CPTnet
17 May 2005
KENORA, ON: Intrusions
by Matt Schaaf
On May 24, CPTers Tricia Brown and Matt Schaaf documented past and present
trapping activities on Long-Legged Lake, part of a trap-line area held by
Roberta Keesick of Grassy Narrows First Nation.
Just south of the trap-line, while team members and their guide launched the
boat, a blue-and-white government helicopter clattered over recent clear
cuts, perhaps monitoring the growth of last years seedlings.
Trapper helper Don Billard navigated the deep, clear waters of
Agwangigaatesaagiigun (Uh gwahnkih kah tay="long-legged"; zahkey kun=
"lake") swimming with trout, walleye, and suckers. Seventy-three lakes
grace the trap-line, and this one is the largest. The team stopped at Dave
Loon's old trapping cabin
[http://www.cpt.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album110&id=2005_05
_04_Tricia_Don_at_Loon_s_Cabin]. Dave and his brother Pat were the last
Grassy Narrows people to trap here before passing the line on to Keesick.
The new cabin site is located on the north end of the lake next to the mouth
of a small creek feeding the lake from a marsh. A north-west wind churned
through the creek bed and shook the jack-oine branches. A small beach of
sand and stone lies in front of the future cabin, where Roberta and Don plan
to spend their summers from the time the ice breaks up until freeze-up in
November.
Anishnaabe people have lived on Long-Legged Lake for generations. Because
of their long history on this land, the term Inherent Right describes their
claim to their home places. Treaty #3 also guarantees the Anishnaabe people
access to their hunting and fishing grounds.
However, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) posted a Stop Work
Order on Keesick's winter building site at Rainfall Lake. MNR insists that
Keesick ask their permission to build, and threatens her with thousands of
dollars in fines if she does not comply. However, Keesick continues her
cabin building under the authority of Treaty #3 and Inherent Rights. "You
manage your people, we can manage ourselves," she tells MNR officials.
Keesick has invited CPT to photograph and document the intrusion of the
provincial government on her rights.
Much of the lakeshore is covered with green, thick, shaggy jack-pines of a
uniform height, and is striped with white poplar and birch trunks.
Blackened snags protrude above the sky-line--the path of a huge forest fire.
The burn swept through in 1981, and left only a few patches of swampy black
spruce standing. As a result, the area has not been logged since the fire.
As Brown and Schaaf drove out on a logging road, they noted a tree
de-limbing machine parked on the adjacent trap-line, at the mouth of a fresh
cut into the bush a new road. Roberta reported seeing more clear-cutting
equipment at the same location later that week.
Visit http://www.cpt.org/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album110 for a
photographic view of this journey.
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