-Term North West Company Employees,” in The Long Journey of a Forgotten People: Métis Identities & Family Histories, eds. Ute Lischke and David T. McNab (Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier Press, 2007), 109; Duckworth, “Introduction,” The English River Book.

2. 2 For a general history of the fur trade, see Arthur J. Ray, Indians and the Fur Trade: Their Role as Trappers, Hunters, and Middlemen in the Lands Southwest of Hudson Bay (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974).

3. 3 James M. Parker, Emporium of the North: Fort Chipewyan and the Fur Trade to 1835 (Saskatoon: Canadian Plains Research Centre, 1987).

4. 4 St-Onge, “Early Forefathers,” 109.

5. 5 McCormack, Fort Chipewyan.

6. 6 Michael Forsman, “The Archaeology of Fur Trade Sites in the Athabasca District,” in Proceedings of the Fort Chipewyan and Fort Vermilion Bicentennial Conference: September 23–25, 1988, eds. Patricia A. McCormack and R. Geoffrey Ironside (Edmonton: Boreal Institute for Northern Studies, 1990), 75–80.

7. 7 Forsman, “The Archaeology of Fur,” 75–80.

8. 8 Forsman, “The Archaeology of Fur,” 75–80.

9. 9 Forsman, “The Archaeology of Fur,” 75–80.

10. 10 Fort Chipewyan [Wedderburn] District Report, 1819-20, HBCA, B e/4: 6-7 as cited in Matsui and Ray, 23.

11. 11 Fort Chipewyan Report District Report [for Athabasca], 1885, HBCA B 39/e/11: 5.

12. 12 Matsui and Ray, 31–2.

13. 13 According to the Archives of Manitoba, “Fort McKay Started as an outpost of Fort McMurray, and was first called Little Red River. It was established at least by 1895.” This record is permanently available at the following URL: http://pam.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/PAM_AUTHORITY/AUTH_DESC_DET_REP/SISN%201842?sessionsearch. Mention of the Little Red River post in the Fort Chipewyan Post Journal is found dating to at least 1885. See Ft Chipewyan Report District Report [for Athabasca], 1885, HBCA B 39/e/11: 5. This is also cited in Matsui and Ray, 34.

14. 14 Ernest Voorhis, “Historic Forts and Trading Posts of the French Regime and the English Fur Trading Companies” (Ottawa: Department of the Interior, National Development Bureau, 1930): 131–32.

15. 15 Archives of Manitoba, “Keystone Archives Descriptive Database: Fort McKay.”

16. 16 “Local,” The Edmonton Bulletin, October 26, 1899, 5.

17. 17 Voorhis, 131. It is important to note that the “Little Red River” that would become Fort McKay should not be confused with the better known Little Red River on the Peace River west of Wood Buffalo National Park.

18. 18 Ft Chipewyan Report District Report [for Athabasca], 1885, HBCA B 39/e/11: 5. This is also cited in Matsui and Ray, 34.

19. 19 It is unclear how successful the HBC post was in the face of the growing competition, but it is known that by 1896, Inspector Jarvis identified at least two competitors permanently operating at Little Red River. A. M. Jarvis, “Appendix L. Police Patrol, Athabasca District, Winter of 1896–97, North-West Mounted Police, Office of the Commissioner, Regina, 21 December, 1896,” in Report of the Commissioner of the North-West Mounted Police, 1897 (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1898), 160.

20. 20 McCormack, Fort Chipewyan, 147.

21. 21 McCormack, Fort Chipewyan, 147. Despite Cree being the most commonly spoken language, people in Fort McKay still spoke Dené well into the twentieth century. As noted, many in Fort McKay continued to speak Cree, Dené, English, and French until at least the 1960s. For example, Ernie Lacorde remembers that his father, Isadore Lacorde, spoke “English, French, Cree, and Chipewyan” in the community and sometimes acted as an interpreter for the RCMP. Author Unknown, “The Hardships of Bush Life: Interview with Ernie Lacorde,” Fort McMurray Today, 1978. Similarly, Emma Faichney confirms that although she had Cree and Chipewyan ancestors, they all learned to speak Cree as the primary language. Campbell et al., 45.

22. 22 James G. E. Smith, “Western Woods Cree,” in Subarctic 6, June Helm, editor, Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institute, 1981): 259. Also see James G. E. Smith, “Chipewyan” in Subarctic, vol. 6, June Helm, editor, Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institute, 1981: 276.

23. 23 FMTC, From Where We Stand, 84; Matsui and Ray, 35–6.

24. 24 For example, Louis Boucher explains that at the time of Treaty everyone at Fort McKay spoke “Cree, Chipewyan and English.” See Louis Boucher, “Treaty and Aboriginal Rights Research Interview,” February 6, 1974. http://hdl.handle.net/10294/1371. While Louis remembers only the three languages, French was also spoken by many in the community. Alice Boucher, born 1920, described her mother as “French Metis,” and Isidore Lacorde, born 1882, spoke “Cree, Chipewyan, French and English.” See Campbell et. al., 31; “Interview with Ernie Lacorde.”

25. 25 Matsui and Ray, 31–4.

26. 26 29d-30 and 22d-23, HBC Archives, F.2/1. Duckworth, “Appendix B: Biographies of Voyagers and Traders,” 137–38.

27. 27 St-Onge, 132–33.

28. 28 The HBCA biographical sheets list Jean Baptiste Boucher, another man of mixed ancestry born in Rupert’s Land. He worked first for the North West Company but signed a contract with HBC in 1822, shortly after the two companies amalgamated. Perhaps he and Joseph Wakan Bouché were brothers. Hudson’s Bay Company Biographical Sheet, “Jean Baptiste Boucher,” 1789–1849. https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/_docs/hbca/biographical/b/boucher_jean-baptiste.pdf. It is also possible that Jean and Joseph were children of François Bouché and Jean-Marie Bouché, though the author has yet to find official documentation demonstrating this fact.

29. 29 St-Onge, 132–3.

30. 30 Fort McMurray Journal, HBCA B.307/a/2, 16 Jan 1882.

31. 31 Charlot [Charles] and Chrysostome are listed in the 1881 Census of Canada, The North West Territories, 192, Athabasca T – Fort McMurray, Page 7, Household 30. Note that the page included those living at Little Red River as it was considered an outpost of Fort McMurray.

32. 32 The English River Book, the Account Book, 63d, HBC Archives, F.2/1, 36Ad-36B (page 75 in PDF).

33. 33 Duckworth, “Appendix B: Biographies of Voyagers and Traders,” 163.

34. 34 Duckworth, “Appendix B: Biographies of Voyagers and Traders,” 163.

35. 35 Patricia McCormack, “Research Report: Treaty No. 8 and the Fort McKay First Nation,” 2012, https://web.archive.org/web/20170726114206/https://www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca/050/documents_staticpost/59540/81946/Appendix_A_-_Treaty_No_8_and_Fort_McKay_First_Nation_Research_Report.pdf. 86–87.

36. 36 Tourangeau, Isabelle; address: Chipewyan; born: 1867 at Chipewyan; father: Charles Piche (Métis); mother: Suzette Martin (Indian); married: 1886 at Chipewyan to Jonas Tourangeau; children living: Antoine, Louis and Isidore; scrip cert. no. 940A; claim no. 431. https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?app=fonandcol&IdNumber=1515423&q=Isabelle%20Tourangeau#shr-pg0.

37. 37 McCormack, Fort McKay First Nation Research Report,” 86–87.

38. 38 McCormack, Fort McKay First Nation Research Report, 129.

39. 39 McCormack, Fort McKay First Nation Research Report, 87.

40. 40 For example, as early as 1778, a basic Cree dictionary was provided to the North West Company employees. The English River Book, the Account Book, 63d, HBC Archives, F.2/1, 1A. The use of Cree continued through the nineteenth century, and it “became a regional lingua franca” by the end of the century.” McCormack, Fort Chipewyan, 147.

41. 41 See Fort McMurray Journal, HBCA B.307/a/1-4; Fort McKay Journal, HBCA 305/a/1-9. Also see Matsui and Ray, 31. While it is unclear exactly who Jose Grand Bouché was descended from, it seems highly likely that he was the descendent of one of the many Bouchés engaged in the region’s fur trade as early as the late eighteenth century and in the Athabasca Region. For example, François Bouché and Jean-Marie Bouché are both referenced in the English River Book the Account Book, 29d-30 and 22d-23, HBC Archives, F.2/1. Nicole St-Onge also finds reference to Joseph and Louis Bouché in the North West Company ledgers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. For more information on the early Bouché voyagers, see “Early Forefathers to the Athabasca Métis” 132–3 and Duckworth, “Appendix B: Biographies of Voyagers and Traders,” 137–38.

42. 42 “Indians at Little Red River, Athabasca River, 35 miles below Fort McMurray, 1899” as found in “Indians: Census of Indians & Halfbreeds in Peace River District” LAC, RG18, vol. 1435, file 76-1899, pt. 2. 1881 Census of Canada, Northwest Territories 192, Athabasca T – Fort McMurray, p. 7, household 30 – Piche, Chryostum; household 31 – Piche, Charlos, LAC T-6426.

43. 43 The English River Book, the Account Book, 63d, HBC Archives, F.2/1.

44. 44 “List of Halfbreeds at Chipewyan, 1899” as found in “Indians: Census of Indians & Halfbreeds in Peace River District” LAC, RG18, vol. 1435, file 76-1899, pt. 2. Interestingly, the NWMP census does not include a list of “halfbreeds.” The police did not create a methodology for determining who was or was not considered Métis or First Nations on their census, and furthermore, many “Indians” identified in the census chose to take scrip, and many identified as halfbreeds took treaty. Furthermore, there seems to be a strong likelihood that some families who were closely connected to the Bouchés and Pichés were missed by the census takers or lumped in with the Fort Chipewyan “Half-Breeds.”

45. 45 N.O. Cote to J.D. McLean, “RE: Claim 480970, Department of Indian and Northern Development (DIAND), file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1.

46. 46 1881 Census of Canada, Northwest Territories 192, Athabasca T – Fort McMurray, p. 7, household 30 – Piche, Chryostum; household 31 – Piche, Charlos, LAC T-6426; Inspector Routledge, LAC, RG18, vol. 1435, no. 76, pt. 2.

47. 47 Jonas Tourangeau, “Squatting Right’s Claim,” October 7, 1911. Department of Indian and Northern Development (DIAND), file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1.

48. 48 Jonas Tourangeau Scrip cert. no. 941a, claim no. 423, August 7, 1899, https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?app=fonandcol&IdNumber=1515426&q=%22Jonas%20Tourangeau%22%20Scrip.

49. 49 Tourangeau, Isabelle; address: Chipewyan; born: 1867 at Chipewyan; father: Charles Piche (Métis); mother: Suzette Martin (Indian); married: 1886 at Chipewyan to Jonas Tourangeau; children living: Antoine, Louis and Isidore; scrip cert. no. 940A; claim no. 431, https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?app=fonandcol&IdNumber=1515423&q=Isabelle%20Tourangeau#shr-pg0.

50. 50 Appendix A: Genealogical Visual Representation of the Fort McKay Métis Nation. The deep multigenerational connections between the Boucher and Tourangeau families have meant that many members of the modern Tourangeau family, such as Edward’s daughter Judy, could legally claim their First Nations status after Bill C-31. However, as per the law, those of the latest generation, such as Judy’s son Jalal Bilal Eid, are not eligible for First Nations status and have joined the Fort McKay Métis Nation.

51. 51 Heather Devine, The People Who Own Themselves: Aboriginal Ethnogenesis in a Canadian Family, 1660–1900, (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2004), 140. Also see McCormack, Fort Chipewyan; Patricia Sawchuk, “The Creation of a Non-Status Indian Population in Alberta: The Interchangeability of Status of Métis and Indians and Its Effect on Future Métis Claims,” in Origins of the Alberta Métis: Land Claims Research Project, 1878–79 (Edmonton: Métis Association of Alberta, 1979), 93–117; Patricia Sawchuk, “The Historic Interchangeability of Status of Metis and Indians: An Alberta Example” in The Recognition of Aboriginal Rights, eds. Samuel W. Corrigan and Joe Sawchuk Brandon MB: Bearpaw Publishing, 1996, 57–71.

52. 52 Van Dyke, “Lives in Transition,” 98.

53. 53 Brenda Macdougall, “Wahkotowin: Family and Cultural Identity in Northwestern Saskatchewan Metis Communities,” Canadian Historical Review 87, no. 3 (September 2006): 433. Also see Macdougall, One of the Family: Métis Culture in Nineteenth-Century Northwestern Saskatchewan (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2010). This topic is also discussed at length in Peter Fortna, “Wahkotowin, Keemooch, and Home: A History of the Conklin Métis Community, 1886–2020,” Prairie History, 8 (2022). For other examples see Kathleen O’Reilly-Scanlon, Christine Crow, and Angelina Weenie, “Pathways to Understanding: ‘Wâhkôhtowin’ as a Research Methodology,” McGill Journal of Education 39, no. 1 (Winter 2004) ; Matthew Wildcat, “Wahkohtowin in Action,” Constitutional Forum Constitutionnel 27, no. 1 (2018); Harold Cardinal and Walter Hildebrandt, Treaty Elders of Saskatchewan: Our Dream is That Our Peoples Will One Day be Clearly Recognized as Nations (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2000); Sylvia McAdam (Saysewahum), Nationhood Interrupted: Revitalizing nêhiyaw Legal Systems (Saskatoon: Purich Publishing, 2015).

54. 54 Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation with Sabina Trimble and Peter Fortna, Remembering Our Relations: Dënesųłiné Oral Histories of Wood Buffalo National Park (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2023), xxi–xxii, 43. Also see Craig Candler, “Integrated Knowledge and Land Use Report and Assessment for Shell Canada’s Proposed Jackmine Mine Expansion and Pierre River Mine,” April 20, 2011, 2.

55. 55 FMTA, From Where We Stand, 1.

56. 56 FMTA, From Where We Stand, 79–82.

57. 57 FMTA, From Where We Stand, 34. For a broader discussion of the Tea Dance in communities in northern Alberta, see Patrick Moore, “Tea Dance: The Circle of Community,” in Proceedings of the Fort Chipewyan and Fort Vermilion Bicentennial Conference: September 23–25, 1988, eds. Patricia A. McCormack and R. Geoffrey Ironside (Edmonton: Boreal Institute for Northern Studies, 1990), 267–271.

58. 58 Fort McKay Métis Nation community member as quoted in HEG, “Integrated Cultural Impact Assessment,” 332.

59. 59 Francis Orr, “Interview,” in There is Still Survival Out There, 109.

60. 60 Johnny Orr, “Interview,” in There is Still Survival Out There, 86.

61. 61 Van Dyke, “Lives in Transition,” 56–57. Also see HEG, “Indicators of Cultural Change,” 68.

62. 62 Ernest Thompson Seton, The Arctic Prairies (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1911). Originally cited in McCormack, Fort Chipewyan, 147. While it is true that Seton was a traveller through the area and depended upon what he was told by others, his description matches with that of the FMTA, From Where We Stand, 26.

63. 63 FMTA, From Where We Stand, 37–42 and throughout.

64. 64 FMTA, From Where We Stand, 34, 128–129.

65. 65 Matsui and Ray, Appendix 5. Original post journals referenced by Matsui and Ray included in the document collection.

66. 66 FMTA, From Where We Stand, 43–47.

67. 67 FMFN, There is Still Survival, 15–29.

68. 68 PAA, GR. 1990.377 Sheets, 84-A, 84-H, 74-E, 74-D. There is also a list of Fort McKay traplines available in FMFN, There is Still Survival 28–29 and HEG, “Integrated Cultural Assessment,” 49.

69. 69 Since the mid-2000s, Fort McKay (Métis and First Nation) has shared a traditional land-use map, which includes maps from Where We Stand and There is Still Survival overlayed. A version can be found at Fort McKay Sustainability Department, “Fort McKay Traditional Territory,” February 2011 and is provided below. https://fmsd.knowledgekeeper.ca/sites/default/files/fortmckay_home/documents/Fort_McKay_Traditional_Territory.pdf. Also see HEG, “Integrated Cultural Assessment,” 421.

70. 70 FMTA, From Where We Stand, 78–79.

71. 71 FMTA, From Where We Stand, 25–26.

72. 72 FMTA, From Where We Stand, 79–82. Matsui and Ray, 35–36. An aspect underplayed by the Tribal Administration is the seasonal work some Fort McKay community members would likely participate in. This could include everything from provisioning the fort to participating as labourers and trackers bringing skiffs and scows back down the Athabasca River.

73. 73 Fort McKay Sustainability Department, “Fort McKay Traditional Territory,” 2011. https://fmsd.knowledgekeeper.ca/sites/default/files/fortmckay_home/documents/Fort_McKay_Traditional_Territory.pdf.

74. 74 James Parker, 43. Also see FMTA, From Where We Stand, 26.

75. 75 FMTA, From Where We Stand, 1. Also see Fort McKay Industrial Relations Corporation, “Cultural Heritage Assessment Baseline,” 16–21.

notes to Chapter 2

1. 1 Canada, Annual Report of the Department of Indians Affairs for the Year Ended June 30, 1899 (Ottawa: Queen’s Press, 1900), xxxviii.

2. 2 Donald F. Robertson to S. Bray, “Memorandum,” December 23, 2015. DIAND, file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1.

3. 3 J. A.J. McKenna to Superintendent General of Indian, Clifford Sifton, April 18, 1899. RG 10, Volume 3848, file 75,236-1.

4. 4 Clifford Sifton to Governor General in Council, June 18, 1898. RG 10, Volume 3848, file 75,236-1.

5. 5 Clifford Sifton to Governor General in Council, June 18, 1898. RG 10, Volume 3848, file 75,236-1.

6. 6 As recorded in Charles Mair, Through the Mackenzie Basin: An Account of the Signing of Treaty no. 8 and the Scrip Commission, 1899 (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press: 1999), 59–60.

7. 7 For example, Isabelle, who was married to Jonas Tourangeau, chose to take Métis Scrip and identified her father as “Charles Piche” despite the fact that her father had signed onto Treaty 8. See Tourangeau, Isabelle; address: Chipewyan; born: 1867 at Chipewyan; father: Charles Piche (Métis); mother: Suzette Martin (Indian); married: 1886 at Chipewyan to Jonas Tourangeau; children living: Antoine, Louis and Isidore; scrip cert. no. 940A; claim no. 431. https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?app=fonandcol&IdNumber=1515423&q=Isabelle%20Tourangeau#shr-pg0.

8. 8 For example, see Devine, People Who Own Themselves, 141–82.

9. 9 Order in Council 918, “Half breed commission appointing James Walker and Joseph Arthur Cole as Commrs [Commissioners] to investigate half breed claims Athabaska. May 6, 1899. LAC, R.G. 2, Series 1, Vol 796.

10. 10 Dennis K. Madill, “Treaty Research Report: Treaty Eight (1899)” (Ottawa: Treaties and Historical Research Centre, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 1986), 23–26.

11. 11 Metis Association of Alberta, Joe Sawchuk, Patricia Sawchuk, Theresa Ferguson, Metis Land Rights in Alberta (Edmonton: Metis Association of Alberta, 1981), 127–30.

12. 12 Unfortunately for the scrip recipients, the scrip speculators rarely (if ever) provided fair value, and scrip fraud remained a major issue into the 1920s before the government instituted a statute of limitations banning future fraud claims. See Metis Association of Alberta et. al., Metis Land Rights in Alberta, 130–140.

13. 13 The scrip process is described at length in Metis Association of Alberta et. al., Metis Land Rights in Alberta, 87–158, while the Treaty process is described by Madill.

14. 14 For example, Charles Mair’s Treaty 8 memoir only makes passing reference to the commission passing by Little Red River and Fort McMurray, and the official report only lists the signatories. See Mair, 120–21; Canada, Treaty No. 8, Made June 21, 1899 and Adhesions, Reports, Etc. (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer and Controller of Stationary, 1966 [1899]), 18.

15. 15 Canada, Treaty No. 8, 18.

16. 16 Canada, Treaty No. 8, 18.

17. 17 Jonas Tourangeau Scrip cert. no. 941a.

18. 18 Reddekopp, “The First Survey of Reserves for the Cree-Chipewyan Band of Fort McMurray,” January 1995. Indian Claims Commission, Inquiry into the Treaty Land Entitlement Claim of the Fort McKay First Nation, Exhibit 17, 12–14. Expansion of the community’s land-use areas to include Moose Lake to the west, Lake Claire to the north, Willow Lake to the south, and the east side of the Athabasca River, a territory the people have maintained into the twentieth century. FMFN, There Is Still Survival Out There; FMTA, From Where We Stand; Fort McKay Industrial Relations Corporation, “The Fort McKay Cultural Heritage Assessment Baseline.”

19. 19 Reddekopp, “First Survey,” 12–14.

20. 20 Ft Chipewyan Report District Report [for Athabasca], 1885, HBCA B 39/e/11: 5. Jarvis, “Appendix L. Police Patrol, Athabasca District, Winter of 1896–97,” 160.

21. 21 John McDonald was hired on with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1874 and worked at various posts in the Athabasca District, from Fort McMurray to Fort Vermilion. He was born in 1854 at St. Andrew’s Parish at the Red River, Manitoba, as the “English halfbreed” son of Duncan McDonald and Elizabeth Tait. He signed a “Labourer/Horsekeeper” contract at the Fort McMurray Hudson’s Bay Company post by the late 1870s and was described in the HBC 1889 inspection report for Fort McMurray as an “[i]nterpreter, [who] talks English & Cree. 14 years service; wife and 7 children; in charge of outpost in winter.” It seems likely that John was in a position of significance at the Fort McKay post by the late 1880s as he was later described by government surveyor Donald Robertson in 1915 as “one of the first, if not the first man in charge of the trading post at Ft. McKay for the Hudson’s Bay company.” While John was clearly working in the community, there is little evidence that he and his family members permanently integrated into the community, and he and his family would later settle in Fort McMurray. John McDonald, (“C” or “K”) Hudson’s Bay Company Biographical Sheet, https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/_docs/hbca/biographical/mc/mcdonald_john-c1874-1889.pdf; Donald F. Robertson to S. Bray, “Memorandum,” December 23, 2015. DIAND, file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1; Fred McDonald, “Interview Transcript: Métis 1935 ‘Mark of the Métis’ Heritage Study Pilot Project’ Interviewed by Sara Loutitt and Sherri Labour, March 30, 2007.

22. 22 For more about Louison Fosseneuve see Gregory A. Johnson, Lac La Biche Chronicles: Early Years (Lac La Biche: Portage College, 1999), 176–83.

23. 23 For example, see Fort McKay Post Journal, October 29, 1911. HBCA, B/305/a/9; Ray and Matsui, “Delimiting Métis Economic Communities,” 38. John Cowie’s mother was likely Susan Cree, a daughter of Seapotainum Cree, who signed the Treaty 8 adhesion at Fort McMurray on behalf of the Cree of the area. John Cowie entered treaty with his grandfather and disappeared from the paylists about the time of his grandfather’s death in 1911. Reddekopp, “First Survey,” 44.

24. 24 Reddekopp, “First Survey,” 27.

25. 25 FMFN, There Is Still Survival Out There, 67, 92.

26. 26 FMFN, There Is Still Survival Out There, 80.

27. 27 Personal Correspondence with Billie Fortier, July 2024.

28. 28 Fort McKay Genealogy, Appendix A.

29. 29 “A Stand for Fort McKay,” Alberta Report, January 31, 1983, 37.

30. 30 Appendix A: Genealogical Visual Representation of the Fort McKay Métis Nation.

31. 31 Department of the Interior, Dominion Lands Branch, North-West Territories Metis scrip applications, Alberta or Bernard Lapoudre, Claim 771, Volume 1354, LAC C-14981.

32. 32 Alphonse was born in 1890, while Modest was born in 1900. See 1906 Census of the Northwest Provinces, Alberta, Edmonton 20, Sub-district 8 – Lac La Biche, page 7, household 62. Lapoudre, Abel. LAC T-19362.

33. 33 Devine, The People Who Own Themselves, 194, 186–94. For more on the Lac La Biche exodus into northern Alberta see Patricia McCormack, “How the (North) West was One: Development and Underdevelopment in the Fort Chipewyan Region” (Edmonton: University of Alberta PhD Thesis, 1984), 108–11; Fortna, “Wahkotowin, Keemooch, and Home,” 2022.

34. 34 For example, this practice was well documented to the east in La Loche by Macdougall in One of the Family, 2011.

35. 35 FMFN, There Is Still Survival Out There, 65–66, 71–72, 81, 84, 86–87, 105.

36. 36 PAA, GR. 1990.377 Sheets 84-A, 84-H, 74-E, 74-D.

37. 37 Zachary Powder to Stan Daniels, April 12, 1973, Glenbow Museum and Archives, M4755, file 470.

38. 38 Liam Harrap, “Fractured Forest: Alberta’s Seismic Lines Dilemma” in Alberta Views, May 1, 2020, https://albertaviews.ca/fractured-forest/. For a description of the economic discrepancies between the Fort McKay First Nation and Métis Nation from the 1990s forward, see Fort McKay, “Position Paper,” 2021.

39. 39 Fort McKay Métis Nation, Membership List, 2023.

40. 40 Appendix A: Genealogical Visual Representation of the Fort McKay Métis Nation.

41. 41 Macdougall, One of the Family, 229–31.

42. 42 Margie Wood “Interview Transcript: Métis 1935 ‘Mark of the Métis’ Heritage Study Pilot Project’” Interviewed by Sara Loutitt and Sherri Labour, March 30, 2007, 72–74. https://www.acee-ceaa.gc.ca/050/documents/45006/45006F.pdf; Ray and Matsui, “Delimiting Métis Economic Communities,” 474. Brenda Macdougall noted that Pascal Janvier’s brother, Louison would also trade in Fort McMurray, obtaining trading goods in Lac La Biche to take into the region around the same time. Macdougall, One of the Family, 229–30.

43. 43 Isadore and Catharine’s grandfathers were brothers Pascal and Louison Janvier. See Macdougall, One of the Family, 230.

44. 44 “The Hardships of Bush Life: Interview with Ernie Lacorde.”

45. 45 “Fort McKay Community files,” PAA, ACC GR1979.0152, box 16, item 217.

46. 46 Appendix A: Genealogical Visual Representation of the Fort McKay Métis Nation.

47. 47 FMFN, There Is Still Survival Out There, 90–91.

48. 48 Fort McKay Métis Nation Membership List.

49. 49 Fort McKay Métis Nation Membership List.

50. 50 FMFN, There Is Still Survival Out There, 80. Many members of the Fort McKay Indigenous community can trace their roots back to the Wabasca/Chipewyan Lakes area. For example, the Ahyasou and Orr families originated from Chipewyan Lakes and were accepted into the band by Adam Boucher in the early 1900s. FMFN, There Is Still Survival Out There, 78; Reddekopp, “Post 1915 Additions,” 26–27

51. 51 1911 Census of Canada, Alberta, Victoria 7, Sub-district Chipewyan Lake, page 74, household 192 - Beaver, Julian. LAC T-20333. Also see Highwood Environmental Group, “Family History of RFMA 2137,” 3.

52. 52 Jeannette Reva Sinclair, “On the Role of Nehiyaw’skwewak in Decision Making among Northern Cree” (master’s thesis, University of Alberta, 1999), 145.

53. 53 Reddekopp, “Post-1915 Additions,” 19–21.

54. 54 It is also possible that Felix was not allowed to join the local First Nation because Felix’s family chose to take Métis scrip at Wabasca in 1899–1900. While possible, this does not seem likely as neither of their names were included in Matthew LaCompte et al.’s review of the Wabasca-Desmarais scrip records (though many other Beaver and Cardinals were included) or a search of Library and Archives Canada. See Matthew LaCompte, Carol Hodgson, William Cornish, Jonathan Hart, and Joan Holmes “Historical Profile of the Wabasca-Desmarais Area’s Mixed European-Indian Ancestry Community,” (Ottawa: Research and Statistics Division & Aboriginal Law and Strategic Policy Group, 2005), 76–82.

55. 55 Highwood Environmental Group, “Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Family History for RFMA 2137,” (Fort McKay: Fort McKay Industrial Relations Corporation, 2001), 3.

56. 56 Francois Boucher, 1916 Census of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Alberta, Edmonton East E-20 – Fort McKay, page 17, household 179 – Boucher, Francois. LAC T-21950.

57. 57 Francois was also Joseph Robillard’s brother-in-law, having married the latter’s sister, Rosalie. Reddekopp, “The First Survey of Reserves,” 26–27.

58. 58 Highwood Environmental Group, 3.

59. 59 Highwood Environmental Group, 3.

60. 60 Highwood Environmental Group, 3.

61. 61 For example, see Brandi Morin, “Fort McKay First Nation, holding onto nature in the middle of the tar sands,” APTN National News, June 26, 2015. https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/fort-mckay-first-nation-holding-onto-nature-middle-tar-sands/; Janelle Marie Baker and the Fort McKay Berry Group, “Cranberries are Medicine: Monitoring, Sharing, and Consuming Cranberries in Fort McKay,” in Wisdom Engaged: Traditional Knowledge for Northern Community Well-Being, ed. Leslie Main Johnson (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2019).

62. 62 Baker and the Fort McKay Group, “Cranberries.” Also see Campbell et al., preface; FMFN, There Is Still Survival Out There, 30.

63. 63 Fort McKay Métis Nation Membership List; FMFN, “Strong Governance,” 2022. http://fortmckaymetis.com/strong-governance/.

64. 64 Van Dyke, Lives in Transition, 52.

notes to Chapter 3

1. 1 Arthur Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade: Their Roles as Trappers, Hunters, and Middlemen in the Lands Southwest of Hudson Bay, 1660–1870 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015; first published 1974); Arthur Ray, The Canadian Fur Trade in the Industrial Age (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990).

2. 2 McCormack, Fort Chipewyan and the Shaping of Canadian History, 159–69, 223. Descriptions of these early white trappers coming into the region can be found in the Edmonton Bulletin, with the first description coming as early as 1896. See Author Unknown, “Local” Edmonton Bulletin, September 17, 1896, 1.

3. 3 Fort McKay Tribal Administration, “From Where We Stand,” 31. Also see, Author Unknown, “Fur Plentiful but Hard to Trap Owing to Late Snowfall,” Edmonton Bulletin, December 6, 1917, 7; Bustane Martin and William Whitehead to D. C. Scott, Superintendent General, July 5, 1927, LAC, RG10, vol. 6732, file 420-2B, reel C8094, pp. 6–9.

4. 4 Indigenous people and government officials colloquially use the term “trapline” to describe registered fur management areas, or “RFMAs.”

5. 5 Gerald Card, Indian Agent, to D. C. Scott, Superintendent General, May 22, 1924, LAC, RG10, vol. 6732, file 420-2B. Also see Sabina Trimble, and Peter Fortna, “A History of Wood Buffalo National Park’s Relations with the Denésuliné” (Fort Chipewyan: Willow Springs Strategic Solutions, 2021).

6. 6 Alberta Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, The Alberta Natural Resources Act, Assented to April 3, 1930, Chapter 21, Alberta, An Act Respecting the Transfer of the Natural Resources of Alberta.

7. 7 H. W. Theisen, Trapping the Buffalo Head Hills & Utikuma Uplands (Edmonton: Bear Trap Trappers’ Committee, 2006), 73. Also see McCormack, “How the (North) West Was Won.”

8. 8 “Legislative Debate over the Creation of Trap-lines,” PAA, acc. 70.427/409, box 23. For more on the trapline system implemented in British Columbia see Glenn Iceton, “Many Families of Unseen Indians”: Trapline Registration and Understandings of Aboriginal Title in the BC-Yukon Borderlands,” BC Studies no. 201 (Spring 2019).

9. 9 For a good description of the implementation of the Registered Fur Management System in Alberta see Theisen, Trapping the Buffalo Head Hills, 122–27. Also see Balazs, “A Short Analysis.”

10. 10 P. W. Head to Department of Mines and Resources – Indian Affairs Branch, February 2, 1940, pp. 22–24 in LAC, RG10, vol. 6733, file 420-2-2 1, reel C8095.

11. 11 Maclean, Robinson, “Crees and Chipewyans Explain their Trouble,” Ottawa Citizen, July 19, 1939. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114884970/1939-07-19-crees-and-chipewyans/.

12. 12 N. E. Tanner to M. Christianson, March 15, 1938. LAC, RG10, vol. 6733, file 420-2-2 1, reel C8095.

13. 13 P. W. Head to C. Schmidt, February 2, 1940. LAC, RG10, vol. 6733, file 420-2-2 1, reel C8095.

14. 14 P. W. Head to Department of Mines and Resources – Indian Affairs Branch, February 2, 1940, pp. 22–24 in LAC, RG10, vol. 6733, file 420-2-2 1, reel C8095.

15. 15 C. Schmidt to Department of Mines and Resources – Indian Affairs Branch, February 13, 1940, LAC, RG10, vol. 6733, file 420-2-2 1, pp. 22–24, reel C8095.

16. 16 J. L. Grew to D. J. Allen, “Memorandum,” December 19, 1944, LAC, RG10, vol. 6734, 420-2-2 3, pp. 73–86, reel C8095.

17. 17 LAC, RG10, vol. 6733, file 420-2-2 1, p. 29, reel C8095. It should also be noted that within the context of the memorandum, Mr. Grew was attempting to identify areas they could “lease from the Province” to solve the “Indian trapping situation.” As such, he was constrained as much by potential cost as by the desire to map the Fort McKay traditional territory effectively, and therefore, these areas are much smaller than those identified in sources such as “From Where We Stand” and There Is Still Survival Out There.

18. 18 J. L. McGrew, “Report on Registered Trap Lines and General Trapping Conditions,” August 14, 1945, LAC, RG10, vol. 6734, file 420-2-2 3, p. 42, reel C8095. This process was detailed with regards to the Boucher/Beaver/Faichney family in Highwood Environmental Group, “Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Family History for RFMA 2137” (Fort McKay: Fort McKay Industrial Relations Corporation, 2001).

19. 19 Originally, Fort McKay First Nation was part of the “Cree-Chipewyan Band of Fort McMurray” even though they were largely independent groups. It was officially divided between 1949 and 1951. See Reddekopp, “Post 1915 Additions,” 1–2.

20. 20 Fort McKay Tribal Administration, From Where We Stand, 32. See also Balazs, “A Short Analysis.” Monique Passelac-Ross suggests that by 2005, an informal policy for transferring open lines to First Nations had developed in government, but that they were unwilling to formalize a process to ensure Indigenous traplines stay with the community. However, an informal system had developed where “the transfer of a licence from an Aboriginal trapper to a non-Aboriginal trapper usually involes the approval of the band.” See Monique Passelac-Ross, “The Trapping Rights of Aboriginal Peoples in Northern Alberta” (Calgary: Canadian Institute of Resource Law, 2005), 49. https://cirl.ca/sites/default/files/teams/1/Occasional%20Papers/Occasional%20Paper%20%2315.pdf.

21. 21 W. B. Skead, “Annual Report – Alberta Fur Supervisor,” 1948, LAC, RG10, vol. 6734, file 420-2-1-3, p. 26, reel C8096.

22. 22 PAA, acc. GR 1990.377 – Trapping Maps and Index Cards.

23. 23 Fort McKay Tribal Administration, “From Where We Stand,” 99.

24. 24 This list is slightly different than the list provided in the Fort McKay Integrated Cultural Assessment. For the purpose of this report, the author has taken a conservative approach, though it seems likely additional connections will be identified through further research. See HEG, “Teck Frontier Mine Project,” 46–50.

25. 25 Fort McKay Tribal Administration, “From Where We Stand,” 96–97.

26. 26 Fort McKay Tribal Administration, “From Where We Stand,” 99.

27. 27 Fort McKay, There Is Still Survival Out There, 27–30. In addition to these founding families, other Métis families owned traplines in the Fort McKay traditional territory, particularly in the south. They included Cooper, Flobert, Golosky, and Auger, all identified as belonging to the Fort McKay Indigenous community. While this is not particularly surprising given the close relationship between Indigenous communities in Fort McMurray and Fort McKay, it is likely the result of later marriages between members of each group. The histories of the Cooper, Flobert, Golosky, and Auger families are covered at length in Clark et al., “Fort McMurray: Historic and Contemporary Rights-Bearing Métis Community.”

28. 28 The Fort McKay Tribal Administration stated that while a “Native Trapping Policy” was developed by the Alberta government, it did not meet the needs of the community [any idea why not?], Fort McKay Tribal Administration, “From Where We Stand,” 109–14. It is unclear what happened to this policy, but Passelac-Ross explains that by 2005, Fish and Wildlife officers were using an informal system “to the extent it is possible” to offer traplines as they become available to the Band that “claims” them. She makes no reference to how officers might deal with potential conflicts between Indigenous communities or whether officers would recognize Métis claims to such areas. Passelac-Ross, “The Trapping Rights of Aboriginal Peoples,” 49.

29. 29 Agricultural Committee Debate Regarding Traplines, 1933. PAA, Acc. 70.427/409, box 23, pages 10-11.

30. 30 J. I. Donnanco to G. W. Pollock, November 23, 1967, PAA, acc. 91-270, file T.4, V9, box 65.

31. 31 Balazs, “A Short Analysis.”

32. 32 Fort McKay Tribal Administration, “From Where We Stand,” 112. See also Fort McKay, There Is Still Survival Out There, 31; M. Fox and W.A. Ross, The Influence of Oil Sands Development on Trapping in the Fort McMurray Region (Edmonton: Alberta Oil Sands Environmental Research Program, 1979).

33. 33 HEG, “Integrated Cultural Impact Assessment,” 64, 46–92.

34. 34 G. A. Kemp to David Neave, “Re: Liabilities of Industry or Government to Renewable Resource Permit and License Holders,” November 9, 1972, PAA, acc. 91-270, file T.4, V7, box 64.

35. 35 Kemp, and Neave, “Re: Liabilities,” 1972.

36. 36 Syncrude Public Affairs Department, “Compensation for Native Trappers on Lease #17: A Report to the Executive Committee,” October 22, 1974, as found in Terry Garvin Personal Papers.

37. 37 Syncrude, “Compensation.”

38. 38 Syncrude, “Compensation.”

39. 39 J. J. Barr to R. R. Goforth, “Syncrude Canada Lt. Inter Office Correspondence” October 23, 1974. Terry Garvin Personal Papers.

40. 40 Syncrude Public Affairs, “Compensation,” Terry Garvin Personal Papers. This decision also seemed to spur the government to explore the issue of trapper compensation more formally, commissioning a series of discussion papers and beginning to work with the Alberta Trappers Association. For example, see Native Secretariat, “Providing Compensation to Trappers: A Discussion Paper,” August 16, 1979, in PAA, acc. 1990.0071, file 70 box 13, page 15, where they specifically consider applying the “formula developed by Syncrude” to compensate trappers affected by industrial development.

41. 41 E. A. Reilly to Mr. J. C. Bjornson, “Subject Vincent Boucher Trap Line,” Syncrude Canada Ltd. Inter Office Correspondence, January 10, 1975. Terry Garvin Personal Papers.

42. 42 E. A. Reilly to T. Garvin, “Theodore Boucher Settlement,” Syncrude Canada Ltd. Inter Office Correspondence, February 21, 1975. Terry Garvin Personal Papers. It is worth noting that this episode is also recorded in Fox and Ross, The Influence of Oil Sands Development on Trapping, where they state, based on personal conversations with T. Garvin, that the two trappers were compensated $6,500 and $10,000. However, there is no corroborating evidence provided. Fox and Ross, The Influence of Oil Sands Development on Trapping,” 67.

43. 43 “Dorothy Keeps on Swinging,” Fort McMurray Express, January 19, 1983; Brian Laghi and Doug Tattrie, “Dump Allegations Exaggerated,” Fort McMurray Today, February 24. 1983.

44. 44 For more on this topic, see Hereward Longley, “Conflicting Interests: Development Politics and the Environmental Regulation of the Alberta Oil Sands Industry, 1970–1980, Environment and History, https://doi.org/10.3197/096734019X15463432086919; Larry Pratt, The Tar Sands: Syncrude and the Politics of Oil (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1976). This attitude began to change in the late 1970s as trappers in and around the proposed Cold Lake leases controlled by Esso began to agitate in the region. For example, see David J. Unger to Gordon R. Kerr, “Meeting with Esso Resources on Trapping Compensation,” October 9, 1979. PAA, acc. 1990.0071, file 70 box 13.

45. 45 Fox and Ross, The Influence of Oil Sands Development on Trapping, 67.

46. 46 Fox and Ross, The Influence of Oil Sands Development on Trapping, 98–99. Also see Tanner et al., Some Effects of Oil Sands Development on the Traditional Economy of Fort McKay.

47. 47 Fox and Ross, The Influence of Oil Sands Development on Trapping, 100.

48. 48 Fox and Ross, The Influence of Oil Sands Development on Trapping, 100–101.

49. 49 This point is the thesis of Tanner, et al., Some Effects of Oil Sands Development on the Traditional Economy of Fort McKay.

50. 50 Brock Volman, “Local Trappers Say Their Industry is in Trouble.” Fort McMurray Today, December 16, 1986, 3. Also see Willy Barth, “Traplines Have Trouble,” Fort McMurray Today, Feb. 22, 1980.

51. 51 HEG, “Teck Frontier Mine Project,” 46–92.

52. 52 HEG, “Teck Frontier Mine Project,” 47, 54–64.

53. 53 Fort McKay, There Is Still Survival Out There, 2. Also see Tanner, et al., Some Effects of Oil Sands Development on the Traditional Economy of Fort McKay. For a broader conversation about the importance of trapping to Indigenous peoples see Hugh Brody, Maps and Dreams: Indians and the British Columbia Frontier (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1981).

notes to Chapter 4

1. 1 Fort McKay Tribal Administration, “From Where We Stand,” 1. Also see Fort McKay Industrial Relations Corporation, “Cultural Heritage Assessment Baseline: Pre-development (1960s) to Current (2008), 16–21. https://fmsd.knowledgekeeper.ca/sites/default/files/fortmckay_home/documents/CHA%20Baseline.pdf.

2. 2 Dennis F. K. Madill, “Treaty Research Report: Treaty Eight (1899)” (Ottawa: Treaties and Historical Research Centre, 1986), 49.

3. 3 James Ross, as quoted in Charles Mair, Through the Mackenzie Basin: A Narrative of the Athabasca and Peace River Treaty Expedition (Toronto: William Briggs, 1908), 61.

4. 4 Dennis F. K. Madill, “Treaty Research Report: Treaty Eight (1899)” (Ottawa: Treaties and Historical Research Centre, 1986), 71. See also: Richard Daniel, “The Spirit and Terms of Treaty Eight,” in The Spirit of the Alberta Indian Treaties, ed. Richard Price (Edmonton: Pica Pica Press, 1987), 47–101.

5. 5 Rupert’s Land Centure for Métis Research and the Métis Archival Project, Métis Scrip in Alberta (Edmonton: Rupertsland Centre for Métis Research, 2018), https://www.ualberta.ca/native-studies/media-library/rcmr/publications/rcmr-scrip-booklet-2018-final-150dpi.pdf. Also see Frank Tough and Erin McGregor, ‘“The rights to the land may be transferred:’ Archival Records as Colonial Text – A Narrative of Metis Scrip,” The Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 31, no. 1 (2007).

6. 6 Fort McKay Tribal Administration, “From Where We Stand,” 26.

7. 7 The Edmonton Bulletin is full of stories detailing the economic potential of the land near Fort McMurray and Fort McKay: “The North Country,” Edmonton Bulletin, October 5, 1906; “Railway to Fort McMurray and the Country It Will Open Up;” Edmonton Bulletin, May 11, 1907. “Alberta’s Rich Hinterland” Edmonton Bulletin July 31, 1908; “McMurray Region Second Cobalt: Prospectors Returned from Clear Water River Say Silver and Copper Float Abundant,” Edmonton Journal July 28, 1910.

8. 8 “Surveyor’s Tragic Death Affects McMurray Claims,” Edmonton Journal, Sept 1, 1910.

9. 9 “Surveyor’s Tragic Death,” Edmonton Journal, 1910. Also see “Staked Claims in Fort McMurray,” Edmonton Journal, August 17, 1910; Judy Larmour, Laying Down the Lines: A History of Land Surveying in Alberta (Calgary: Brindle & Glass, 2005), 117–19.

10. 10 David J. Hall, “Oliver, Frank (Francis Robert Bowsfield, Bossfield, or Bousfield),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 16, (Toronto/Quebec City: University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003). http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/oliver_frank_16E.html.

11. 11 Frank Oliver, originally cited in Larmour, Laying Down the Lines, 118.

12. 12 “Surveyor’s Tragic Death Affects McMurray Claims,” Edmonton Journal, Sept 1, 1910; “May not Require Second Survey of McMurray Mines,” Edmonton Journal, Oct 13, 1910.

13. 13 “Fort McMurray: Every Lot a Gold Mine,” Edmonton Journal June 22, 1912.

14. 14 Larmour, Laying Down the Lines, 119–21.

15. 15 Reddekopp, “First Survey,” 21.

16. 16 J. H. Lewis, Survey Records Search of the Surveys Branch of Indians Affairs: Its Creation, Operations and Demise with Respect to the Prairie Provinces (Ottawa: Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, 1993), 251.

17. 17 Donald F. Robertson, “Survey Report,” January 7, 1916. LAC, RG10, vol. 4065, file 412,786-4. A copy of the report was also included in the Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs, Part II, p. 27.

18. 18 Donald F. Robertson to S. Bray, “Memorandum,” December 23, 2015. DIAND, file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1. This letter is also cited in Fort McKay Tribal Administration, “From Where We Stand,” 26–27. For additional context see Reddekopp, “First Survey,” 21–32.

19. 19 Reddekopp, “First Survey,” 22–23.

20. 20 Author unknown, “Memorandum to the Deputy Minister, Re: Fort McKay Settlement, Athabaska, Alberta,” June 19, 1958. DIAND, file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1. Donald Robertson DLS to Secretary, Department of Indian Affairs, January 7, 1916. DIAND, file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1.

21. 21 For example, see Campbell et al., mihkwâkamiwi sîpîsis, 43. As described in the excerpt, wage labour was the exception and not the rule in Fort McKay until the 1960s.

22. 22 N.O. Coté to J.D. McLean, “Re: Part Lot 10, McKay Settlement, Alberta, Area 32.7 acres, 29 November 1922. DIAND, file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1. Also see N.O. Coté to J.D. McLean, Re: Part of Lot 7, McKay Settlement, Alberta, lying between the roadway crossing this lot and the left bank of the Athabasca River. Containing an area of 5.55 acres. DIAND, file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1; J.D. McLean to N.O. Coté, “Your file No. 2618128,” 24 October 1923. DIAND, file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1.

23. 23 For example, Victoria McDonald describes her experience going to residential school in Fort Chipewyan. Fort McKay, There Is Still Survival Out There, 64–65.

24. 24 Rod Hyde, Personal Correspondence, August 5, 2020.

25. 25 Chartran et al., Métis History and Experience and Residential Schools in Canada, 126–28.

26. 26 The majority of the Elders interviewed for There Is Still Survival Out There provide stories about moving to Fort McKay for schooling. Similarly the Elders interviewed for mihkwâkamiwi sîpîsis describe their moves to Fort McKay, most often to attend school. See Fort McKay, There Is Still Survival Out There, 27, 57–58, 73, 81, 84, 97, 98, 107, 111, 117, 119; Campbell et al., mihkwâkamiwi sîpîsis, 7, 24, 38. Fred Macdonald “Interview Transcript,” 38, 49. http://www.acee-ceaa.gc.ca/050/documents/45006/45006F.pdf.

27. 27 Francis Orr as quoted in Heather Deighton and Carl R. Surrendi, From Traplines to Pipelines: A Socio-Economic Impact Assessment of the Proposed Shell Lease 13 Project on the Community of Fort McKay (Fort McKay: Fort McKay Environmental Services Ltd. 1998), 67.

28. 28 H. Soley, “RE: Lot 10, Fort McKay Settlement, August 7, 1958, DIAND, file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1

29. 29 Alberta’s threats are documented in R. F. Battle to H.G. Jensen, December 27, 1957. DIAND, file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1.

30. 30 R. F. Battle to H.G. Jensen, December 27, 1957. DIAND, file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1.

31. 31 H.M. Jones to N. G. Jensen, August 22, 1958, DIAND, file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1.

32. 32 R.F. Battle to H.G. Jensen, April 24, 1958. DIAND, file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1.

33. 33 W.C. Bethune, “Fort McKay Settlement,” April 11, 1958. DIAND, file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1.

34. 34 Reddekopp, “First Survey,” 59.

35. 35 As of 1978, only two individual miscellaneous leases from the provincial government were recognized in the community; one to Métis member Narcisse Shott and the other to J. “Torchy” Peden, who operated the local café and store in the community. Van Dyke, Lives in Transition, 13.

36. 36 Fort McKay Tribal Administration, “From Where We Stand,” 88. For a full description of this process see 79–117. Grande Cache had a very similar experience to Fort McKay, which is described at length in Nicks and Morgan, “Grande Cache” as well as Joe Sawchuk, Patricia Sawchuk, Theresa Ferguson, and the Metis Association of Alberta, Metis Land Rights: A Political History (Edmonton: The Metis Association of Alberta, 1981).

37. 37 Ben Tierney, “Oil Sands Spawn Boom Town in the Bush: Hopes Galore, Headaches, Too As Fort McMurray Awakens,”

38. 38 Eaton Howitt, “McMurray Hardly Recognizable: Oil Sands Boom Changing Face of the Town,” Edmonton Journal, November 18, 1965; Ovi Baril, “McMurray Caught in Great Boom,” Edmonton Journal, March 18, 1965. For additional examples, see PAA ACC GR76.502 box 40 file 15 for various news stories from the mid-1960s as well as Terry Garvin’s Newspaper Scrapbook (2 volumes). For a broader context, see Clark et al. Mark of the Métis, 85–95 and Hereward Longley and Tara Joly, “The Moccasin Flats Evictions: Métis Home, Forced Relation, and Resilience in Fort McMurray, Alberta” (Fort McMurray: McMurray Métis, 2018), 44–84.

39. 39 Harassed New Resident, “Letter to the Editor Re: McMurray Indians,” Edmonton Journal, September 14, 1964 as found in the Terry Garvin Newspaper Scrapbook, volume 2, p. 40 and also found in PAA, GR76.502, box 40 file 15 – Clippings. While the letter is anonymous, given it was saved by Mr. Garvin, there is a strong likelihood that he penned it as he was seconded in July 1964 from the RCMP to work in Fort McMurray as a community development officer, and shortly thereafter, worked to establish the Nistowoyou Housing Co-Op to help individuals who were being displaced in the city.

40. 40 “Tenders Called on North Span” Edmonton Journal, Sept. 7, 1966, suggests that the bridge was scheduled to be completed in March 1967. Community members remember it being completed in 1966, see Campbell et. al., mihkwâkamiwi sîpîsis, 11.

41. 41 Fort McKay Tribal Administration, “From Where We Stand,” 35.

42. 42 For a fuller description of the impacts of “high-modernity” on Indigenous communities the work of Tina Loo is illustrative, see for example: Tina Loo, “High Modernism, Conflict, and the Nature of Change in Canada: A Look at Seeing Like a State,” Canadian Historical Review 1, no. 97 (March 2016); Tina Loo, “Disturbing the Peace: Environmental Change and the Scales of Justice on a Northern River” Environmental History, Special Issue on Canada (October 2007); Tina Loo, Moved by the State: Forced Relocation and Making a Good Life in Postwar Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019). For a broader conversation, also see James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998) and for the contextualization of the impact of neo-liberalism on the creation of the modern Canadian state see Ian McKay, “The Liberal Order Framework: A Prospectus for a Reconnaissance of Canadian History,” Canadian Historical Review 4, no. 81 (December 2000). Nicks and Morgan argue that the Indigenous community of Grande Cache felt a similar impact in the 1960s that contributed to forming the community’s identity. See Nicks and Morgan, “Grande Cache,” 172–78.

43. 43 Fox and Ross, The Influence of Oil Sands Development on Trapping, 98–101; Longley, “Conflicting Interests.”

44. 44 Fort McKay Tribal Administration, “From Where We Stand,” 88.

45. 45 Theresa Grandjambe on behalf of the Fort McKay Association, February 16, 1967. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217. It seems likely that the issue of secure water was brought to the Department of Indian Affairs in December 1966 and was responded to internally, describing the land-tenure situation with a commitment that even if the lands in Fort McKay settlement were not “reserve land” they were still “federal Crown lands” and the federal government “should be in a position to negotiate the extension of services and where necessary issue permits.” H.T. Vergette to R.D. Ragan, “Water Supply System, McKay Settlement,” 13 January 1967, DIAND, file 779/30-10/174, vol. 1.

46. 46 C. L. Pearson to Allan Kerr, “Re: Fort McKay Settlement,” May 31, 1973. GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217. L. Gareau to G. R. Sterling, “Re: Fort McKay Water Problem,” July 6, 1967. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217.

47. 47 Max Foran, “1967: Embracing the Future . . . at Arm’s Length,” in Alberta Formed: Alberta Transformed, ed. Michael Payne, Donald Wetherell, Catherine Cavanaugh (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2006), 632.

48. 48 L. Gareau to G. R. Sterling, “Re: Fort McKay Water Problem,” July 6, 1967. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217.

49. 49 L. Gareau to G. R. Sterling, “Re: Fort McKay,” 1967.

50. 50 James R. Whitford to Ernie Lacorde, March 16, 1967. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217.

51. 51 S. J. Sinclair to J. R. Whitford, “Re: Fort McKay,” June 7, 1967. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217.

52. 52 Van Dyke, Lives in Transition: The Fort McKay Case, 11–14.

53. 53 With the lease to Narcisse Shott being the lone exception. Van Dyke, Lives in Transition, 13.

54. 54 Fort McKay First Nation successfully negotiated a treaty land entitlement agreement with the federal government that included reserve land within the hamlet of Fort McKay. This process began in 1987 and was only concluded by a 1995 agreement, with the community only selecting an additional 20,000 acres of land in 2006. Tom Flanagan, The Community Capitalism of the Fort McKay First Nation: A Case Study (Vancouver: Fraser Institute, 2018), 6. https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/community-capitalism-of-the-fort-mckay-first-nation.pdf. The Fort McKay Métis decided in 2018 to buy the land in the community from the Government of Alberta in 2018 for 1.6 million dollars, thus avoiding a lengthy legal case. For more, see Raffy Boudjikanian, “Breaking New Ground: Métis in Alberta Buy Their Land from Province for 1^st Time in Canada,” March 28, 2018, CBC News, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/metis-land-purchase-mckay-alberta-1.4596299.

55. 55 “Summary Minutes of Meeting between Delegates from Fort McKay and Government Representatives,” October 23, 1968. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217.

56. 56 “Summary Minutes of Meeting,” 1968.

57. 57 Again, this is not a situation unique to Fort McKay and is well covered by Patricia Sawchuk in her article “The Creation of a Non-Status Indian Population in Alberta,” 1979. There are also many parallels to the experience of the Indigenous community in Grande Cache, which is described in detail by Trudy Nicks and Kenneth Morgan in “Grande Cache” and by Joe Sawchuk et. al. Metis Land Rights.

58. 58 G. W. Fyfe to F. W. Picard, “Re: Fort McKay,” October 17, 1968. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 216.

59. 59 D. J. Armstrong to J. E. Oberholtzer, “Re: Temporary Committee – Fort McKay.” PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217. The committee members included Chairman Francis Orr, Sub-Chairmen Andrew Boucher, Zachery Powder, James Grandjambe, and Secretary Teresa Grandjambe.

60. 60 R. H. Botham to file, “Re: Fort McKay,” November 13, 1968. GR1979.0152, box 16, item 216.

61. 61 B. R. Orysiuk to N. F. W. Picard, “Re: Fort McKay,” November 15, 1968. GR1979.0152, box 16, item 216. Of course, remember that the federal government had committed to providing supplies to the First Nations members separately.

62. 62 Roy L. Piepenburg to T. G. Armstrong, “Bus Transportation for Workers, Fort McKay, Alberta. 9 January 1969.” PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217. In the meeting, Wilfred Granjamb represented the First Nations, while Henry Shott and Percy Lacorde represented Métis interests. See “Fort McKay,” Glenbow Museum and Archives, M4755, file 470.

63. 63 Noel Dant to George Armstrong, November 26, 1968. PAA, GR76.502, box 15, Community Development – Fort MacKay.

64. 64 J. E. Oberholtzer to G. J. Armstrong, “Re: Fort MacKay,” March 10, 1969. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217; the same letter is also found in PAA, GR76.502, box 15, Community Development – Fort MacKay.

65. 65 C. J. McAndrews to J. E. Oberholtzer, “Re: Fort McKay,” May 13, 1970. PAA, GR1979.0152, box 16, item 217.

66. 66 Unfortunately, there is very little biographical information available regarding Jim Ducharme, although a man by the same name, shortly after this episode, became the president of the Métis Association of Alberta (1971–1972), and it seems highly likely that this was the same person. Lawrence J. Barkwell, Métis Dictionary of Biography, Volume D (Winnipeg: Louis Riel Institute, 2015), 118.

67. 67 J. Ducharme to G. J. Armstrong, “Re: Fort McKay,” July 6, 1970. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217.

68. 68 J. Ducharme to G. J. Armstrong, “Re: Fort McKay,” July 6, 1970.

69. 69 Premier Harry Strom to Stan Daniels, “Suggested Draft Reply,” July 8, 1970. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217.

70. 70 G. J. Armstrong and J. A. Ducharme to Honorable R.A. Speaker, “Re: Fort McKay Recommendations,” October 9, 1970. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217.

71. 71 AHURC is an acronym for Alberta Housing and Urban Renewal Corporation. Provincial Archives of Alberta, An Administrative History of the Government of Alberta (Edmonton: Provincial Archives of Alberta, 2006), 329.

72. 72 G. J. Armstrong and J. A. Ducharme to Honorable R. A. Speaker, “Re: Fort McKay Recommendations,” October 9, 1970. PAA, GR1979.0152, box 16, item 217.

73. 73 G. J. Armstrong and J. A. Ducharme to Honorable R. A. Speaker, “Re: Fort McKay,” 1970.

74. 74 A. C. Towill to G. J. Armstrong, “Re: Fort McKay – Assistant H.R.O. – George Sanderson,” November 9, 1970. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217.

75. 75 G. J. Armstrong to Phillip McDonald, January 13, 1971. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217; G.J. Armstrong to Ed Tourangeau, January 13, 1971. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217. At the time, the government was in discussions with a number of isolated northern Indigenous communities about creating land or housing co-ops. In total, the government created twelve such co-ops, with the one at Peerless Lake being the first. For more on this topic see: Public Lands Division, “Isolated Native Communities in Northern Alberta – Implications of Land Tenure Alternatives,“ April 1973. PAA ACC PR1987.0303 - File 59.

76. 76 G. J. Armstrong to J. E. Oberholtmer, “Re: Fort McKay,” December 1 , 1971. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217.

77. 77 T. F. Roach to G.J. Armstrong “Memorandum,” November 22, 1971. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217.

78. 78 T. F. Roach to G.J. Armstrong “Memorandum,” November 22, 1971.

79. 79 T. F. Roach to G.J. Armstrong “Memorandum,” November 22, 1971.

80. 80 Government of Alberta Land Use Secretariat, Understanding Land Use in Alberta (Edmonton: Government of Alberta, 2007), 9.

81. 81 Edward W. Van Dyke and Carmon Loberg, Community Studies: Fort McMurray, Anzac, Fort MacKay, (Edmonton: Alberta Oil Sands Environmental Research Program, 1978), 126–29. Also see, Peter Fortna, “‘A moral if not legal responsibility:’ Métis Land Tenure in Northern Alberta, 1965–2000,” Canadian Historical Association Annual Conference, 2021.

82. 82 G. J. Armstrong to J. E. Oberholtmer, “Re: Fort McKay,” November 24, 1971. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217.

83. 83 J. E. Oberholtzer to Armstrong, “Re: Fort McKay,” November 30, 1971. PAA, GR1979.0152 box 16, item 217.

84. 84 G. J. Armstrong to J. E. Oberholtmer, “Re: Fort McKay,” December 1, 1971. PAA, GR1979.0152, box 16, item 217.

85. 85 Métis Association of Alberta, “The Métis People and the Land Question in Alberta,” 1971, PAA GR1979.0152, Métis-Societies, “Métis Association of Alberta file,” box 8. While this shift accelerated after the election of the PC government, it began in the late 1960s when the Métis Association of Alberta (MAA) was able to secure significant funding (nearly $250,000 in 1969 and $450,000 in 1970 and 1971) from the Alberta government. With the funding, the MAA positioned itself as representing the collective voice of all Métis in the province, though in actuality, particularly in the early years, it was a somewhat fragmented and new organization. For more on the early history of the MAA see Joe Sawchuk, The Dynamics of Native Politics: The Alberta Experience (Saskatoon: Purich Publishing, 1998), 49–69.

86. 86 T. F. Roach, “Memo for file, Re: Metis Residents – Fort McKay,” May 24, 1972. PAA, GR1979.0152, box 16, item 217.

87. 87 T. F. Roach, “Memo for file.”

88. 88 Zachary Powder to Stan Daniels, April 12, 1973, Glenbow Museum and Archives, M4755, file 470; Stan Daniels to Zachary Powder, April 18, 1973. Glenbow Museum and Archives, M4755, file 470.

89. 89 Edward Tourangeau to Stan Daniels, July 27, 1973, Glenbow Museum and Archives, M4755, file 470.

90. 90 Edward Tourangeau to Stan Daniels, August 23, 1973, Glenbow Museum and Archives, M4755, file 470.

91. 91 Metis Association of Alberta, “Definition of Native Housing Conditions” N.D. PAA, GR1979.0152, box 14 item 169.

92. 92 Alberta Housing Corporation Metis Housing Program. N.D. PAA, GR1979.0152, box 14 item 169.

93. 93 Alberta Northern Alberta Development Council, Annual Report, 1973–1974 (Edmonton: ANADC, 1974), 20.

94. 94 Honourable Robert Bogle, “Request for Cabinet Decision: Land Tenure Secretariat” May 8, 1975. GR1979.0152, box 13 item 158.

95. 95 The Metis Association of Alberta, “A Submission for a Housing Program for Metis and Non-Status Indians in the Province of Alberta,” April 1, 1974. PAA ACC GR1979.0152, Box 1, Item 1.

96. 96 H. Jane Fournier to S. J. Sinclaire, March 27, 1974. Glenbow Museum and Archives, M4755, file 968; Red River Point Society to Alberta Housing Corporation, April 8, 1974. Glenbow Museum and Archives, M4755, file 968.

97. 97 Van Dyke, Lives in Transition, 17, 41.

98. 98 Van Dyke, Lives in Transition, 74.

99. 99 Van Dyke, Lives in Transition, 75.

100. 100 Peter Fortna, “Wahkotowin, Keemooch, and Home: A History of the Conklin Métis Community, 1886–2020” in Prairie History 8 (Summer 2022): 55–71. To understand the impacts of this policy, see Peter Fortna, “How Much Longer?” A Preliminary Assessment of Homelessness in Conklin, Alberta,” (Conklin: Conklin Resource Development Advisory Committee, 2018).

101. 101 Van Dyke, Lives in Transition, 18.

102. 102 John Goddard, Last Stand of the Lubicon Cree (Vancouver/Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 1992), 49.

103. 103 John Goddard, Last Stand, 1992, 49–52. Also see Tom Flanagan, “Lubicon Lake: The Success and Failure of Radical Activism,” in Blockades or Breakthroughs?: Aboriginal Peoples Confront the Canadian State, eds. Yale D. Belanger and P. Whitney Lackenbauer (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014); Christine Mary Smillie, “The People Left Out of Treaty 8” (master’s thesis, University of Saskatchewan, 2005), 65–71.

104. 104 Geoff White, “Accord on Land Claim Reached With Two Northern Native Groups” Calgary Herald October 13, 1978.

105. 105 Ian Williams, “Small Alberta Community Faces Pressure-filled Future” Edmonton Journal, June 6, 1979.

106. 106 Marvin E. Moore to Dorothy McDonald, April 10, 1980. PAA ACC PR. 1993.362 File 1081.

107. 107 Fortna, “Fort McKay Métis Community.”

108. 108 Dorothy McDonald to Marvin Moore, Minister of Municipal Affairs, July 10, 1981. PAA, Acc PR1993.0362, file 1079.

109. 109 Fortna, “Wahkotowin, Keemooch, and Home.”; “Fortna, “How Much Longer.;” RMWB, “Briefing Note.”

110. 110 The Red River Point Society was formally dissolved in 1988, replaced by the Métis Local 122. The Alberta Gazette, PART 1 vol. 91, Edmonton, Tuesday, January 31, 1995. http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/gazette/1995/text/0131_i.cfm.

111. 111 Alberta Municipal Affairs, Local Government Services Division, Fort McKay Métis Local #122 Lease, Agreement No. AMA 2001-001, Hamlet of Fort McKay, 2001, Fort McKay Métis Nation Archive. While the original 1987 lease agreement has been lost, it was explained that the 2001 agreement was a continuation of the five-year leases that began in 1987 with nearly identical terms and conditions.

112. 112 Van Dyke, Life in Transition, 75.

113. 113 Tom Flanagan, The Community Capitalism of the Fort McKay First Nation (Vancouver: Fraser Institute, 2018).

114. 114 Personal Correspondence, Ron Quintal, July 25, 2019. It is also worth mentioning that this situation was not fully addressed until the management of the lease was transferred from Métis Local 122 to Métis Local 63.

115. 115 The Alberta Gazette, Part 1, June 14, 2003 http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/gazette/2003/text/0614_i.cfm.

116. 116 In 1991, the Métis Association of Alberta changed its name to the Métis Nation of Alberta . Métis Nation of Alberta, “Timeline,” https://albertametis.com/metis-in-alberta/timeline/.

117. 117 Pearl Calahasen to Calvin Kennedy, March 15, 2006. Fort McKay Métis Nation Archive.

118. 118 Brian Quickfall to Ron Qutinal, April 25, 2006. Fort McKay Métis Nation Archive.

119. 119 Brian Quickfall to Ron Qutinal, April 25.

120. 120 Norma Chitrena to Cort Callup, “FW: Fort McKay Sustainable Remote Housing,” January 8, 2007. Fort McKay Métis Nation Archive.

121. 121 Alberta Municipal Affairs and Housing, Local Services Division, September 21, 2007, Memorandum of Lease Agreement between Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Alberta as Represented by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Fort McKay Métis Local 63. Fort McKay Métis Nation Archive.

122. 122 Wayne Jackson to Ron Quintal, “Fort McKay Lease,” June 9, 2009. Fort McKay Métis Nation Archive.

123. 123 Wayne Jackson to Ron Quintal, “Re: Moving Forward,” January 9, 2010. Fort McKay Métis Nation Archive.

124. 124 Thomas Droege to Donavon Young, “Re: Fort McKay Visit,” March 8, 2012. Fort McKay Métis Nation Archive. It seems that a copy of this email that was exchanged between Thomas Droege and Donovan Young, was given to Ron Quintal by Nicole Budgell who was initially copied on the correspondence.

125. 125 This topic is explored more fully in Fort McKay Métis Nation, “The Fort McKay Métis Nation Position Paper on Consultation and Self-Government,” which is included as an appendix in this volume.

126. 126 Fort McKay Métis Nation, “‘History Has Been Made’: Fort McKay Métis First in Canadian History to Adopt a Constitution and Declare Self-Governance,” May 24, 2019. https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/-history-has-been-made-fort-mckay-metis-first-in-canadian-history-to-adopt-a-constitution-and-declare-self-governance-895627043.html.

127. 127 Raffy Boudjikanian, “Breaking New Ground: Métis in Alberta Buy Their Land From Province for 1^st Time in Canada.” CBC News, March 28, 2018. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/metis-land-purchase-mckay-alberta-1.4596299.

notes to Chapter 5

1. 1 Larry Pratt, The Tar Sands: Syncrude and the Politics of Oil (Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1976); Liza Piper and Heather Green, “A Province Powered by Coal: The Renaissance of Coal Mining in Late Twentieth-century Alberta,” The Canadian Historical Review 98, no. 3 (2017).

2. 2 Tina Loo, “High Modernism, Conflict, and the Nature of Change in Canada: A Look at Seeing Like a State,” Canadian Historical Review 1 (March 2016), 97; Tina Loo, “Disturbing the Peace: Environmental Change and the Scales of Justice on a Northern River.” Environmental History, Special Issue on Canada (October 2007); James L. Kenny and Andrew Secord, “Engineering Modernity: Hydro-Electric Development in New Brunswick, 1945–70,” Acadiensis 39, no. 1 (2010); Liza Piper and Heather Green, “A Province Powered by Coal: The Renaissance of Coal Mining in Late Twentieth-century Alberta,” The Canadian Historical Review 98, no. 3 (2017); Philip Van Huizen, “Building a Green Dam: Environmental Modernism and the Canadian-American Libby Dam Project,” Pacific Historical Review 79, no. 2 (2010). Daniel Sims “Ware’s Waldo: Hydroelectric Development and the Creation of the Other in British Columbia,” in Sustain the West: Cultural Responses to Canadian Environments, ed. Liza Piper and Lisa Szabo-Jones (Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier Press, 2015).

3. 3 For example, Tina Loo, Moved by the State: Forced Relocation and Making a Good Life in Postwar Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019); John Sandlos and Arn Keeling, “The Giant Mine’s Long Shadow: Arsenic Pollution and Native People in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories,” in Mining North America: An Environmental History since 1522, ed. J. R. McNeill and George Vrtis (Oakland: University of California Press, 2017).

4. 4 Fort McKay Community Committee, “Intervention Filed with the Energy Resources Conservation Board by the Fort McKay Community Committee in Relation to the Proposed GCOS Expansion Application 780318.” Energy Resources Conservation Board, Application No. 780318, January 19, 1979, 2. Also see Hereward Longley, “Indigenous Battles for Environmental Protection and Economic Benefits during the Commercialization of the Alberta Oil Sands, 1967–1986,” in Mining and Communities in Northern Canada: History, Politics and Memory, ed. Arn Keeling and John Sandlos (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2015), 213–15.

5. 5 This is not to say that the community of Fort McKay did not have to deal with the provincial and federal governments before building the modern oil sands developments. However, those interactions did not require society to be “turned upside down” and could be managed using traditional structures. The coming of the major oil sands projects forced many of these structures to be remade through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

6. 6 Van Dyke, Life in Transition, 88.

7. 7 Van Dyke and Loberg, Community Studies. For the broader context see for example, David DesBrisay, “The Impact of Major Resource Development Projects on Aboriginal Communities: A Review of the Literature,” Royal Commission on Aboriginal People (Feb. 1994); Angela C. Angell and John R. Parkins, “Resource Development and Aboriginal Culture in the Canadian North,” Polar Record, 47, no. 1 (Jan. 2011); Ginger Gibson and Jason Klinck, “Canada’s Resilient North: The Impact of Mining on Aboriginal Communities” Pimatiswin 3 (2005); Claudia Notzke, Aboriginal People and Natural Resources in Canada (North York: Captus Press Inc., 1996).

8. 8 Van Dyke, Lives in Transition, 131–37. Also see Edward W. Van Dyke and Jane Lee Van Dyke, Ft. McKay Needs Assessment and Planning Study (Calgary: Bear-Spike Holdings Ltd., 1990).

9. 9 Energy Resources Conservation Board, “Oil Sands, Tar Island Area, Application No. 78318, Notice of Hearing.” Energy Resources Conservation Board, Application No. 780318, December 11, 1978.

10. 10 Fort McKay Community Committee, “Intervention Filed with the Energy Resources Conservation Board by the Fort McKay Community Committee in Relation to the Proposed GCOS Expansion Application 780318.” Energy Resources Conservation Board, Application No. 780318, January 19, 1979.

11. 11 Ian Williams, “Small Alberta Community Fights for Rights,” Edmonton Journal, June 6, 1979.

12. 12 A point also emphasized by Van Dyke in his community analysis. See Van Dyke, Lives in Transition.

13. 13 Longley, “Indigenous Battles,” 213.

14. 14 Fort McKay Community Committee, “Intervention 780318,” 4.

15. 15 Bobbi Lambright, “GCOS and ERCB Responsibility Raises Concerns at Hearings,” Fort McMurray Today, February 1, 1979, 3.

16. 16 Lambright, “GCOS and ERCB Responsibility.”

17. 17 Lambright, “GCOS and ERCB Responsibility.”

18. 18 Longley, “Indigenous Battles,” 214. Also, remarks in later submissions and testimony to environmental impact assessments for later oil sands projects point to ongoing problems in all these areas.

19. 19 As quoted in Longley, “Indigenous Battles,” 217.

20. 20 Graeme Bethell, Preliminary Inventory of the Environmental Issues and Concerns Affecting the People of Fort MacKay, Alberta (Brentwood Bay, BC, Bethell Management Ltd., 1985), 38.

21. 21 Bethell, “Preliminary Inventory,” 39.

22. 22 Bethell, “Preliminary Inventory,” 39.

23. 23 Bethell, “Preliminary Inventory,” 39. This story is also discussed at length in Longley, “Indigenous Battles.”

24. 24 “Suncor Admits Dumping Oil, Grease into River,” The Red Deer Advocate, February 26, 1982.

25. 25 “Firm Too Busy to Report Pollution: Province, Indians Take Action,” Edmonton Journal, March 1, 1982.

26. 26 “Suncor Spends Millions on Waste Water System,” Fort McMurray Today, June 18, 1982.

27. 27 Longley, “Indigenous Battles,” 216.

28. 28 Mark Dent, “Will Prosecutor Be Ready at Suncor Trial?” Fort McMurray Today, January 21, 1983. Rod Hyde notes that this was perhaps an exaggeration, as McDonald more accurately “stomped” out of the courtroom.

29. 29 Editorial, “Explanations, Please,” Edmonton Journal, October 30, 1982.

30. 30 Ken Nelson, “The Case Against Suncor,” Fort McMurray Today, October 26, 1982.

31. 31 Longley, “Indigenous Battles,” 216.

32. 32 Dent, “Will Prosecutor Be Ready.”

33. 33 Jackie MacDonald, “McKay Band to ‘Intervene in Suncor Plan,’” August 24, 1982.

34. 34 Van Dyke, Ft. McKay Needs Assessment.

35. 35 Shortly after this, Mr. Boucher was elected as a councillor, though it seems he continued to support community interventions through the 1980s.

36. 36 For more concerning the history of Bill C-31 see Gerard Hartley, The Search for Consensus: A Legislative History of Bill C-31, 1969–1985 (London, ON: Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International, 2007). Additionally see Bonita Lawrence, “Real” Indians and Others: Mixed-Blood Urban Native Peoples and Indigenous Nationhood (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004); Pamela D. Palmater, Beyond Blood: Rethinking Indigenous Identity (Saskatoon: Purich Publishing Ltd. 2011).

37. 37 “Natives Abandon Sexist Provision,” Toronto Globe and Mail, April 9, 1982.

38. 38 “Natives Abandon Sexist Provision.”

39. 39 Gabrielle Donnelly, Indigenous Women in Community Leadership Case Studies: Fort McKay First Nation, Alberta (Antigonish, NS, Coady International Institute, 2012), 5

40. 40 “Natives Abandon Sexist Provision.”

41. 41 Palmater, Beyond Blood,” 30.

42. 42 Van Dyke Ft. McKay Needs Assessment.

43. 43 Van Dyke Ft. McKay Needs Assessment, 15.

44. 44 Doug Tattrie, “MacKay Indians Setup Blockade,” Fort McMurray Today, January 14, 1983.

45. 45 Doug Tattrie, “Natives Protest Logging Plan,” Fort McMurray Today, December 23, 1982. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to locate a copy of the original press release, though it is cited extensively verbatim in the Tattrie news article.

46. 46 Tattrie, “MacKay Indians Setup Blockade.”

47. 47 Barry Nelson, “Road Ban Halts Clash of Cultures,” Globe and Mail, January 22, 1983, 8; “A Stand at Fort MacKay: Northern Indians Claim a Blockade Victory,” Alberta Report, January 31, 1983; Larry Tucker, “Female Chief Attacks Red Tape,” Edmonton Sun, March 3, 1984; Gordon Legge and Peter O’Neil, “The Band That Pushed Back,” Maclean’s, January 31, 1983. Rod Hyde also explained that most, if not all, of the TV and radio programs also picked up the story.

48. 48 Brian Laghi, “Shields Condemns Protest,” Fort McMurray Today, January 18, 1983.

49. 49 Ed Struzik and Duncan Thorne, “Natives Callous, Pahl says,” Edmonton Journal, January 18, 1983.

50. 50 Legge and O’Neil, “The band That Pushed Back.”

51. 51 Ed Struzik, “Survival More Than Safety Roadblock Issue, Chief Says,” Edmonton Journal, January 14, 1983.

52. 52 Doug Tattrie, “Tentative Pact OK’d: Protestors to Vote on Offer,” Fort McMurray Today, January 20, 1983.

53. 53 Tattrie, “Tentative Pact OK’d.”

54. 54 Jackie MacDonald, “Indian Chief Dorothy McDonald: Fierce Fighter of Rights,” Calgary Sun, August 7, 1983.

55. 55 “Dorothy Keeps on Swinging,” Fort McMurray Express, January 19, 1983.

56. 56 Brian Laghi and Doug Tattrie, “Dump Allegations Exaggerated,” Fort McMurray Today, February 24, 1983.

57. 57 “McKay Band Wins Appeal to Delay Hearing on New Syncrude Dump,” Edmonton Journal, January 24, 1983.

58. 58 Brian Laghi, “Syncrude Waste Dump ‘No Health Risk’ – Gov’t,” Fort McMurray Today, February 28, 1983.

59. 59 Michael Moralis, “Chief Could Delay Expansion,” Fort McMurray Today, June 6, 1984.

60. 60 Michael Moralis, “Environment Data Poor,” Fort McMurray Today, June 15, 1984.

61. 61 Michael Moralis, “ERCB Holds the Cards in Syncrude’s Hearing,” June 16, 1984.

62. 62 Michael Board, “ERCB Move Will Stall Expansion,” Fort McMurray Today, August 22, 1984.

63. 63 Michael Board, “ERCB Approves Syncrude Expansion,” Fort McMurray Today, October 5, 1984. Interestingly, this remains an ongoing challenge as companies complain that many legitimate community concerns remain outside the regulator’s purview. For a discussion of this issue, see Pat McCormack, “Studying the Social and Cultural Impacts of ‘Extreme Extraction’ in Northern Alberta” in Extracting Home in the Oil Sands: Settler Colonialism and Environmental Change in Subarctic Canada, eds. Clinton N. Westman, Tara L. Joly, and Lena Gross (London and New York: Routledge, 2020).

64. 64 The Ft. McKay Community, A Review of the Biophysical Impact Assessment and Reclamation Plan for New Mining Areas in Support of Approved New Facilities at the Syncrude Canada Ltd. Mildred Lake Plant, (Fort McKay, January 1986), i.

65. 65 Dorothy McDonald to Vern Millard, “Re: A Review of the Biophysical Impact Assessment and Reclamation Plan for New Mining Areas in Support of Approved New Facilities at the Syncrude Canada Ltd. Mildred Lake Plant,” January 31, 1986, as found in The Ft. McKay Community, A Review of the Biophysical Impact Assessment and Reclamation Plan for New Mining Areas in Support of Approved New Facilities at the Syncrude Canada Ltd. Mildred Lake Plant (Fort McKay, January 1986).

66. 66 For example, see Graeme Bethell, Preliminary Inventory, ii–iii.

67. 67 Dayle Hyde, personal correspondence, August 6, 2020.

68. 68 Ken Younger, “New Chief Promises Conciliatory Approach: A Number of Projects Scheduled for Fort MacKay Band,” Fort McMurray Today, August 6, 1986.

69. 69 Tom Flanagan, The Community Capitalism of the Fort McKay First Nation (Vancouver: Fraser Institute, 2018).

70. 70 Mike Mercredi, Director of the Athabasca Native Development Corporation, in LAC, Royal Commission on Aboriginal People Testimony, Fort McMurray, ALTA 92-06-16, p. 140. http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/aboriginal-heritage/royal-commission-aboriginal-peoples/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=38.

71. 71 Wood Buffalo Environmental Association, “History and Evolution.” https://web.archive.org/web/20220817080309/https://wbea.org/about/history-and-evolution/; Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program, “About,” http://www.ramp-alberta.org/ramp.aspx; Cumulative Environmental Management Association, “About CEMA,” https://web.archive.org/web/20180929181544/http://cemaonline.ca/index.php/about-us/cema-history. Also see Peter Fortna, “Incorporating the Findings from the CEMA Indigenous Traditional Knowledge Framework into the Alberta Environmental Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting Agency: Key Findings and Recommendations.” A Report Submitted to AEMERA, June 25, 2016, p. 6–12. http://www.willowspringsss.com/blog/report-incorporating-the-findings-from-the-cema-indigenous-traditional-knowledge-framework-into-the-alberta-environmental-monitoring-evaluation-reporting-agency-key-findings-and-recommendations.

72. 72 Syncrude Expansion Review Group, “A report of the Syncrude Expansion Review Group Regarding the Mildred Lake Plant Expansion, Application No. 870593 to the Energy Resources Conservation Board” (March 1988), 37. Also see Longley, “Indigenous Battles,” 223.

73. 73 Tom Flanagan estimates that the Fort McKay First Nation’s Group of Companies grew in revenue from $120,000 in the first year to $6 million in 1996 to $150 million in 2004. Flanagan, Community Capitalism, 4–5.

74. 74 Ian Urquhart, “Between the Sands and Hard Place? Aboriginal Peoples and the Oil Sands,” Working Paper No. 10-005. Evanston, IL.: Buffet Centre for International and Comparative Studies Working Paper: Energy Series, 2010, 19. https://doi.org/10.21985/N2BB4K.

75. 75 Urquhart, “Between the Sands.” While the three-year agreement was signed in 1999, the Fort McKay IRC was incorporated approximately a year prior. See Kelly Vivier, “Environmental Students Stop in Fort McKay,” Fort McKay Today, May 16, 1998. https://www.newspapers.com/article/fort-mcmurray-today/124985242/.

76. 76 Fort McKay Métis Nation, “Position Paper.”

77. 77 Fort McKay Industry Relations Corporation Agreement – Fort McKay and Mobil Oil Canada Properties, Shell Canada Limited, Suncor Energy Inc., & Syncrude Canada Ltd., August 5, 1999, 12.

78. 78 Fort McKay Industry Relations, 2.

79. 79 Heather Devine, “The Alberta Dis-Advantage: Métis Issues and the Public Discourse in Wild Rose Country.” London Journal of Canadian Studies 26 (2010/11): 37–53. FMMN, “Position Paper.”

80. 80 Urquhart, “Between the Sands,” 2010, 22.

81. 81 Carol Christian, “Métis Group Disputes Syncrude’s Claim of Aboriginal Investment,” Fort McMurray Today, November 7, 2008.

82. 82 Fort McKay Métis Position Paper; Ron Quintal Interview, October 26, 2022.

83. 83 Tom Flanagan estimates that the Fort McKay First Nation’s Group of Companies grew in revenue from $120,000 in the first year to $6 million in 1996 to $150 million in 2004. Flanagan, Community Capitalism, 4–5. It is also worth noting that while the First Nation’s Group of Companies was experiencing exponential growth, the Métis Group of Companies was dealing with the fallout from the Solv-Ex bankruptcy, which hindered its ability to capitalize on the opportunities available in the region. Urquhart estimates the amount to only be “$100 million” in 2004, but regardless, the First Nation’s companies were exceptionally successful in the new millennium. Urquhart, 23

84. 84 Fort McKay First Nation, Annual Report 2018, (Fort McKay: Fort McKay First Nation, 2019 https://www.fortmckay.com/app/uploads/2020/01/FMFN_2018AnnualReport.pdf.

85. 85 Patrick Nichol, “Native Firms Hired on by Solv-Ex,” Fort McMurray Today, July 19, 1996.

86. 86 Nichol, “Native Firms,” 1996.

87. 87 Manuel P. Asensio with Jack Barth, Sold Short: Uncovering Deception in the Markets (Danvers, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2001), 75.

88. 88 Patrick Nichol, “Solv-Ex Faces Class-action Lawsuit Again,”

89. 89 Irene Thomas, “Solv-Ex Creditors Not Optimistic,” Fort McMurray Today, August 26, 1997.

90. 90 Ron Quintal “Interview,” 2.

91. 91 When the original twenty-five-year lease between the Red River Point Society and the provincial government expired in 1987, it was transferred to the Fort McKay Métis Local 122 on a new five-year lease with similar terms. Alberta Municipal Affairs Agreement No. AMA 2001-001, Hamlet of Fort McKay, 2001.

92. 92 Ron Quintal “Interview,” 11.

93. 93 Ron Quintal “Interview,” 11.

94. 94 Flanagan, Community Capitalism, 4–5.

95. 95 Flanagan, Community Capitalism, 4–5.

96. 96 The Fort McKay Métis Nation does not have records to determine how many members joined the First Nation since Bill C-31 was first introduced. However, community estimates are that between 20% and 40% of community members have chosen to join. Interestingly, as the law is currently drafted, many of the children of First Nations members who rejoined the FMFN through Bill C-31 (and Bill C-3) will not qualify for First Nation status as the laws are currently drafted. It is expected that the majority of these people will rejoin the Fort McKay Métis Nation should they chose to complete an application. For more on this topic see HEG, “Integrated Cultural Assessment,” 262–68.

97. 97 Ron Quintal, “Interview,” 45–46; Alberta Municipal Affairs and Housing, Local Services Division, September 21, 2007, Memorandum of Lease Agreement between Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Alberta as Represented by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Fort McKay Métis Local 63.

98. 98 Human Environment Group, “Indicators of Cultural Change (1960 to 2009): A Framework for Selecting Indicators Based on Cultural Values in Fort McKay” (Fort McKay: Fort McKay Industrial Relations Corporation, 2009), 8–9.

99. 99 Human Environment Group, “Indicators,” 55–57.

100. 100 McKay Métis Nation-Local 63, “5-Year Strategic Plan,” 1–2.

101. 101 McKay Métis Nation-Local 63, “5-Year Strategic Plan,” 1–2.

102. 102 Métis Nation of Alberta, “Bylaws of the Métis Nation of Alberta Association,” updated October 28, 2010.

103. 103 For example, see Métis Nation of Alberta, “Policy Guidelines Regarding the Duty to Consult and Accommodate Métis Aboriginal Rights and Interests in Alberta,” July 2009, 2. This shift is described in the Fort McKay Métis Nation’s “Position Paper.”

104. 104 Ron Quintal, “Interview,” 20. Also see FMMN, “Position Paper.”

105. 105 Ron Quintal, “Interview,” 20

106. 106 Fort McKay Métis Nation, “Fort McKay Métis Community: Bylaw Summary PowerPoint Presentation,” 2011.

107. 107 Fort McKay Métis Nation, “Position Paper,” 11.

108. 108 Fort McKay Métis Nation, “Position Paper,” 11.

109. 109 Fort McKay Métis Nation, “Position Paper,” 11–12.

110. 110 Fort McKay Métis Nation, “Position Paper.”

111. 111 At a community meeting on November 28, 2018, the Fort McKay Métis Local 63 members in attendance unanimously voted to dissolve the organization. See Ron Quintal to Alberta Corporate Registries, “Re: Dissolution of The Metis Nation of Alberta, Association Local Council #63 of Fort McKay, Corporate Access #509974226,” December 5, 2018. In the following months, former members of Métis Local 63 formally terminated their membership in the MNA. See Métis Nation of Alberta, Métis Local 63 “Termination Letters.” For news coverage see Shari Narine, “Metis Local in Limbo as Government Policy Forces Members to Choose Who Represents Them,” Windspeaker, 1 April 2019. https://windspeaker.com/news/windspeaker-news/metis-local-limbo-government-policy-forces-members-choose-who-represents-them.

112. 112 Ron Quintal letter “Re: Fort McKay Metis Community Association Special Meeting – May 23, 2019” to Fort McKay Metis Community Association Members, April 25, 2019. Also see Fort McKay Métis Nation, “Position Paper,” 15–16.

113. 113 Boudjikanian, “Breaking New Ground,” March 28, 2018.

114. 114 Fort McKay Métis Nation, “‘History Has Been Made:’ Fort McKay Métis First in Canadian History to Adopt a Constitution and Declare Self-governance,” May 24, 2019. https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/-history-has-been-made-fort-mckay-metis-first-in-canadian-history-to-adopt-a-constitution-and-declare-self-governance-895627043.html. For the meeting details see Fort McKay Métis Community Association, “Member Package: Declaration of Self-Government: Fort McKay Métis Nation (Amendments to the bylaws of the Fort McKay Metis Community Association), May 23, 2019; Fort McKay Métis Community Association, “Special Meeting Minutes,” May 23, 2019.

115. 115 Alberta, “Métis Organization Establishes Right to Consultation,” 13 February 2020, https://www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=6861188357C08-C734-DA8D-FD73A149425FFE3D.

116. 116 Chris Nelson, “Fort McKay Métis Nation Builds Booming Business in Oilsands Sector,” Calgary Herald April 14, 2021. https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/fort-mckay-metis-nation-builds-booming-business-in-oilsands-sector.

notes to Epilogue

1. 1 Métis Nation of Alberta, “Public Notice: Re: Ron Quintal No Longer Ft. McKay Métis Local President,” Paid Advertisement, Fort McMurray Today, March 2019, 24–28, https://shopping.fortmcmurraytoday.com/places/view/483/m_tis_nation_of_alberta.html.

2. 2 Vincent McDermott, “Quintal Rejects MNA’s Claims of ‘Abandoning His Post’ as McKay Métis President,” Fort McMurray Today, March 28, 2019, https://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/news/local-news/quintal-rejects-mnas-claims-of-abandoning-his-post-as-mckay-metis-president.

3. 3 McDermott, “Quintal Rejects MNA’s Claims,” 2019. Also see Fort McKay Metis Community Association, “Press Statement: Reports that Fort McKay Metis President Ron Quintal Has Resigned False,” Windspeaker, March 27, 2019, https://windspeaker.com/news/opinion/press-statement-reports-fort-mckay-metis-president-ron-quintal-has-resigned-false. Fort McKay Métis, “Correction Notice: Re: False Reports that Fort McKay Metis President Ron Quintal Resigns” Paid Advertisement, Fort McMurray Today, March 26, 2019.

4. 4 Bianca Mazziotti, “Both Sides in Metis Governance Case See Judge’s Response as Good News for Future Plans,” Lakeland Today Jan. 29, 2020. https://www.lakelandtoday.ca/lac-la-biche-news/both-sides-in-metis-governmance-case-see-judges-response-as-good-news-for-future-plans-2037113.

5. 5 Alberta, “Métis Organization Establishes Right to Consultation.” February 13, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200929224333/https://ibftoday.ca/ab-government-metis-organization-establishes-right-to-consultation//. The provincial government’s Aboriginal Consultation Office confirmed the decision on March 26, 2020. See Alberta, “Fort McKay Metis Community Credible Assertion,” March 26, 2020. https://www.alberta.ca/indigenous-consultation-notices-and-information-updates.aspx .

6. 6 James. A. Cardinal and Jason Ekeberg, “Statement by the Métis Nation of Alberta Region One President & Vice President,” February 13, 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20210301123914/http://albertametis.com/2020/02/. Emphasis in the original.

7. 7 Métis Nation of Alberta “Appalled by Alberta Decision on Métis Consultation ‘It’s a Breach of the Honour of the Crown,’” February 13, 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20210301123914/http://albertametis.com/2020/02/. Also see Audrey Poitras, “Province is Siding With Wrong Métis Representatives,” Edmonton Journal, February 21, 2020.

8. 8 Métis Nation of Alberta “Appalled by Alberta Decision on Métis Consultation,” February 13, 2020. Madden’s position is more fully articulated in Jason Madden, “The Re-Emergence of Previously Slayed Metis Rights-Denial Dragons: The Dangers and Duplicity in Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation of Alberta Local# 125 v Alberta.” Osgoode Hall Law Journal 57, no. 1 (2020): 195-229.

9. 9 Métis Nation of Alberta, “Self-Governance,” www.albertametis.com/governance. For an alternative interpretation of Otipemisiwak see Fort McKay, “The Fort McKay Métis Nation Position Paper on Consultation and Self-Government,” which is included as an appendix in this volume.

10. 10 For example, see Jean Teillet, The North-West is our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel’s People (Toronto: Harper Collins Canada, 2019); Chris Andersen, Métis: Race, Recognition and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2014); Kelly Saunders and Janique Dubois, Métis Politics and Governance in Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019); the articles in A People and a Nation: New Directions in Contemporary Métis Studies, eds. Jennifer Adese and Chris Andersen (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021).

11. 11 For example, see Adam Gaudry, “Communing with the Dead: The “New Métis,” Métis Identity Appropriation, and the Displacement of Living Métis Culture,” The American Indian Quarterly 42, no. 2 (Spring 2018).

12. 12 For example, see Jennifer Adese and Chris Andersen, “Introduction: A New Era of Métis Studies Scholarship,” in A People and a Nation: New Directions in Contemporary Métis Studies, eds. Jennifer Adese and Chris Andersen (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021).

13. 13 Robert Alexander Innes, “Challenging a Racist Fiction: A Closer Look at Métis-First Nations Relations,” A People and a Nation: New Directions in Contemporary Métis Studies, eds. Jennifer Adese and Chris Andersen (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021), 94. Also see Innes, Elder Brother and the Law of the People, 2013, 83–89.

14. 14 Innes, “Challenging a Racist Fiction.”

15. 15 Ens and Sawchuk, From New Peoples to New Nations, 493.

16. 16 In many respects, this argument is not a new one and was well articulated as “Red River Myopia” by J. R. Miller in “From Riel to the Metis,” Canadian Historical Review, 96, 1 (1988).

17. 17 Justin Trudeau to Carolyn Bennett, “Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Mandate Letter,” Nov. 12, 2015, https://pm.gc.ca/en/mandate-letters/2015/11/12/archived-minister-indigenous-and-northern-affairs-mandate-letter. Emphasis added. Also see Kelly Saunders and Janique Dubois, Métis Politics and Governance in Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019), xii–xiii.

18. 18 In comparison, the Federal government currently recognizes 634 First Nations in Canada and has multiple agreements (treaties, self-government, special claims, etc.) with many, if not all, of them. By limiting their negotiations to only the five members of the Métis National Council (based in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario), the federal government would minimize the potential risk associated with having potentially hundreds of negotiating tables with many communities all with deferent interests and negotiating mandates.

19. 19 Canada, “Historic Self-government Agreements Signed with the Métis Nation of Alberta, the Métis Nation of Ontario and the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan,” June 27, 2019, https://www.canada.ca/en/crown-indigenous-relations-northern-affairs/news/2019/06/historic-self-government-agreements-signed-with-the-metis-nation-of-alberta-the-metis-nation-of-ontario-and-the-metis-nation-saskatchewan.html. The federal government has yet to sign a similar agreement with the Métis Nation of British Columbia. However, in 2018, they signed an MOU that would place “it on a path to self-determination.” See Canada, “Canada and Métis Nation of British Columbia Solidify Their Relationship,” July 25, 2018, https://www.canada.ca/en/crown-indigenous-relations-northern-affairs/news/2018/07/canada-and-metis-nation-british-columbia-solidify-their-relationship.html.

20. 20 Canada, Manitoba Métis Self-Government Recognition and Implementation Agreement, July 6, 2021. https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1641476532215/1641476589226. Also see CBC News, “Manitoba Metis Federation signs self-government agreement with feds,” July 6, 2021, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-metis-federation-self-government-agreement-1.6092332.

21. 21 Métis Nation of Alberta, “Otipemsiwak Métis Government Constitution: The Government of the Métis Nation within Alberta,” November 2022. https://albertametis.com/app/uploads/2023/09/Otipemisiwak_Metis_Government_Constitution.pdf.

22. 22 Métis Nation of Alberta, “Governance,” https://albertametis.com/governance/.

23. 23 Métis Nation of Alberta, “Métis Government Recognition and Self-Government Agreement Frequently Asked Questions,”https://albertametis.com/app/uploads/2019/08/MNA-MGRSA-FAQ-DOCUMENT-FINAL.pdf. It is worth noting that the Métis Nation of Alberta’s Constitutional Committee previously stated on their Frequently Asked Questions webpage that the MNA was“only representative of Métis in Alberta that has signed a self-government agreement with Canada.” The page, previously found at http://www.albertametisgov.com/faq/, has since been removed from the internet and scrubbed from www.archive.org.

24. 24 While Fort McKay is one group questioning the MNA’s authority to make such claims, they are not the only one. Some of these groups have joined together to create the Alberta Métis Federation. See Vincent McDermott, “Six Métis Communities Form Alberta Métis Federation, Breaking From Métis Nation of Alberta,” Fort McMurray Today, Feb. 27, 2020, https://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/news/local-news/six-metis-communities-form-alberta-metis-federation-breaking-from-metis-nation-of-alberta. Also see Alberta Métis Federation, https://albertametisfederation.ca/. The MNA also elides over the fact that the Alberta Métis Settlements General Council has been self-governing since at least the 1930s and has multiple agreements with both federal and provincial governments. To this point, the MNA states that “nothing prevents members of the Métis Settlements from registering as MNA citizens” and that they believe that their agreement with Canada provides them with the mandate “to represent all citizens of the Métis Nation within Alberta in asserting our inherent right to self-government.” The Métis Nation of Alberta, https://albertametis.com/metis-settlements/#:~:text=The%20MGRSA%20is%20clear%20that,inherent%20right%20to%20self%20government.

25. 25 The Métis Nation of Alberta, “Other Métis Governments and ‘Métis’ Organizations,” https://albertametis.com/other-metis-governments-and-metis-organizations/. Also see Métis Nation of Alberta, “Métis Government Recognition and Self-Government Agreement Frequently Asked Questions,” https://albertametis.com/app/uploads/2019/08/MNA-MGRSA-FAQ-DOCUMENT-FINAL.pdf.

26. 26 See the Court’s Judgement, section 2 in Metis Settlements General Council v. Canada (Crown-Indigenous Relation), 2024 FC 487I, https://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/en/item/525306/index.do#_Toc162431652.

27. 27 Court’s Judgement, section 2 in Metis Settlements,” especially paragraphs 57–65.

28. 28 UN General Assembly, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Resolution / Adopted by the General Assembly, (UNDRIP) 2 October 2007, A/RES/61/295, https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf.

29. 29 Canada, “Canada Becomes a Full Supporter of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” May 10, 2016, https://www.canada.ca/en/indigenous-northern-affairs/news/2016/05/canada-becomes-a-full-supporter-of-the-united-nations-declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html.

30. 30 Department of Justice Canada, “Legislation to Implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Becomes Law,” June 22, 2020, https://www.canada.ca/en/department-justice/news/2021/06/legislation-to-implement-the-united-nations-declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples-becomes-law.html.

31. 31 Larry Chartrand, “‘We Rise Again:’ Métis Traditional Governance and the Claim to Métis Self-Government,” in Aboriginal Self-government in Canada: Current Trends and Issues, eds. Ned Belanger and Yale Deron (Saskatoon: Purich Publishing, 2008), 147.

32. 32 Chartrand, “‘We Rise Again,” 2008, 149.

33. 33 Janique Dubois and Kelly Saunders, “‘Just Do It!’: Carving Out Space for Métis in Canadian Federalism,” Canadian Journal of Political Science/ Revue canadienne de science politique 46, no. 1 (2013). https://www.jstor.org/stable/43298128.

34. 34 Canada. Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP), “Métis Perspectives.” Vol. 4, Perspectives and Realities. In Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Ottawa: Ottawa: Canada Communications Group, 1996, 201, 202. https://data2.archives.ca/e/e448/e011188230-04.pdf.

35. 35 RCAP, “Métis Perspectives,” 187.

36. 36 Powley, 2–3.

37. 37 RCAP, “Métis Perspectives,” 190, 193.

38. 38 Metis Settlements General Council v. Canada (Crown-Indigenous Relation), 2024 FC 487

39. 39 Metis Settlements, par. 26–27, 38–41, 87, 93, 114, 119.

40. 40 For example, see Chris Andersen, Métis: Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Peoplehood (Vancouver: UBC Press 2014).

41. 41 A good summary of the Powley Test can be found at Métis Nation of Ontario, “Establishing a Métis Right,” https://www.metisnation.org/registry/the-powley-case/establishing-a-metis-right-the-powley-test/.

42. 42 Powley, para. 24.

43. 43 Alberta, “Métis Credible Assertion: Process and Criteria,” 2020. https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/e74ec17c-9cf6-4f2c-8dde-1cae21ae6b0c/resource/19a86947-5798-46e3-a150-a436ccfb2f6a/download/ir-metis-credible-asssertion.pdf.

44. 44 Jason Madden, “The Re-Emergence of Previously Slayed Metis Rights-Denial Dragons: The Dangers and Duplicity in Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation of Alberta Local# 125 v Alberta.” Osgoode Hall Law Journal 57, no. 1 (2020): 195–229.

45. 45 Catherine Bell and Paul Seaman. “A New Era for Métis Constitutional Rights? Consultation, Negotiation and Reconciliation.” Manitoba Law Journal 38, no. 1 (2014): 38.

46. 46 Bell and Seaman. “A New Era,” 42, 48.

47. 47 Lizotte 2009 paras. 26, 27, 29.

48. 48 Metis Settlements General Council v. Canada (Crown-Indigenous Relation), 2024 FC 487. Especially paras. 57, 137, 160–68.

49. 49 For a more in-depth discussion on this topic see Patricia McCormack, “The Willow Lake Métis,” Report submitted as part of the Alberta Credible Assertion Process, 2020, 15–49.

50. 50 R. v. Powley, 2003, SCC 43 (CanLII).

51. 51 James. A. Cardinal and Jason Ekeberg, “The Real Issues Emerging in Northeastern Alberta: Oil Sands Money, Greed and Unaccountable, “Métis Community Associations,” February 13, 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20210301123914/http://albertametis.com/2020/02/. Emphasis in the original.

52. 52 See the population numbers as presented by the MNA in Métis Nation of Alberta, “Governance,” 16 Feb 2018, (https://web.archive.org/web/20180216105354/https://albertametis.com/governance/) when compared to the numbers given in 2023 (https://albertametis.com/governance/).

53. 53 For example, in the 2018 election, 3,821 members cast ballots for the position of president, though the organization claims to have “almost 50,000” registered members of the Métis Nation of Alberta. Official Results as issued by the Chief Electoral Officer, Election 2018, https://albertametis.com/app/uploads/2018/09/Official-Results-All-Candidates-2018.pdf. This was a significant jump from the previous two elections, which only saw 1,533 votes in 2014 and 2,024 votes in 2010. See Métis Nation of Alberta, “Audrey Poitras Re-elected as Provincial President of the Métis Nation of Alberta,” September 5, 2014, https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/audrey-poitras-re-elected-as-provincial-president-of-the-metis-nation-of-alberta-515450541.html; Clint Buehler, “Alberta Métis Re-Elect Audrey Poitras, First Nations Drum, September 10, 2011, http://www.firstnationsdrum.com/2011/09/alberta-metis-re-elect-audrey-poitras/. Recently, the MNA claimed to have slightly under 64,000 members, though it is difficult to verify this number as the membership list is not publicly available. Metis Nation of Alberta, “Governance,” https://albertametis.com/governance/. It should be noted that in 2023, Poitras did step down, though the candidate she endorsed, Andrea Sandmaier, handily won the election with 5,693 of a possible 64,000 votes. Chris Steward, “Outgoing president of the Métis Nation of Alberta says she faced a ‘man’s world’ when first elected,” APTN News, September 18, 2023. https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/outgoing-president-of-the-metis-nation-of-alberta-says-she-faced-a-mans-world-when-first-elected/; Métis Nation of Alberta,“Métis Nation within Alberta Citizens elect new President and Citizens’ Council, formally becoming the Otipemisiwak Métis Government,” Press Release, September 21, 2023. https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/metis-nation-within-alberta-citizens-elect-new-president-and-citizens-council-formally-becoming-the-otipemisiwak-metis-government-818765383.html.

54. 54 Westey Simpson-Denig, “Constitutional Crisis at the Métis Nation of Alberta,” Yellowhead Institute February 9, 2023. https://yellowheadinstitute.org/2023/02/09/mna-constitutional-crisis/. While it is difficult to determine exactly how much the MNA spent on advertising for the constitutional vote, it is known that they purchased advertising newspapers, radio, and television. Additionally, they paid for billboards in major cities and advertisements on social media. To view the Meta advertisements see https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=all&ad_type=all&country=CA&view_all_page_id=339682308115&sort_data[direction]=desc&sort_data[mode]=relevancy_monthly_grouped&search_type=page&media_type=all.

55. 55 Ron Quintal, “The Métis Nation of Alberta Do Not Need the Proposed Constitution,” Calgary Herald, November 17, 2022, https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-the-metis-of-alberta-do-not-need-the-proposed-constitution. The opinion piece was written on behalf of the Fort McKay Métis Nation as well as the Lac Ste. Anne Métis Community Association, Cadotte Lake Métis Nation Association, Willow Lake Métis Association, The Athabasca Landing Métis Nation, The Chard Métis Nation, Lakeland Métis Community, Owl River Métis Community, Edmonton Métis Community.

56. 56 This point is made by Michel Houge, who argues that “the very existence of Métis communities across much of the twentieth century have largely remained invisible to many historians, archivists, and others in the scholarly community merits closer attention.” Michel Hogue, “Still Hiding in Plain Sight?: Historiography and Métis archival memory,” History Compass, 18, no. 2 (2020). Also see Ens and Sawchuk, From New Peoples to New Nations, esp. 490–507.

notes to APPENDIX

1. 1 This paper represents the position of the Fort McKay Métis Nation Council and they share it with the hope that it might spark a broader conversation about Métis governance. The Council would like to offer special thanks to Eddison Lee-Johnson and Peter Fortna, who helped to organize and present these positions in this paper, and Emily Boak, who produced the attached map. In addition, it would like to thank the multiple reviewers for providing additional perspectives, including Clayton Leonard, Patricia McCormack, Aron Taylor, and Anjalika Rogers. While the paper represents the opinions of the Nation, it is not meant as a legal document and should be used without prejudice.

   The Fort McKay Métis Nation (FMMN) has been registered as a trade name for the community and is in the process of being officially recognized by Alberta and Canada. FMMN replaces the Fort McKay Métis Community Association (FMMCA), which was the primary vehicle for representing the community from 2010 to 2020.

   The position paper was originally published on the Fort McKay Métis Nation website February 2021. Where possible, weblinks were updated in May 2024.

2. 2 Government of Alberta, “Métis Credible Assertion,” https://open.alberta.ca/publications/metis-credible-assertion-process-and-criteria.

3. 3 Alberta, “Métis Organization Establishes Right to Consultation,” 13 February 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20200929224333/https://ibftoday.ca/ab-government-metis-organization-establishes-right-to-consultation//.

4. 4 Numerous Métis people and groups sent their congratulations, both publicly and privately through social media platforms, phone calls, and emails. In particular, a number of the future members of the Alberta Métis Federation sent their well wishes, and those conversations have led a number of those groups to explore the possibility of charting a similar path through the credible assertion process. Beyond Métis groups, the Fort McKay First Nation also offered their congratulations: “Fort McKay First Nation Congratulates Fort McKay Métis,” Media Release, 14 February 2020, https://fortmckay.com/news/fort-mckay-first-nation-congratulates-fort-mckay-metis/. Much of the criticism levelled against the Fort McKay Métis Nation has come from the Métis Nation of Alberta, and can be found at https://web.archive.org/web/20210301123914/http://albertametis.com/2020/02/. In particular see releases from 26 February 2020; 13 February 2020; and 2 December 2019. A good summary of the current situation is provided by Shari Narine, “Metis Nation of Alberta Now Fighting on Three Fronts,” Windspeaker, 14 February 2020, https://windspeaker.com/news/windspeaker-news/metis-nation-alberta-now-fighting-three-fronts.

5. 5 Lavoie, “The Right to Be Heard,” 1215.

6. 6 This point was made explicit in Fort Chipewyan, para. 423.

7. 7 For example see: Metis Association of Alberta, “Principles & Parameters of Metis Self-Government in Alberta, (1986); Metis Nation of Alberta Association, “Final Report Metis Nation of Alberta Association: Royal Commission on Aboriginal People, (1995); Alberta Metis Otipemisiwak Commission, “Final Report,” (1995); Alberta Metis Association, “‘A New Direction:’ A Metis Governance Plan for Alberta (2008) and Jobin, Lindquist, and Letendre, “Métis Nation of Alberta Governance Framework Review Community Report,” (2017). A good summary of the situation is provided in Shari Narine, “MNA Member Not Confident Review of Structure Will Bring Necessary Changes,” Alberta Sweetgrass 24, no. 4 (2016). More recently, the MNA has begun the push toward an Alberta Métis Constitution, the details of which can be reviewed at www.albertametisgov.com. It is as yet unclear whether this latest process will have more success than others launched over the last thirty-plus years.

8. 8 Jen Gerson, “Métis Have Long Fared Better than Status Indians, So Why Do They Want to be Treated the Same?,” National Post, 26 January 2013. https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/metis-have-long-fared-better-than-status-indians-so-why-do-they-want-to-be-treated-the-same.

9. 9 Committees to which the Fort McKay Métis participated included: The Métis Nation of Alberta Region 1, Consultation Protocol Committee (2012–2014), the MNA Consultation Technical Committee (2016–2017).

10. 10 Fort McKay helped to reinitiate the Wood Buffalo Métis Corporation as a group to advocate for the rights of Métis people in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. The group’s founding memorandum of understanding can be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20240227123402/https://fdocuments.in/download/memorandum-of-understanding-wood-buffalo-metis.

11. 11 Métis Nation of Alberta – Government of Alberta, Framework Agreement, 1 February 2017, https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/eac3e6c9-e54f-4d4c-81f7-a47b8e39d7e9/resource/de6ebd40-9bbb-41ea-8ec2-fa4f06ebf607/download/mna-framework-agreement-jan-31-2017.pdf. The framework agreement was followed by a series of meetings where the development of the Alberta Métis consultation policy was discussed. A summary of these meetings can be found at Métis Nation of Alberta, “Developing a Métis Consultation Policy: Key highlights from meeting with Métis Nation of Alberta and Minister of Indigenous Relations,” 6 October 2017, https://web.archive.org/web/20180609095008/http://albertametis.com/2017/10/developing-metis-consultation-policy-key-highlights-meeting-metis-nation-alberta-minister-indigenous-relations/. Authors Kelly Saunders and Janique Dubois discuss how the question of how power should be centralized or decentralized within Métis governments has remained a “point of contention in Métis political circles.” Métis Politics and Governance in Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019), 58–59.

12. 12 Métis Nation of Alberta, Advancing Métis Rights and Claims in Alberta: Understanding the New Objective and Oath of Membership in the Métis Nation of Alberta’s Bylaws (Edmonton: Métis Nation of Alberta, 2017), https://web.archive.org/web/20210121044703/http://albertametis.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Advancing-M%C3%A9tis-Rights-and-Claims-in-Alberta.pdf.

13. 13 For example, see Donald McCargar, “Donald McCargar speaks out on case that proved Metis Nation of Alberta (MNAA) neither a nation nor a governing body—launches further appeal to further define the limited role of the MNAA,” 30 August 2018, https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/donald-mccargar-speaks-out-on-case-that-proved-metis-nation-of-alberta-mnaa-neither-a-nation-nor-a-governing-body---launches-further-appeal-to-further-define-the-limited-role-of-the-mnaa-692081591.html . A number of communities, including Fort McKay, expressed concern with the oath at the 2016 Métis Nation of Alberta general assembly, where ultimately a majority of the .5% of the membership that were present passed the changes to the bylaws.

14. 14 For more on the early history of Métis Settlement governance in the province see: Thomas C. Pocklington, The Government and Politics of the Alberta Métis Settlements (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, Regina); Catherine Bell, Alberta’s Metis Settlements Legislation: An Overview of Ownership and Management of Settlement Lands (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre, 1994); and Nicole O’Byrne, “‘No other weapon except organization’: The Métis Association of Alberta and the 1938 Métis Population Betterment Act,” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association  24, no. 2 (2013): 311–52.

15. 15 Patricia McCormack provides a good summary of the Court decisions in “The Willow Lake Métis: A Distinctive Métis Community.” (Edmonton: Native Bridges Consulting Inc., 2020).

16. 16 See: Jane E. Dickson, By Law or In Justice: The Indian Specific Claims Commission and the Struggle for Indigenous Justice (Vancouver: Purich Books, 2018).

17. 17 In the cases of Gooden and Hirsekorn, the Courts found Métis communities existed in clearly defined regions, even as the defendants’ pushed for the acceptance of “the entire northwest” or the “entire western plains and prairies” in their claims. Furthermore, as demonstrated in Lizotte 2009 ABPC 287 asserted that Métis communities that have organized themselves and that meet the conditions laid out in Powley should be recognized as being a rights holder. For a more in-depth discussion on this topic see McCormack, “The Willow Lake Métis,” 15–49.

18. 18 While these statements are found throughout the document, in particular see articles 1-9. UN General Assembly, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Resolution / Adopted by the General Assembly, 2 October 2007, A/RES/61/295, https://www.refworld.org/docid/471355a82.html.

19. 19 Lavoie, “The Right to Be Heard,” 1222.

20. 20 Joe Sawchuk, The Dynamics of Native Politics: The Alberta Metis Experience (Saskatoon: Purich Publishing, 1998); Joe Sawchuk, Patricia Sawchuk, and Theresa Ferguson, Métis Land Rights in Alberta: A Political History (Métis Association of Alberta: Edmonton, 1981).

21. 21 For example see: Mix 103.7, “Fort McKay Metis React to Alberta Court Lawsuit Dismissal against MNA,” 3 December 2019, https://www.play1037.ca/2019/12/03/80552/.

22. 22 Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation of Alberta Local #125 v Alberta, 2016 ABQB 713. https://www.canlii.org/en/ab/abqb/doc/2016/2016abqb713/2016abqb713.html.

23. 23 Lavoie, “The Right to Be Heard,” 1213.

24. 24 At a community meeting on 28 November 2019, 7 of the 10 members in attendance at the last meeting of the Fort McKay Métis Local 63 unanimously voted to dissolve the organization. Shari Narine, “Metis Local in Limbo as Government Policy Forces Members to Choose Who Represents Them,” Windspeaker, 1 April 2019. https://windspeaker.com/news/windspeaker-news/metis-local-limbo-government-policy-forces-members-choose-who-represents-them.

25. 25 Fortna, “Genealogical Narrative,” 17.

26. 26 Alberta, “Métis Organization Establishes Right to Consultation,” 13 February 2020, https://www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=6861188357C08-C734-DA8D-FD73A149425FFE3D

27. 27 Lavoie, “The Right to Be Heard,” 1216.

28. 28 Lavoie, “The Right to Be Heard,” 1219.

29. 29 To learn more about the McKay Métis Group please visit https://www.mckaymetisgroup.com/. A good definition of “social enterprise” is provided by Adam Barone, “Social Enterprise” Investopedia, 3 February 2020, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-enterprise.asp#:~:text=A%20social%20enterprise%20or%20social,used%20to%20fund%20social%20programs.

30. 30 Ens and Sawchuk, From New People to New Nations, 2016; Sawchuk, “Negotiating an Identity: Metis Political Organizations, the Canadian Government, and Competing Concepts of Aboriginality.” American Indian Quarterly 25, no. 1 (Winter 2001): 73–92.

31. 31 Mary Agnes Welch with updates by David Gallant, “Métis National Council,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2019, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/metis-national-council.

32. 32 Justin Giovannetti, “Alberta Métis Community Declares Self-Government,” The Globe and Mail, 24 May 2019. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-alberta-metis-community-declares-self-government/. FMMN President Ron Quintal spoke on this topic at the Metis National Council organized “Building Wealth for the Métis Nation” conference held March 3–5, 2020 and the Fort McKay Métis Nation were active participants at the most recent MNC National Convention, held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, March 9–10, 2020.

33. 33 Vincent McDermott, “Six Métis Communities Form Alberta Métis Federation, Breaking from the Métis Nation of Alberta,” 27 February 2020, https://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/news/local-news/six-metis-communities-form-alberta-metis-federation-breaking-from-metis-nation-of-alberta.